Sunroof Knob - Check it out!

[tfrain]

A friend of mine here at work who runs the model shop made a knob for me out of some extra aluminum stock.  At least I'm assuming its aluminum, it could be stainless.  Very good work and I was ecstatic - just ecstatic - about it.  What do you guys think!  I think it rocks!

[keflaman]

I think it looks good enough to ask if he can make some more! Tell him you're organizing a group buy!:D

[deansweet]

Very nice!
You know we are going to ask if he want's to make more? If so, how much shipped?

Mine never had a knob.

[keflaman]

I'd suggest turning some in black delrin as well. I think there's a market out there.

[LoneWolf]

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS PLEEEEEASSSE!!!

I need one. It is one of the annoying things about my car, I don't have a knob. Some sort of OCD causes it to drive me bonkers.

If there is a group buy I want in.

I will watch this thread.

[tfrain]

Yeah, unfortunately no group buy.  I don't think he even used the CNC machine or had a CAD file for it.  Just calipers and a lathe and an end mill.  It was a favor done for me using scrap.  One of the guys was going to be out the remainder of this week and he didn't want to get him started on a project so he had him do this for me one morning.  We don't make stuff for external purchases unfortunately, just in house models.  

That being said, I could possibly have these manufactured somewhere at one of those online mill shops.  I would think that it might be prohibitively expensive though - more than the whole aftermarket crank piece itself, but I'll check.

He was going to do it in Delrin, BUT that little chamfer or whatever at the end (where it meets the handle) is very thin - only like 2mm or less, and he was concerned about wear and it breaking or chipping there.  I like the aluminum myself.  I still need to locktite the set screw.

How much would you guys be willing to spend on one of these?

[tfrain]

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS PLEEEEEASSSE!!!

I need one. It is one of the annoying things about my car, I don't have a knob. Some sort of OCD causes it to drive me bonkers.

If there is a group buy I want in.

I will watch this thread.

yes, it was driving me bonkers as well...

[keflaman]

...How much would you guys be willing to spend on one of these?

I see a couple places selling an MTC crank handle for ~$20.00 and a genuine BMW runs ~$44.00-$50+ at the usual vendors. I'd say a large percentage of these knobs are missing or come off in your hand when you flip the handle down, so aluminum would probably be the best long-range favorite for durability.

I'd go $20...maybe $25 and that's mostly in consideration of what one of those emachinery places charges for short runs like this would be.

[LoneWolf]

I would go $20-$25 too. That sounds pretty reasonable I would think for this knob in a small run.

But then again I don't know what kind of time actually goes into making it.

Looking at it it doesn't look like it takes too much time or material.



Keep me posted though on if he will make some more.

[tfrain]

I looked on emachineshoponline (or whatever the site is) and comparing to one of their example parts, I don't think $20-$25 would be out of line, but I think I'd have to order 50 of them.  My question is why not just buy a whole replacement crank for $20 to $25 plus shipping??  My rationale was Free is better than $25.  Would folks really be willing to spend $20 on just the knob?

When I get some time, I'll throw some calipers on it and maybe draw it up in their cad software and submit it for a bid.  Perhaps with a group buy on here, rv3, bimmerfest, etc would be enough.