I will be getting ready to accept preorders on these things soon. Before I do that, however, I want a general consensus on the type of material we want. Here are some of our options. (There are others, but they cost generally the same, if not within a few cents of each other apiece. I'll also list what emachineshop has written down as each material's general usage.
These are based on a quantity of 50, without any kind of extra price for their shipping, or mine. Their shipping is only $5.48 for all these things, so that markup will be minimal, and mine too. See more info down.
Aluminum 6351 (Furniture, railings, and architectural applications.) - $4.62 ea.
Aluminum 2024 (Screw Machine Products, Aircraft Applications) - $5.17 ea.
Steel Carbon Type 1040 (Crankshafts, couplings and cold headed parts) - $5.11 ea.
Steel Carbon Type 1055 (Light stressed gears,crank shafts,axles, connecting beams,motor parts, general engg. Work, EN-19 is used for heat treated parts where high tensile and impact are required) - $5.57 ea.
Stainless Steel 316 (Food and pharmaceutical processing equipment, marine exterior trim, surgical implants, and industrial equipment that handles the corrosive process chemicals used to produce inks, rayons, photographic chemicals, paper, textiles, bleaches, and rubber) - $7.43 ea.
Stainless Steel 430C (Gears, bearings, seats, valves) - $7.32 ea.
Steel Type 4340 (Aircraft landing gear, power transmission gears and shafts and other structural parts) - $5.63 ea.
Can those regular steel types I also listed be used as well? If so, that opens other options. Knowing that aluminum is generally a weaker metal (or is my mind misinformed by products like aluminum cans and aluminum foil,) regular steel is an option at about a dollar more for each. Even with the stainless steel being about $7.50 each, they'll still not cost anyone more than $10 apiece.
Concerning shipping: I planned on shipping these via USPS first class mail, in order to keep that cost down to next to a stamp price. However, I am a bit worried that some orders may be smashed enough to warp the cylinder to the point of being useless, which with our tolerances, means ANY kind of crushing would result in a damaged product. Anyone got any ideas how to ship these via the USPS, but still provide enough security for the items to minimize/eliminate any damage possibilities? I could just say screw it, and ship them in a small box with padding to ensure nothing happens, but that'll add a tad more to the shipping cost. Couldn't be anymore than a few bucks though. What's everyone's thoughts on this?