Plans for sale via the net...any interest in such a product?

[mjncad]

Thanks Rick:

That's one item I would make plans for if I do this potentially hare brained idea.

 

[ME83]

I have often thought of doing the same thing as you are. There are two main reasons I haven't done it. First is I design mechanisms all day, I really don't want to go home and turn my 8 hour day into a 12 hr or so day. Then like the others have said, way too much liability. All it takes is one "challenged" individual to turn your life inside out. The ways to securely protect yourself cost a lot of money.

Say you make something no one else has and it does sell. Anyone can come along and copy it, unless you get a patent. But patents are a lot of work in themselves and usually cost about $10k. To me it is just not worth it. I would rather go home and build furniture, but that is who I am. If you really want to do it and are determined, then go for it; but just cover your butt and actually do some calculations and failure test your designs. And become good friends with an attorney, just in case.

 

[mjncad]

All things I am considering ME83. Thanks for your input as it is most appreciated.

 

[IslandTractor]

One thought for something that I would certainly consider paying for: a design service that produced cad ready files that I could take to a CAD friendly metal shop to plasma cut the parts so I could just do the welding.

I'd love a ripper tooth for my backhoe and as no one sells them for my size backhoe you either have to go custom or build it yourself. Going custom from scratch is a challenge when dealing with a metal shop that may not be familiar with tractors. I imagine it would also be more expensive than coming to a modern metal shop with a CAD plan that allowed them to skip the time consuming design and measurement process and get right to cutting.

Design, cut, weld. Those processes can be either done in one, two or three shops. You could build a little business focused on the first step and just give hints to your customers on how to get the rest of the fabrication process done. I'm sure people could dream up a number of other specialized metal tractor bits too, especially after one learns how to use the yellow pages to find the appropriate local metal shop to play the middle role.

 

[dfkrug]

MJNCAD:

It would be interesting to look at how well John Mikulas at CADPlans
has done. He affilliates with MetKit for pre-cut materials, too. Now
that said, I bought a set of his plans and built his design, but I found
numerous errors in the design, despite the fact that he built a proto-type.
Designing without building prototypes at all is hardly even a start
toward a useful product. BTDT.

I have drawn plans for some things, and built proto-types, too. The
key for me is since I enjoy the process and the results, I do NOT want
to make it a business. That is a sure way to kill the fun. I also sell the
occasional tractor or implement I have built, but the goal for me is to
try new things out, then sell it so at least I don't LOSE money. People
often ask me to make or repair something as a paid service. I do it now
and then, but I usually refuse, because I want to work on my own
schedule and want to work on new things. I don't like deadlines either.
Having a product is WAY better than a service in that regard. The
first one, you get paid up front, too. Services you have to collect for.

As for liability, yeah, you can be sued for anything these days. That
should not make you fear doing ANYTHING you might be sued for. How
many people have sold a used car, then had the buyer get into a crash?
Liability there, but have you heard of anyone being successfully sued? And
if you have, will that stop you from ever selling a used car again?

So, I say, go for it if it interests you. It is very easy to find reasons NOT
to.

 

[N_Lake]

dfkrug

I am thinking about building a backhoe and I am beging to look at the different plans. Would you mind explaning the errors you found with the CADPlans.

Thanks

N_Lake

 

[dfkrug]

N_LAKE:

I will go back and look at the plan book to see the notations I made.
I am not recommending against buying plans from CADPlans. I built the
728 CADDigger.

 

[mjncad]

All good comments, and I appreciate the input. I would not offer plans for anything I have not personally built and tried out.

DFKRUG says it quite well about not wanting to kill the fun. I am a project oriented person, and not a maintenance or production oriented person. What I find interesting about the plans concept is the low overhead, and not getting into the hassles of production, inventory, employees, etc.

Just as CADplans does; I would place disclaimers on the plans that I am not responsible for other peoples' fabrication skills, etc.

The headliner for my tractor I did in AutoCAD; but the shop that laser cut it for me took my paper drawing and re-drew it in SolidWorks to use with their laser. CAD files that work well in the CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) realm might require an investment in SolidWorks since that software appears to be the choice of machine parts engineers and designers. Of course a CAD file is only as good as the information giving to the designer behind the keyboard and their skill at the CAD program.