first of all let me say that i in no way indend to do this myself.
many millions of the cheap 1/4" socket set have been sold all over the world during the past 30 years or so. hex bit sets also. im talking about the sets that come in a grey plastic box with a plastic t-handle, that has a red cap on one end. the handle is fragile and the cap motivates people to use it as a hammer. they break pretty soon and people just get another set. i have several sets without a handle. 1/4" handles are rare and sell for $30 or more.
if you take 10mm stock, cut it to pieces, round off the ends, mill a slot and drill hole (all standart metric sizes) you can remove the broken plastic and join the two steel parts by a nice tap of a hammer. it will not come appart without tools and even then its hard if you have not drilled a through hole, that is not really needed.
so? well, have a machine spit out a few hundred thousands of these parts and sell them for maybe $5. the market must be huge. the business model? no idea. sell it to the chinese so they peddle it on the net?
the main risk i can see, is that not all of the handles are exactly the same and the part would not fit. i have however tried half a dozen handles and they were the same. this would surely need further investigation.
btw, i couldnt resit to use my new tig on some of the handles, but its absolutely not necessary.
many millions of the cheap 1/4" socket set have been sold all over the world during the past 30 years or so. hex bit sets also. im talking about the sets that come in a grey plastic box with a plastic t-handle, that has a red cap on one end. the handle is fragile and the cap motivates people to use it as a hammer. they break pretty soon and people just get another set. i have several sets without a handle. 1/4" handles are rare and sell for $30 or more.
if you take 10mm stock, cut it to pieces, round off the ends, mill a slot and drill hole (all standart metric sizes) you can remove the broken plastic and join the two steel parts by a nice tap of a hammer. it will not come appart without tools and even then its hard if you have not drilled a through hole, that is not really needed.
so? well, have a machine spit out a few hundred thousands of these parts and sell them for maybe $5. the market must be huge. the business model? no idea. sell it to the chinese so they peddle it on the net?
the main risk i can see, is that not all of the handles are exactly the same and the part would not fit. i have however tried half a dozen handles and they were the same. this would surely need further investigation.
btw, i couldnt resit to use my new tig on some of the handles, but its absolutely not necessary.
