I though it was a bargin when I bought one.

If I had bought the signal mirror, Spark-light and Fox 40, one each at retail, I would have had $20 tied up. Probably more with shipping. I do not see any way I could put one kit together with similar quality components for the price.

The way I view it is that you are buying in bulk, doing all of the work and selling the kit to me at about the retail price of the parts.

The only comment I have about the price is: THANKS !

...finally, a crochet hook is used to pull the end of the Brainded Nylon Cord under the last turn to secure it in place. ...BRAIDED...

Doug, I found some errors in the PSP slideshow, which I must say was very well done. I would like to thank you again for the work you have done and I would also like to thank Rosa and Berta for helping demonstrate the production of the PSP.

Here are the errors I have found (some may have been mentioned before) Thanks again.

Slide 6—Insterted—Should be inserted.

Slide 20—Brainded—Should be braided

Slide 21—Stanlesss—Should be stainless.

Slide 38 to 39 should read Final assembly # 1 and # 2, the sequence jumps # 2, right to #3.

Take care,

Stargazer

Looks good!

Good catches, thanks.

Got it, thanks.

Now I want to get out the drill and roll me some duct tape!

Not to say that I would want to do it all the time...it's like the time I ate alligator in New Orleans. I wouldn't want to have it all the time, but I tried it, and now I know what it's about.

When planning items to include in a Nalgene bottle kit, I was adding up what the components would cost, and IIRC with the cost of the bottle itself it was easily over $100.

Now I plan on emptying the contents of a Ritter PSK into a ditty bag or something similar to fit through the mouth of the bottle, and most of my kit assembly will be done!

If I were to want the PSK to be less expensive, it's only so I could buy more and not have my wife go <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I learned in cutlery selling class once that in order for someone to buy something, the perceived value has to outweigh the cost. For all but the completely obtuse, I think this slide show would greatly increase the perceived value of the PSK, if for nothing else, because of the labor intensive nature of the assembly!

From start to finish, how long does it take to assemble one kit?

That is proprietary information, but I can tell you it is the most labor intensive product in the AMK line-up and that includes their largest and most sophisticated multi-hundred dollar professional medical kits.

I know this might sound silly, but why don't they use a better jig and multiple roles of tape to wind several simultaneously. I can't imagine that being a very fast process, and depending on the strength of the mandrel (seems tough enough) - one could probably do 4 or more at the same time either with a drill or hand crank. Just not having to chuck up on a 1:1 basis would help.

And a similar process could probably be used on the wire and the rope (at least to get the right number of rotations around a specifically sized core to get the right length). Then you wouldn't have to deal with as much measuring and since the number of wraps gets you the right length. The labor would be in tying them off.

Anyway, it's still an amazing price for everything you get... just tossing some ideas that may (or may not!) further improve the profit margin. I have mine sitting right here and I know I couldn't come close to replicating the cost (I tried). If you factor in that in order for an individual to build this that a lot more of the product needs to be purchased (whole roles of wire, rope, & tape, etc) then it's even more a bargain.

I've tried doing this for small scale winding of wire on micro-spools (bobbins), and I can say that it isn't as easy as it looks.