Lowering aesthetic standard (and price) on the carbon fiber arms

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RCExplorer – David

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Some of you might remember my everlasting battle with manufacturing of the carbon fiber arms. There is a reason why most companies I’ve approached have declined to even try making them. 10x10mm woven square tubes are really difficult to make. Extruded tubes this size is no problem, but they really suck. The arms we sell now are fantastic when it comes to strength, weigh, stiffness and have no warp.

The problem is that the surface finish is almost impossible to get perfect. So far we’ve discarded large parts of batches due to these imperfections and it’s really not sustainable. We at least need to break even on the arms. That would mean either almost doubling the price or lowering the standards, or stop selling them altogether.

Right now the most reasonable thing seems to be lowering the cosmetic standards in our quality checks. To be clear; only the surface finish is effected. The structural integrity and function is unaffected and the arms will be just as strong as before. The difference is that you might get arms that are scratched, have small dimples, have a visible edge of the carbon or other cosmetic impurities. Again, this will not effect the function or performance of the arms.

Since you will now receive a lower quality product we feel that to be fair we should lower our prices. The 325mm arms are lowered by 1USD and the 162.5mm by 0.5USD.

How do you feel about this?

Comments

10 responses to “Lowering aesthetic standard (and price) on the carbon fiber arms”

  1. The-One-Who-Never-Crashes Avatar
    The-One-Who-Never-Crashes

    I think that the old price was very reasonable; no need to lower it in my opinion. What would be nice is to have a tutorial/tips video on how to remove the cosmetic imperfections ourselves (if that’s possible).

  2. bassmaniac Avatar
    bassmaniac

    David, this suggestion seems reasonable and I support it. After all this is about the hobby for me and it must be sustainable for you. (or else we both loose out and we will not have access to woven booms).

  3. swissfreek Avatar
    swissfreek

    I’m all for it. Don’t really care about the price, I think it was pretty good already, but you obsess about things that most of us probably wouldn’t even notice, no need to kill yourself (and your profits) over it!

  4. DavidLorenz Avatar
    DavidLorenz

    Is there any way to get some of the nicer ones for a higher price at request? The price drop seems rather unnecessary, I remember that the booms used to cost $10. 00 each and that was pretty cheap already.

  5. Rotorblade Avatar
    Rotorblade

    i’ve purchased almost 2 dozen of the these arms from the beginning to now and I have never been disappointed with the quality or the finish. As long as the the arms are not warped or twisted I am fine with asthetic problems. At the end of the day the arms do a job and don’t have to look pretty. I’d say keep the price where it is and just communicate like you have done and set the customers expectation level like you have. That is my two cents.

  6. Terje Avatar
    Terje

    Makes good sense to introduce a “seconds” category with slightly lower prices. I’d be happy to do the sanding of the imperfections myself, if it means I can save a few bucks 🙂

  7. sscott Avatar
    sscott

    I’m all in for the low aesthetic quality arms at the lower price. My arms are covered in grass all the time anyway 😉

  8. Draclicka Avatar
    Draclicka

    I’m happy that they’ll be available regardless of how they look. I’m going to purchase extra with my next order just in case.

  9. LucyInTheSky Avatar
    LucyInTheSky

    Let everyone buying a set of 3 arm get one perfect. Those who want to have 3 perfect arms will have to buy 3 sets of 3 arms. You can, of course, also sell perfect arms for 3 times the ordinary price.

  10. Marlon Avatar
    Marlon

    Why mess with a good thing?

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