MOTM

I have gotten a number of inquiries today asking about the pricing 
of stooge panels.  Rather than answer them all individually, I will 
endeavor to explain the situation here.

The fact is we do not know what the pricing will be yet.

Pricing is determined by a number of variables:
1.  Cost of the aluminum stock used in the panel
2.  Cost of punching the panel out of the aluminum
3.  Cost of painting the panel
4.  Cost of engraving or silkscreening the graphics on the panel
5.  Cost of shipping the panel between the various vendors
6.  Cost of designing the layout of the graphics and generating a 
suitable computer file
7.  First time costs (making a silkscreen, etc.)
8.  Setup charges

In the past vendor #1 bought the aluminum and punched out the panel 
blank.  The panels were then shipped to vendor #2 who did the 
painting.  The panels were then shipped to vendor #3 who did the 
silkscreen.  The panels were then shipped to Larry and Dave, who 
inspected them and did the drilling for some customers.  Then the 
panels were shipped out to the customers.

Every new design required a layout and computer file in the 
particular format required by the silkscreener.  Every new design 
required that a silkscreen be made.  Every time a particular panel 
was run, whether the first time or not, there was a setup charge.

Ideally, this is not how we are goint to do it now.

We want to do it like this:

We will buy the aluminum.  We will stamp out the panel, including 
all the holes, eliminating the need for drilling.  We will paint the 
panel.  We will put the panel in a laser engraver, which will burn 
the paint off down to the primer which will match the color of the 
silkscreen ink used in the past.  Then we ship the panel out to the 
customers.

We have to generate the layout of the panel in Autocad, which is 
then converted into a control file for the turret press by SmartCAM.
We also have to generate a file for the laser engraver in Corel.

If we can do all that prices will certainly be lower than they are 
now, and panels will be run, perhaps, every two weeks instead of 
once or twice a year.  Prices will have to include our recovering 
over a period of several years, the $40K to $50K we are spending to 
be able to do this ourselves, but they will be lower than in the 
past.

The more we can do ourselves, in house, the lower the prices will 
be.  But, I do not yet know if we can replace the silkscreen process 
with the laser engraver, and I do not know if we will be able to do 
a good enough job of painting the panels in house.

The price of the raw aluminum has gone up almost 50% since the last 
time panels were run.  But the major costs in the past have been 
related to the silkscreening.  

The vendors used by the stooges in the past for the metalwork and 
painting are no longer in that business.  We have a couple of 
possible replacements for the painting, but they are much farther 
away, which means higher shipping.

So that is the long answer.  The short answer is we don't know what 
the pricing is going to be yet.  But our goal is to be able to 
provide panels which match the MOTM standard in size, style and 
finish at a lower cost than in the past, and with the fastest 
possible turnaround.  We want to be able to compete with FPE, while 
still offering panels which exactly match the MOTM standard.

I hope to have some pictures soon , so I can show you our progress.

Paul H.