To provide support for a lot of our bars, we use 1x1 (hole not inch) L-bar aluminum. Vex only sells 1x1 inch aluminum which is actually 2 holes on each side of the L bend. Aluminum 1x1 is just about the perfect balance between strength, size, and weight, and my team has to continuously bandsaw C-channel or L-Bar just to get these pieces.
Since the aluminum kit comes with such a wide variety of pieces, I think that adding 1x1 (hole) bars to the kit would be feasible and extremely beneficial.
I definitely agree! This would be very useful for many applications
and while they add this to their product portfolio, they should go ahead and start selling aluminum parts a la carte.
that is a definite must. it would be so helpful because how many large pieces of aluminum get wasted by being cut up into the smaller needed pieces? A LOT!
Most of the time we end up using 6 - 7 1 X 2 X 1(holes) X 17.5" C channels in our designs and that requires two long aluminum kits but if they sold them individually we wouldnt end up with so many 1 X 5 X 1 C channels that we dont need and come in the kit.
This is one request I hear every now and then. It seems simple… but we need to be smart about it.
Think of it this way…
Ideally… every single VEX piece would be sold separately (I know some of our users wish we would do just that).
However, this means we would need to stock ALL of these packs in our warehouse at any given time, or we would need to go back on our “ships same day” promise (something we’re not willing to do). This isn’t practical from a business perspective, especially if some of these items aren’t big sellers.
So what do we do? Like with everything in life, we make tradeoffs. We try to make bundle kits which include a lot of items in one product. We take the most popular and high demand items and release those as stand-alone products.
We will continue to listen to customer feedback as we decide what items become available for stand-alone purchase. Based on the requests I’ve received I will discuss releasing stand-alone aluminum pieces for sale at our next product review meeting.
-John
{ sell Aluminum individually }
Regarding stocking: Excessive or protective packaging might have something to do with it. If the Aluminum were available in 3 sub-kits, and someone orders a full kit, you can just ship the 3 sub-kits. Same stocking requirements (other than expensive packaging), either way.
The Vex primary business may be selling $1000 classroom kits to educators,
and it seems like Vex likes to have a minimum price point for each item, typically > $10, (Vex doesn’t sell individual allen wrenches for $3, but only 10 for $30; stocking is easier by 3x fewer unique inventory items, but they lose all the sales of fewer than 10 wrenches to other suppliers)
It’s worth noting the aluminum kit is packaged in a pretty tiny, tiny box. Barely bigger than a 1x5x1 C-channel (which is used to help reinforce the box!). The packaging is very well done.
If you just sold multiples of single parts in the AL kit, then you’d have less product in more or less the same amount of space. I could see an argument for selling 8 of the 1x5x1 C-Channel as its own bundle, or maybe 4 of that with 4 of the 1x2x1 C-Channel nested in, but you’re not going to be able to easily stock most of these parts alone.
I definitely agree that the aluminum parts should be sold separately or in smaller bundles if possible. It would be nice to have a less expensive way to get the parts you might need instead of having to buy a whole new kit.
In the meantime, I guess I will just have to start saving my money to get the kits!
Trust!!! That is a must have product!