NeoStead 2000 Restoration Project

The following is a breakdown of the cost of each step of the process. Due to the unpredictable cost of rare South African shotguns that may not be in functional shape, I haven't included their price in this list. As for steps of the process I have performed myself, I am not going to put down a price on my time, but I have noted how many hours of my time the process took. Note that I've called in a few favors to have some parts of the work done at a reduced cost so if you're using this breakdown to judge the price of your own project, expect some steps to cost A LOT MORE. I'm sure some of you can find ways of reducing the costs, but this can reduce the quality of the finished product. Also, your method of reducing the costs might not be available to everyone, such as special skills or equipment that's not exactly sold at every k-mart. Finally, these prices apply only to these specific NeoStead parts, so if you're using these amounts to judge your own dream projects, be prepared for very different prices. Some things look simple but end up a manufacturing nightmare, some parts look difficult but can be simple to make, and not all projects will require all these steps. Note that this is for a very small production test run, so the cost per finished foregrip set is high. If this shotgun was very popular, it would make a lot of sense to order a lot of material and make many foregrip sets, dropping the price per finished set. This reduction in price would also lower the CNC machine time and other costs. I've listed the live fire tests and ammunition expenses but I'm not adding them to the price as it was a lot of fun, still, it is there to give you all a good idea of what the process was like. I haven't included a lot of my time spent running around here and there, doing research, testing fit and function, performing adjustments to various parts of the manufacturing processes, and generally doing favors or haggling with people to get a better deal on stuff. Prices in CAD include taxes and any shipping or fees.

I hope you're all sitting down.

3D Scanning =$350
3D Modeling =$900
CNC Test Programming =2 Hours
3D Printing =$158
Live Fire 3D Printed Part Test =(1 Hour, not added to total)
25 Shells (buckshot) =($20, not added to total)
CNC Programming =$600
Workholding CNC Programming =$200
Workholding Tooling =$80
Workholding Material =$150
Part Tooling =$300
Part Material 6061 Aluminum =$110 (per finished foregrip set)
CNC machining =$800 (per finished foregrip set)
For curiosity's sake, I got a Xometry quote for the machining of 10 pieces, or 5 finished sets, was $11000 US dollars. No, there's no extra zero there.
Hand Finishing =1 Hour per finished foregrip set
Live Fire CNC Machined Test =(2 Hours, not added to total)
120 Shells (buckshot and slugs) =($100, not added to total)
Tumbling =$10 per finished foregrip set
Sandblasting =$30 per finished foregrip set
Anodizing =A favor and a case of beer

Total project cost, for 5 finished foregrip sets =$7488 + a case of beer
Total project time (not including range time or ancillary time) =7 hours
 
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Since my time is probably worth very little to you, let's just go with the actual cash. Per finished foregrip set, the cost ends up being approximately $1500.

The obvious question I can already hear in my head is "why didn't you make more to lower the cost per finished set". The answer has five parts. First, no matter how many I make, I could only make less than 300 sets as only less than 300 shotguns exist. There is no large-scale production and as a result, the cost per set will always be fairly high. More importantly, it would be a huge gamble to make more than a handful right now - these foregrip sets fit my gun, but they might not fit yours. To make dozens or a hundred or hundreds only to find that half or more don't function would be a disaster. Third, this is all of my pocket and I'm not wealthy. Even if it would be cheaper per set, I only have so much money, and the total cost of the project inflates regardless of the lower cost of each set. Fourth, I only have so much time and energy for this project. For every accounted hour, there are MANY more hours spent doing stuff like, for example, working at a makerspace to see if it's feasible to make these on a hobby machine (it's not). Fifth, and finally, I don't expect anyone to be interested in spending that much money to restore their NeoStead 2000 shotguns. Even if I could lower the cost doing various things, ordering more bulk material, streamlining the process, having a guarantee that the foregrip set will function when I ship it to someone, there's really no real market and no big pool of customers that will be willing to pay so much money for these.

Why not have it made in China? Because this is also only a method that really works with large volumes, on top of that there's no way to ensure quality control, and if the product doesn't function on the other guns then it's double the trouble for everyone involved.

Why not have it made in the US? This has some of the issues as having it made in China, but we wouldn't even be able to do any more test fitting as there are no NeoStead 2000s in the US.

Why not have it 3D printed from the best unicorn space magic filament? This is probably one of the better options. Personally, I still expect the best 3DP parts to fail eventually, the foregrips house functional parts of the NS2000, they take a beating, and it's difficult to reinforce the design to the point of really making it tough enough for anything but gentle occasional use. I'm not even sure that the top end filaments would survive, the original plastic sure doesn't.

It's been a fun time and this has educated me in various ways about how things are made. I hope you all enjoyed this thread.
 
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