On 2005-07-20, K7ITM wrote:
So, the question becomes, if the plates (rotors
and stators) were available in maybe two or three different basic
sizes, how many frustrated hams would be interested in buying them?

This would be a good emachineshop.com order. You can choose any of the
processes that people are discussing on this thread, depending on the
expected volume. When I played with their estimating software, my
experience was that pretty much everything cost roughly:

$100/ea in qty 1 = $100
$11/ea qty 10 = $110
$1.20/ea qty 100 = $120
$0.13/ea qty 1000 = $130

etc. I figured the biggest risk in using them would be the temptation to
get 10x more units for 10% more and then have a zillion whatevers (eg
rotor plates around the garage. I've been trying to think of a project
that needs 100 identical widgets, and a homemade air variable might be it.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/