Any fabricators out there? Pelican rack mounts

Surely there’s a fabricator about there who could start making and selling a pelican vault mounting solution like this ones roof racks that pelican themselves are now offering at a pelican price.

I’m sure there would be plenty of guys here who would buy so they don’t have to drill through there nice boxes, including me.

 

i dunno, $77 for a complete mounting solution pair of brackets doesn't sound half bad.

sure there's a little 'pelican tax' added to that, but two slotted holes, and a very close compound bend are not easy things for most home-focused fabricators. add to that, the assumed powdercoat finish, which most shops won't touch for less than $20, i don't really find that price all that far off of a one-off custom job for most people.


from my outside looking in pricing:
https://www.metalsdepot.com/steel-products/steel-sheet

12-gauge, or 10 gauge for a more durable bracket (personally, i'd do 10 gauge, but for the purposes of this discussion, let's do like a big name conglomerate and cut costs),
12 ga is $30.18 ea for a 1ftx2ft sheet of galvanized

assuming the brackets are around 5" wide, and will likely take the majority of the 12" sheet width before bends, that means that a 1x2 sheet can produce 4 brackets, with space for cutting dross. 6" width likely would only produce 3 brackets with the same sheet metal, unless a larger sheet was used, which has more upfront costs.

so $30.18 divided by two pairs is $15.09/pair for the raw steel cost.

now there's the cost of cutting them out. given the slot details, a plasma cnc or similar is going to be fastest outside a dedicated tool punch, which the jigs cost multiple thousands for that... plasma cutting has electric and consumable costs. let's call this one $5 for all that

so we're up to $20.09.

now comes the bending. there are 3 bends, in close proximity to each other to correctly capture the handle.

google AI stepped up to give this offering of bending costs.

so let's say it'll be $5/bend. that's 6 bends(3 per bracket), at $5 ea., or $30 in bending costs to account for tool setup, wear, etc.

now we're up to $50.09 in raw costs for a single pair of brackets. and we haven't even paid the guy programming the plasma cutter to cut them out. we just paid him $5 for his consumable cost.

to finish, we're looking at powdercoating for a tough durable finish. most shops can likely work the brackets into spraying them with other similar-colored items, at a delayed time schedule, for a totally random guess of $20. [for a set of fake beadlocks with some factory-supplied bolt colors i wasn't happy with, i was quoted $2/bolt (30 bolts per wheel, 4 wheels) to account for all his setup and prep time.]

and that $20/pr powder coating guesstimate puts us at $70.09.

even if we just straight assume you're coating them at home, any decent rattle can paint is going to be at least $5-10/can, which puts it into the $55.09-65.09 ballpark.

like i said, doesn't seem that far off. there might be some speculation that i worked backwards to achieve a rigged number, but each paragraph is me working through each individual processing/labor/part costs. i attacked each one individually with little regard for effect on the final outcome. if anything, i'd argue that i'm underestimating the costs, and missing details--like the plasma cnc operator setup costs, or powdercoating costs. small batches of anything are rarely efficient, and generally prioritize the outcome over the cost efficiency.

 

If you don't mind drilling some holes in the bottom the case, then you can mount it for a few dollars in hardware.

I had a v700 mounted to my previous rack for years using 6 bolts through the bottom of it. Never leaked at all.
My new v800 I mounted to 1/4" aluminum bars because how it was positioned on the roof rack it wasn't over any supports.

 

Fair! I suppose im just surprised with the technicality and cost of other smaller time fab products I’ve seen.