- Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:20 pm
#147301
It seems like I saw the definition of "shave the yak" in one of the Sparkfun product posts, but it means deciding to use pre-built things vs building your own. Like, if you want to sell t-shirts then sell t-shirts, don't start by shaving a yak for wool (yak wool?).
For those of you who have done home manufacturing of small electronics as a business, here's my question: For $22 I can get a fully assembled, plug and go part for my larger assembly. It is overkill, but it does everything I need. For about $10 I can make my own (price for parts only, with no value assigned for my labor). Each of the $10 boards would require me to solder 60 through-holes.
So if it were you, at what price point for the final assembly would you switch from the build by hand to the pre-made? I mean, if I were selling these for $1000, I'd take the premade, no question. If I were selling them for $20, I'd have to make my own or I wouldn't make any profit at all.
FWIW, I hope to sell maybe 10 units a month, and I'll be doing my assembly nights and weekends as I do work full-time.
Thanks for your advice.
For those of you who have done home manufacturing of small electronics as a business, here's my question: For $22 I can get a fully assembled, plug and go part for my larger assembly. It is overkill, but it does everything I need. For about $10 I can make my own (price for parts only, with no value assigned for my labor). Each of the $10 boards would require me to solder 60 through-holes.
So if it were you, at what price point for the final assembly would you switch from the build by hand to the pre-made? I mean, if I were selling these for $1000, I'd take the premade, no question. If I were selling them for $20, I'd have to make my own or I wouldn't make any profit at all.
FWIW, I hope to sell maybe 10 units a month, and I'll be doing my assembly nights and weekends as I do work full-time.
Thanks for your advice.