(3 am at the Downs compound)
“hmmmm spider sense is tingling. Must be an undecided web surfer out there somewhere”
The steel is not the major manufacturing cost on this table - its the motors/electronics and some mechanical components, and recovery of design/implementation costs. There is some tubing and bent lightweight sheet steel, certainly nothing that expensive. I can see the world wide inflation of steel prices influencing the pricing, but I do agree, they could have handled it better. They have mailing lists obviously, …
I was delaying my purchase because I am in Canada and the border is closed, so having it sit on the US side made no sense, nor having multiple packages crossing individually, each with brokerage fees. I would expect the people who bought them to have the option “so sad”, but that is unfortunately human nature. Ok, approaching close to $3000, it might make sense to build one. :-
I respectfully disagree. The motors and cables are cheap and haven’t dramatically changed in price, skateboard bearings are cheap, acme screws are pretty cheap, fasteners are generally cheap in bulk. The control box and the metal (and cutting, bending, welding, powder coating said metal) are the material components that comprise the majority of the material costs. Look around on the site if you don’t already have firsthand knowledge elsewhere and you’ll see that metal prices have gone up pretty considerably in the last 6-12 months, to the tune of about 300%.
If the raw metal component costs of the machine went up 300%, and the table was using $200 in steel, then the price to buy the raw materials alone went up $400 in the last year.
I’m not going to speculate on how much the electrical components and fasteners have increased in price, but I’m sure they too have gotten a bit more expensive, fasteners especially.
What you should find amazing is that they didn’t raise the price more, sooner.
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you are misinformed on this…
Langmuir sends the table order to Canada as one complete set…not like the States…different packages…
they are smart enough that they package the entire shipment as one delivery to reduce shipping costs for them and us…that is why we have had to wait at the start.
everyone who received a crossfire in Canada or internationally received the complete order in one shot…so one brokerage and one duty payment…
they do not have mailing lists of who wants one…they have lists of customers who bought one…so why would they mail out to people who have them already?
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Ok did not know about the single packaging, thanks for that information. Ideally I would ship it to the border or Seattle (family lives there) and brought it up myself, avoiding the brokerage fees and the duty (should be none due because is US made), but not the taxes. COVID screwed up that big time. 
I totally disagree about the 300% number though - my family is involved in large steel fabrication, primarily pressure vessels, and routinely use carbon and stainless steel with some titanium and other alloys thrown in - we are talking tons of materials - mill prices are up around 30%, not 300%.
I still do not agree with the distribution of the cost of building this - the bulk of the costs of these units is not raw steel materials, it’s labour, mechanics, electronics and engineering/design costs, never mind overhead of the manufacturing facility. For instance, we all do not know how much the cost of the custom software contributes to the manufacturer cost. Regardless of that though, what it costs to make is not connected to what it’s priced at. If a manufacturer discounts a product to get sales going, it only makes sense that they increase it to what the market will bear.
Cheers,
Mike
I totally disagree with that. Where stainless, titanium, chromoly has stayed pretty stable in the last year with very little or no increase mild steel is through the roof.
I’m not saying steel prices increased there cost to put a table together I have no idea of there actual costs.
Folks who didn’t buy, hedging and wavering…will always grumble later at the inflated prices seen in petrol, firearms, ammunition, home prices, Amazon-Boeing-Microsoft et al, stock. The potential for price increases for the Crossfire platforms have been quite apparent from day 1.
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Not going to get into the price increase or prices of materials but a youtube guy I follow has a discount code that will save you a $100 to help ease the pain…although I have to say I’ve looked at many other manufactures and not sure how Langmuir can afford to sell theirs at such a low cost. I understand it isn’t quite as robust as some of the others but it sounds like it gets the job done for light industrial and hobbyists. Anyways this is the code MIKEFESTIVA and search him on youtube, he’s done some great projects.
+1 on this. A 4x3x1/4" sheet of mild steel now costs me $500! 
A similar piece of aluminum is $200.
Crazy costs.
Where are you located? I just had 36 plasma cut plates of 10x10" in 1/4" steel, that basically covers a full 4x8 sheet. Easier to have my local place do it than get the plate, cut it down and plasma cut on my Crossfire 2x2, anyways total cost with tax was $350 (full sheet of 1/4", plasma time included) I am not seeing these “skyrocketing costs” in Nashville and we have some of the highest construction growth in the nation right now.
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Where that $500 for 4’x3’x1/4" is definitely out of hand I would be shopping around in that area.
Steel sheet prices a year ago in my area 4’x8’
1/8"- $80 now $140
3/16"-$140 now $240
1/4"-$170 now $260
3/8"-$320 now $580
Square,rectangle,round tubing is where the prices really increased percentage wise.
I buy all my steel direct from a supplier and they mark up 10% from mill costs and delivered to my shop. When you are doing steel work as a hobby most areas don’t offer direct sales to customers so they go to the middlemen that cut to lenght or size or whatever you need and there markup is in the 100% plus range.
Cut to length steel is a very good business if you have the room, a shear, and a bandsaw.
Connecticut. OnlineMetals - I pickup (shipping steel is crazy). A couple of other places I buy from are similar.
That is nuts - that sheet is about 120lbs? My cost would be at most $100CAN or say $80/USD. The trick is which supplier, a guy like a metal supermarket dealing in really low quantities and custom cropping will really up the costs.
Selection of supplier is super important, and so in your quantity might be hard to get the good prices. If you have seen carbon steel prices triple, it’s time to look elsewhere, or there is another reason such as the supplier recovering losses due to COVID. Did you ask? My family deals with metals every working day in an industrial fabrication/machine shop, and yes it’s gone up, but not triple.
Cheers,
Mike
These guys are a big metal supplier (thyssenkrupp). I use a couple of other places but these guys have the best selection - I can get just about anything from them. When I get full sheets they’ll cut them in half (4x5) for me but that’s the only shearing I’m having done. The other places have less consistent supplies.
I’ll have to check the latest prices at the other two suppliers I use.
Steel prices are going through the roof!!
I’m a general manager for a large structural steel fabricator. I’m dealing with a steel price increase on one of our jobs a design build. November it started climbing now the prices have increased to 1.3 million dollars over my budget. Tube steel has really gone up!
I have a Crossfire in my home shop. I checked yesterday a 4x8 sheet of 10 gauge costs $100 that’s crazy a buck a pound. Getting to expensive to even cut plate on my machine at home.
Last November the 10 ga was 50 cents a pound. BUMMER!!!
I’m the one that mentioned prices tripling. My mistake was looking at the futures on steel, not street pricing. It’s true, sheets are closer to just doubled prices in the last year.
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Thank Biden and his group of clowns for these price increases
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welcome @Fireguy315 to the forum…
but as much as people hate certain political parties and people who represent them…that is not the true factor in costs going up.
there is a global economic increase on all products and all services…so many factors affect the economies of the worlds you cannot pick one one thing alone.
oil prices
shipping issues, boat stuck in Suez Canal
Covid closures
other countries sucking up global resources…other flooding the market with excess products…
it all affects the prices we see and feel going up everywhere.
Respectfully disagree with your assessment, when you are back ordered 6 months, and material pricing dramatically increases, then thats what happens.
I have the pro, and it’s still lights out, a bargain:+1:
.
Current steel prices are just a little higher than they were in the 2018 spike. Whom would you blame back then?
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