Baby LeMat

[col.lemat]

I have the machinest drawings for the baby LeMat. My question is would there be enough interest in the smaller sized pistol (32cal.X40 cal. shotgun) to make it worth going into production? I am not sure of the cost vs. production run at this time to make them afforadable, comparable to the cost of the full sized pistol hence the question. I feel that some where between 250 & 500 units should equil $900. per pistol. Your thoughts gentelmen?

 

[Stophel]

I cannot imagine that it would be worthwhile, especially at only $900 a piece. Virtually every effort to make limited runs of oddball or unusual guns has been an exercise in complete disaster, unfortunately...

I'm still waiting for the new Merwin-Hulberts....

Make one first, and keep VERY careful records of every last penny, every last second of time that goes into making it. ;-)

 

[BCRider]

At 200 to 500 you're barely up to the sort of numbers to make it worth setting up CAD files and doing the machine changes between the various parts. So you may find that it's easier to just make up jigs and use more traditional methods.

Either way the cost in skilld labour time (mostly) and materials (not much for jigging) has to be factored into any final cost with the extensive jigging up time being amortized over the expected production run.

If you went CNC for the majority of the work this jigging up time translates to the CAD work and cutting file conversion time as well as the need to precut the blanks used for the CAD machines to a decently accurate initial size. All of this takes time when doing a relatively small run such as you're considering.

So all in all the idea of making one first and keeping track of all the steps and time isn't going to tell us anything about what it would be like to run a production line of the same steps.

If you were to set up your own shop to produce these it may well be that you can do the job for $900'ish a copy. But if you have to get some other shop to do the work I suspect that the setup time will push the final per copy price quite a bit higher. Certainly if the batch was for 500 the cost per copy would be a lot less. But then with a gun which would have a relatively small market base it may take you a number of years to sell off the last of a batch of that size. In the meantime the machine shop still expects money for goods delivered.

If you have a shop and would be producing all the jigs yourself and making the parts on these jigs yourself it could well be that you can suck up some of the time since it's more a labour of love. But that only works if this is your spare time or you're retired. Otherwise it's stealing time that could be going towards actual paying jobs. Having made up jigs to do some small batch jobs I can tell you that the time spent making good jigs is well worth it. But it's also a LOT of time expense to produce the jigs.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

Will you be making the Canteen stocks and anti dirigible sights, too?

 

[tom e gun]

as you get continue to put feelers out for this endeavor you should get word to as many forums such as this to garner interest in the project, you might even be able to locate some individuals with the skills and tools/machinery willing to help in exchange for dibs on some of the first few items produced (maybe i'm living in a fantasy world with that one, wake me up if this is so lol) it sounds pretty interesting and unique. it would probably do you a solid to find folks that want them and can give you a yes in advance, thus you could estimate an initial volume of production. i wonder if a site like gunbroker would let you have some type of postings trying to get future buyers? just a few thoughts, perhaps ramblings of a madman

 

[Omnivore]

History is replete with examples of wildly successful people who were initially told that their ideas whould not, or could not, work. Bill Gates and Rush Limbaugh are just two more recent examples.

Likewise, there have been ideas that were touted widely as "great" and they never got anywhere.

I've started two business (one in 1978 and one in circa 2000) both of which are still going after many years, and I never asked anyone if they thought I could succeed. Several of my "best friends" in fact told me my ideas would never see the light of day, yet I have since sold millions of dollars worth of them.

Coming from that perspective, I never recommend asking anyone. Either you KNOW it's a good idea that you can promote and sell simply because of your knowledge, personal experience and PASSION, or you should work for someone else. IN short; if you have to ask, the answer is probably "no".

Would I like to have a 36 cal Lemat? Sure. Would I pay near a thousand for one? Not sure.

But my opinion does not count, see. There are over 300 million people in this country. You need to have the attitude that you and you alone are going to turn a significant number of them to cap and ball shooters (even people who've never fired a gun) simply so they can buy your product-- because of how downright COOL it is. THAT's the attitude, my friend.

 

[DrLaw]

I'd like to see a better Whitney or a Manhatten clone. Palmetto made a Whitney, but it was flawed from what I understand and it did not sell well.

The current LeMats have a reputation for not having the shotgun barrel shoot reliably from what I have seen here and elsewhere. Don't know how a smaller version with that center fired barrel would fare, or if it would fare any better with a shorter hammer throw.

The Doc is out now.

 

[Jaymo]

A baby LeMat would be sweet. 9 shot pocket revolver with a .40 cal shot barrel would get me excited.
Can't afford one, but I'd still like it.

 

[Busyhands94]

That's just the kind of oddball firearm I like. If I had $900 and they were for sale I'd get one for sure. Although... I could probably get 4 or 5 Remingtons. Maybe if it was a tad less expensive I'd jump on it. Just as long as it is decently accurate and I can hunt something with it I'd love one. That .40 smoothbore would be awesome for snakes!

 

[Plastikosmd]

If made I would buy one

 

[Jaymo]

Levi, it would be a sweet little 9 shot squirrel pistol with a single shot pit viper barrel in the middle.