How to over-do it, or how I told Minimania to fu...

[Merlin]

So you probably heard me bitch about the outrageous price Minimania wants for a SINGLE slotted LHT nut. I managed to lose one in our parts cleaner at work because... Well, I have shit to do, and other people find time to throw out shit that is not theirs.

Instead of spending ~$23 on ONE silly piece of hardware, and bowing to the Gods that are MM, I felt it was in my best interest to tell them where they can shove their shiny nuts.

Did I mention that the LHT nut does not match the RHT nut on the site? Seriously...OCD episode!

So whats a Design Engineer with extensive manufacturing and purchasing resources to do... Pick up the bloody phone.

Call my local bolt supplier and I find out that I can get RHT slotted nuts in Grade 8 but only normal LHT nuts in Grade 8.

$1.60 later I have both piece of hardware in my hand. Took the standard slotted nut and modeled it in Inventor. Total time invested: 5 mins.



From there, I took the model and rendered it through Sprutcam to create the G-Code. Total time invested: 7 mins.



Chucked the LHT nut in the Tormach CNC at work and let it go. 3/32" end mill at 5Krpm.



Boom, DONE! Total time invested: 10 mins



I originally planned on using a 1/8" end mill but could not find one. Would have shortened the cutting time. Oh well.

Total cost for one LHT nut? $0.88 for the nut and 22 mins of my time.

Fuck you Minimania, fuck you.

[Mudhen]

 4.gif

lol...love it.   ;D

[MtyMous]

Lol. Well there certainly seems to be a little bit of margin built in...

[94touring]

Nice nuts

[MiniDave]

While I feel as many others do that MM has over reached a bit on the prices of the parts they sell for our little toy cars, they have done a lot for the hobby too and I appreciate that.

The best way to deal with it if you disagree with someone's price is to follow that great American tradition of make it yourself as Merlin did, or that second great American tradition - shop around.

I do a lot of the former and even more of the latter, and with the wonders of the internet at my finger tips it's not only pretty easy, it can be fun tracking down that elusive widget that's never been used on anything else since the beginning of cardom!

However, I don't believe in getting angry about someone's outrageous price, you never know when they might have something you really need for a great (or even competitive) price, so I try and keep my perspective.

It may not have been as high tech as Merlin's result, but I've made castellated nuts with an angle grinder and a cut off wheel.

[Merlin]

Although I mostly agree with you, I have not seen a single innovative idea come out of their shop. I challenge anyone to show me something they have for the min that you cant get from someone else. The only thing I see MM do for this community is take advantage of them. Screw those guys.

I see overpriced stuff all the time from other vendors, but I never fuss for it. KAD, MED and Swiftune are a few that are high priced, but I know what goes into design and small manufacturing, so no fussing from me.

All MM does is buy stuff from Minispares and mark the shit out of it. That's not helping a community.


You guys want to see helping the community? How about we offer these LHT nuts in the store on this site for cheap? QTY 100 coming right up.

[Mudhen]

That's it, I'm going to go out and chain myself onto a highway.

[MiniDave]

MM 's been importing, warehousing selling Mini parts and rebuilding Minis almost since the car was introduced - but don't get me wrong, I'm not defending their pricing. However, this is America and a businessman has the right to charge whatever he wants for his goods and services, if he can get it. You also have the right not to buy from them.

The power of the modern world is that you have immediate access to alternate sources all around the globe.

A good example - on MINIs the right side axle support bearing (the one bolted to the block) is not available as a separate part, to get one you have to buy a whole new axle. You have two choices there, the expensive OEM one (over $500) or the cheap Chinese knock off (about $175).

Or you can do what I did when helping fix a friend's car. After trying every bearing source I could find in the US, I got the OEM name and part number off the bearing, found the US distributor of that brand, and they ordered me two of the correct OEM bearings from the factory in Poland - at a cost of $22 each, shipped to my door. I bought two, just in case I screwed one up installing it - which I didn't. It took about a month to get them as I wasn't in a hurry and didn't want to pay air freight.

But how cool is that?  4.gif