RE: Tools cost [PSUBS-MAILIST]

["Alec Smyth" <Asmyth@changepoint.com>]

I once was out for a lunch break walk in Holland with some colleagues
from work. Near our office was a canal, and every few hundred yards
along the canal was a WWII bunker. As we poked around the bunkers, we
were wondering whether they were built by the Dutch to defend against
the Germans, or built by the Germans to defend against the Allies. My
good German friend, with a perfectly straight face, said "It is
impossible they are German, because if they were German, they would ALL
BE NUMBERED".

The moral of the story is I'm afraid I'm not that precise with my
costs... All I know is I sold my Jaguar E-Type (XKE here in the US) in
1998, put the money in a separate account for the sub, and have now
almost spent it. But I'd say the seat of my pants breakdown is like
this:

- Basic Materials (e.g. steel plate) $5,000
- Outsourced items (e.g. acrylic window, welding services) $3,000
- Off the shelf items (e.g. electronics) $5,000
- Machinery (e.g. lathe) $5,000

Of all these, machinery is the one I mind spending on the least, because
you get to keep the stuff and use it on the next project. It is one of
the rare categories where you can truly buy something for a lifetime.

The numbers may seem high, but consider it has taken me 5 years to
spend. Bottom line is that I'm not particularly wealthy, but I find the
limiting factor is definitely not the money, it's the lack of time. SOLO
is being built almost entirely between the hours of 10 PM and 2 AM.

Rgds,

Alec

-----Original Message-----
From: Carsten Standfuss [mailto:MerlinSub@t-online.de] 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 6:02 AM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Tools cost [PSUBS-MAILIST] 

Hi - I spent 2 hours this morning to calculate and add 
all the cost of the project up to today. 

The figure is: If the material and labour cost is 100 % than I spent
exact additional 5 % for tools and additional 5 % for others items. 

So if you want to build a doubleseater for 20.000 just add 2000. 
But I think that on smaller boats the tool cost maybe a little 
higher and the other cost maybe a little lower - but at the end 
at least 10 % is a good estimation. 

Alec or John or Bill - have you make any cost and tools calculations ? 

regards Carsten