had a few others ask this same question. This will allow me to answer once
for everyone interested!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry L McClary" <tlmcclary@juno.com>
To: <oifa@irishfield.on.ca>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 11:06 PM
Subject: Rebel Builder Parts kit?
======================================Evening Wayne,
Every now and then a question comes up and you offer a solution out of
the parts you have in your inventory. Usually it is a speciality item
that you have a limited stock of and the offerings have been spread out
over time so who, but you, knows what is left in stock. Also, I bet most
of the guys are like me and don't keep a list of recommended parts
because we figure we can search the archives later. Later comes and we
can't find what we are looking for.
I know you need a parts order to be large enough to make it worth your
while to process so I was thinking, "Ever thought about putting together
the Wayne OShea recommended list of hardware to make a Murphy builder's
life easier" ? Figure you could sell all the recommended parts as one
offering and the builder could make one purchase instead of a bunch of
small ones. Doing it this way might make it worth your time to box and
ship.
Don't know what you had done but I hope you are mending okay and starting
to feel better.
Terry
Terry and ALL,
THANKS to all of you that have asked how I am doing after my double hernia
operation (umbilical and epigastric)! Will be 4 weeks since surgery on
Monday and still not in the shop, but I have been able to sneak out and do a
few things. Couple sets of firewall plates done last week, with one shipped
out to Kentucky and the other for Peter Cowan. Also did a quick
"inspection", Sunday, on Peter's Rebel airframe that he brought by on a
trailer. A couple hours of "running around" does me in for the day, or 4
hours sitting at the computer (or my desk at the plastics plant), but
getting alot better and hope to get out in the shop for half days starting
next week on some easy stuff (like staring at all the work I have to do and
deciding what is first!!!! Leah's Rebel, the SR3500/M462RF monster, customer
repairs???)
First I would like to state that I am not out to insult anyone, just voicing
my reasons for not doing a "hardware kit" at this time as a "total" package!
I still vividly remember my days of scrounging junk yards for car parts
because I couldn't afford shopping at the speed shop for my '69 FuryII
"Hemi" drag car or my 69 Superbee, and I fully understand the reasoning for
doing so! The old trade off for time and/or money.
As for putting together a "hardware kit" as Terry and others have asked
about, YES it's a good idea in theory, (for some of us). Myself, I don't
pinch pennies, order everything new and never "scrounge" parts for a
homebuilt. Unfortunately most of the builders spend WAY too much time trying
to save a penny scrounging used parts, etc or shipping stuff half way around
the world to save 10 cents on an item, only to spend 10 fold on
shipping/brokerage . I regularly take everything I have offered on this list
for years to the builders meetings. Instead of buying all the items
available the builders will buy 12 anchor nuts and skip on the clip nuts
stating they will get them next time, or have me ship them to them. This
really makes no sense as I always sell at a lower price for cash (than the
already discounted price) at the meetings, than I do when I ship from home
on VISA and a bill. I just find that most builders always think there is a
better deal around the corner and will never commit to any parts until they
have needed them for 2 months and have spent 3 months looking! I have had a
set of firewall plates with me many times at meetings only to have guys
order them 2 weeks after the fact, when they have gone home and priced out
buying the minimum amount of aluminum required to try and copy them
themselves. They could have bought the finished plates for a $100Cdn cash at
the meeting and end up spending $125 on VISA and about $20 more to get them
mailed out to them for a total of around $145 because they thought they
could do it cheaper themselves! Instead if costs them 45% more! One out of
50 will buy enough stuff to complete "mods" for the project in one shot. The
other 49 don't because they think they can get the stuff cheaper somewhere,
or compromise on quality to do so, or of course are cash strapped and just
can't do it, or some won't wander one hair from the MAM manual. Two out of
those four positions I fully understand! I'm sure you can guess which one's
I don't understand, especially riveting on elevator tips so you can't
maintain the aircraft!!!
If you have been to our parts inventory on our web page you will see were it
states I charge $12.50 handling to put together and take to the post office
an order under $50. $7.50 for orders $50 to $250. and nothing for orders
over $250 plus the actual mailing costs. This is stated to stop the one
AN833-3D plumbing fitting orders for $3.00 and to make people shop a little
more to get the order over $50. With the Rebel builders that I have a "bond"
with, I don't care how small an order they make and I only charge $5 for the
trip to the post office and packaging the thing up plus the postage. This is
at a loss for me as it takes 40 minutes round trip to the post office + the
gas for the truck etc. I try to go in combination with another trip into
town, but it never works out that way and is always a special trip. It is
beneficial to order as much as you need to not duplicate the postage, but
the $5 is not a big deal and goes away if you order over $250 worth of stuff
anyway. I also usually guess at the postage, so I can do the bill before the
trip to the post office, and you know who ALWAYS comes up short there!! ME!
Easier for me to just package it up as requested, or I will just have a
bunch of small boxes full of parts that I will be adding to, or removing
quantities from to satisfy requests. I'm making my money working in the shop
(well actually it pays the property taxes, heating/power bill, 500 gallons
of 100LL a year and that's about it! I haven't paid myself out of the
aircraft business yet in 8 years!) and I'm not really making anything off of
these parts so I can't afford to spend time guessing what people would want
in a kit and putting them together (at this time anyhow)!
I think you will get what I mean out of the above. It's a great idea to kit
it all up in one box, but I'll just stare at all that work for a long time
before it moves! Maybe if I ever get "stupid" and hire an employee around
here I will have time to develop a few other <great> ideas I have rolling
around in my head and combine these for a full "upgrade" kit for the Rebel,
for the suggested one shot purchase. Unfortunately as it stands now there is
never enough time to do all these things around here and I already have 73
headaches (read employees!) over at the plastic plant to deal with and don't
really want any at home in the shop!
Take care,
Wayne G. O'Shea
www.irishfield.on.ca
-----------------------------------------------------------------
List archives located at: https://mail.dcsol.com/login
username "rebel" password "builder"
Unsubscribe: rebel-builders-unsubscribe@dcsol.com
List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
