@DavidEF, the reason I was asking lower than 0,50$US per spring was to cover shipping costs. I was initially going to to a price of 0,45$US per spring for less than 50pcs, and 0,40$US per spring between 50pcs+. In relation to 1000 springs costing the same, I will point you to this message:
Hello BlueSwordM,
I have applied and asked materials engineer:
In order to have a good start of cooperation and keep that long- term.
Within 2000pcs, we will still charge as samples fee for USD308. But the shipping fee by DHL will be different as below:
1000pcs:USD32
1500pcs:USD36
2000pcs:USD40
Thanks for your cooperation. The reason for 1000pcs and 2000pcs same cost is because of MOQ of Beryllium Copper C17530 38% IACS at materials supplier.
So order 2000 pcs, price will be the same for both of us. If order combine 2000 big springs and 2000 small springs, price will be lower per spring than only 2000pcs springs, because bulk and less shipping orders.
Price sample of 20pcs has been agreed by engineer, so USD100 for 20pcs.
Pls kindly let me know if any questions.
From what I have understood and what you read, the price is literally the same within an order of 2000 springs because of the minimum order quantity of the beryllium copper needed to make the springs. Above that, the price will follow a decreasing inverse exponential manner as in all bulk purchases. So, I am officially hyped right now :)) Edit: Is it normal that I can't put the text in italic or bold? Strange.
I do not know about Canada but when I shipped my springs a few years ago it was just about 3 dollar worldwide including bubble mailer (up to about 20 springs). You just do not want to get into tracking and such but the value is low enough to accept some risk.
The weight of 20 phosphor bronze springs + bag is 13,6g. Adding a little weight because of beryllium copper just being a little heavier would put it at 15g.
So, for 110 springs and below, that would be about 85g. So even with the big bubble envelope and everything else and shipping internationally, it should be under 100g. So, shipping internationally, it would cost a max of 5$US.
TLDR: For under 110 springs, the max shipping cost internationally should be a max of 5$US. So if you live in the US or Canada, it is going to be much cheaper to ship.
Over 110 springs though? I don’t really know, but that is a special case. It should not cost much more though.
I think the formatting issue (can’t get italics or bold) is caused by the double spaces in that text. You can italicize or embolden each line individually (which would take a bit more time), or perhaps use the Advanced Post Editor to do it the “right” way.
Anyway, I think this is great news! But, it does mean that any order below 2000pcs of each size is probably a silly thing to do, considering that you’re literally paying for them anyway.
Without him, his post, and his springs, I would have never had this idea to do this kind of group buy. Me seeing his phosphor bronze springs was the start of a new high current era
I’m a bit conservative, I will wait for the sample test. If they work out well I like to ’upgrade to 20’small 20 large.
And if the samples appear not good enough to go for the large order, I’m happy to donate a few dollars to compensate for the sample costs.
are we sure it is safe to use this type of metal in a flashlight. Navy divers use this combination of metals in a dive knife but you cannot sharpen it with out a respirator due to dust causing cancer.
It is safe yes in a flashlight yes. I’ve made the research about it, and unless you sharpen the spring or melt down the spring for some reason, there should be nothing to worry about at all. I do get the concern though, but there is no risk of that in a flashlight. And since we don’t use lasers to make springs, that is not a problem too.
Guys, I finally recovered the information I was looking for when talking about which battery spring material to use in terms of elasticity and YIELD STRENGTH!
Elasticity is good, but since all beryllium coppers feature about the same elasticity +/- 2%, I will leave that out.
What really matters is yield strength, which is how much force a material in spring form can sustain before resulting in a plastic deformation, such as the in the Intl Outdoor BeCu 45% IACS spring.
Here is some data about it:
Steel is the strongest at 1700MPa Typical
Phosphor bronze is in the middle at 895Mpa Typical
Beryllium Copper C17530 38% IACS is a bit behind at 820Mpa Typical
Beryllium Copper C17500 45% IACS is quite a lot behind at 620-680Mpa Typical
As you can see, the reason for the BeCU 45% IACS Intl Outdoor spring for failing in djozz’s tests is that it can’t resist as much to a deformation as well as the others, resulting in a quite a bit higher chance of plastic deformation such as the previously mentioned djozz spring test.
Yes, but the cost of $0.26 assumes all are sold. Not fair if Bluesword gets stuck holding unsold springs. If this was a business, that is one of the risks, but since this is a group buy we should consider sharing the cost of unsold stock. Just not sure how to do that fairly.