Have you seen enough interest? Still doing the k-members? I need to plan aheadfor the money.
Yes, there seems to be enough interest to start this up again...almost too much for one guy to handle in a timely manner. I hate to make these on a per-order basis and I certainly don't like receiving a full payment without being able to deliver.
I don't have an exact timeframe when anything would happen just now...but perhaps late winter/early spring. I'm trying to deal with logistical issues right now that are taking some time (establishing a LLC, patents disclosures, looking into contract manufacturing, etc.). All of which take time and have some substantial costs associated with them. I've recieved a few quotes based on the drawings that I've provided and it would push the costs to an unattractive number. All the quotes that I received from independent shops were consistent...which only really showed that I
completely lost my shirt on these during the first batch that I produced.
I'm at the stage where I'm re-tooling my jig(s) for a more production environment so that I can hand over the tooling and the detailed prints. I'm not sure that this is the way I'll end up going, based on costs, time commitments, etc...but it gives me more options.
The front k-member doesn't involve much work at this point, so I've put it on the back-burner until the logistical issues are resolved first. I've resurrected my rear-subframe cad models/analysis from years past and have begun poking away at that again. It's a tricky problem to solve based on the mounting locations of our chassis. My feeling right now is that there will be weight savings, but most likely only around 1/3 savings. It may not be really worth the bang for your buck since there really isn't any other benefit associated with a new rear frame (no space or access benefits) other than a "cool" factor.
Rear tubular control arms are already available from another vendor and are a pretty straight forward design which I'm estimating would take a few days to properly design them followed by a few days of detailed analysis. My intention isn't to step on anyone else's toes for developing a competing product; however I personally feel that a new design could provide some user-configurable options at a much lower price-point IMO.
If I don't end up going down the contract manufacturing road, I can almost certainly say that there will be one medium-sized batch of each produced and I would throw in the towel. People just need to understand that it's a one man operation so it's very limited. I spend 50 hours a week designing machines, mechanisms and industrial products as a full-time gig so sometimes the last thing I want to do when I get home is work on more designs, fabrication, etc. I much rather crack a beer and watch some TV
Anyhow....things are in the works.