Finally found a power hammer I can afford...
- Thread starter KeeponDragon
- Start date
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
Pretty neat. I'm not sure about affordable though its 400 pounds ~ $680 cdn.....
https://www.stuartmodels.com/product/steam-hammer-unmachined/
Would be a pretty cool fidget toy/stress reliever for the desk though.
https://www.stuartmodels.com/product/steam-hammer-unmachined/
Would be a pretty cool fidget toy/stress reliever for the desk though.
For just a second my brain was wondering why Stuart had a "miniature" steam hammer that weighed 400 lbs!
Which reminds me of one of my daughter's friends who, at 17 years old, was watching a UK house flipping show. They were looking at 3 houses. One was 480,000 pounds, one was 520,000 pounds and one was 450,000 pounds. She turned and asked her mother ":How do you weigh a house?"
It must be contagious.
(I feel I should point out that the didn't actually "flip" the houses. They. just bought them and sold them again).
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
If they weigh that much, you'd probably have to flip them with a loooooogn lever.....
Last edited:
140mower
Don
I always wondered why folks wanted their toilet hanging from the ceiling.......For just a second my brain was wondering why Stuart had a "miniature" steam hammer that weighed 400 lbs!
Which reminds me of one of my daughter's friends who, at 17 years old, was watching a UK house flipping show. They were looking at 3 houses. One was 480,000 pounds, one was 520,000 pounds and one was 450,000 pounds. She turned and asked her mother ":How do you weigh a house?"
It must be contagious.
(I feel I should point out that the didn't actually "flip" the houses. They. just bought them and sold them again).
Yeah, it's nearer Wales though, called "The Mach Loop". They let other planes than just Tornadoes in though! LOL!
KeeponDragon
Super User
It'd be a helluva stapler...
Yeah, Stuart is like to go the way of Myford, by pricing themselves right the hell out of the market! They make great casting kits, but so do a bunch of other folks that are not selling at prices that would make a mob Lawyer flinch to pay out!
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
Sometimes it's just the cost of doing business. Does Stuart do their casting in house? How much control do they have over the entire process, or are they just a design and distribution house, and are at the mercy of vendor pricing.
Pretty sure they are all in house, but even so, they used to be pretty affordable, for a working man to buy, and they no longer are.
As one of the guys over on practicalmachinist said, after a tour of Myford's facility before they tanked, his impression was that it was a bunch of folks whiling away their time before they died!
KeeponDragon
Super User
that's actually kind of sad...is there that much competition or lack of ideas to advance the craft to foster that attitude I wonder...
From zoominfo: $20.4m sales in 2022, 102 employees. Let’s assume average $50k per employee, so payroll is $5.1m. Need to make at least 30% margin to support fixed overhead. Website traffic from crunch base says Stuart had 1000 website hits per month. I assume that with 100+ employees, many of them are machinists because they sell finished functioning models, so my employee average may be very low. The actual casting costs are probably zilch.
Modern reality. Look around here, and see how many kids are clamoring to learn how to do what we are doing for fun! In Myford's case, much like the low speed implosion of the Original South Bend Lathe company, before the name was bought up and plastered over import machinery, they simply did not evolve and develop with the times, and as the times went on, it cost them more and more to stay operating, while they were mainly competing against used items of their own, previous, construction! Lots more things too, but eventually you run out of guys willing to pay what needs be charged to keep the company alive!
It's pretty much an old guy's hobby, and the making of model engines, even more so. Gonna be 'Good times' when those on the younger edge of the curve, get older, and the estate sales start becoming more regular!
I might be able to afford the machine tools I really want, eh? Or, someone with a truck and a $20 bill, gonna get a deal, as they show up to clean out my basement! LOL!
@whydontu , I figure as pricey as the Stuart stuff is, they must be doing something right, as they are still very much in business! Like the prices being paid for some pretty mediocre Muscle Car "Classics", there is a larger pool of old guys that finally have money to afford what they could not, the first time around, now, too.