How to boost your Dremel battery.

[toab]

some people pinch pennies a little harder than others but I see where you are coming from Starquest and fixing up dremels is after hours stuff.By the way does any other company make these mini drills that we use? and are they as good out on the job site.

[Dave M]

I purchased my dremmels at Sears. I think the cost was around $38. I use one for drilling and the other for polishing. In my 13 years of using them, I'm on the third set. So, my cost to run my drills so far, $17.50 a year. Change the batteries........nah!

[ChipRite]

My apologies for the post, if some think it was a waste of time. We cannot get Dremels here and I imported one a few months back with spare battery and collets and together with shipping it came to $99 and thats 7 repairs gross in our money and at our exchange rate here. Not exactly pennies for me!
Regards
ChipRite

[Delta Kits]

ChipRite,

Sorry, I didn't realize you were in a different country. Which country are you in?

Makes much more sense in your case, since it's the equivalent of working on a $350 part here in the US.

[ChipRite]

Jeff,
South Africa, and I can only drool when I see the prices of items in the USA! A local bridge here costs 3 times what I paid for the B300 and so I can go on!
Regards
Chiprite

[StarQuest]

ChipRight.

In South Africa.....what are you getting for a repair?

[johnnyone]

Could'nt have said it better Star....

[StarQuest]

ChipRight,

I have to be honest,

I know nothing about South Africa's average income or wages, cost of living expenses or what is a competitive price for repairing windshields.

I did pick up a few things with your last post though. You stated a dremel cost $99 with shipping and it would take 7 repairs to cover that expense. That's where I'm became a little confused? That means your only making around $15 per repair! That is why I asked you what your charging for a repair in South Africa!

If in South Africa.... importing materials or equipment is so expensive I couldn't imagine how much a replacement shield would cost there. Like $500-$600. If thats the case, you could probably charge a lot more than $15 for trying to save somebody's shield.

[ChipRite]

StarQwest,
Your calculation is spot on, but not everything here is imported and many ws are manufactured here. A VW Golf windscreen can be fiitted for R310 = $ 44. We actually import a lot of goods from the east and for example we have a big range of powertools, such as many different makes of rechargeable screwdrivers from $12 to $60, but no rechargeable drills with collets. A great many variations of cordless drills, but with chucks. We get an equivalent of the mains (220Volt) rotary tool for about $28, but none with batteries and so on. Some items, especially ws repair items are scarse and mostly by resellers from the USA and they may manufacture or add a local item or two. For example I was quoted locally R615 for a 15ml bottle of resin, that is about $87! This is directly imported from a well known USA company. Drill bits go at about R40 each, e.g. $6 each etc.
The repair costs are also determined by what the market here will allow. It is also impossible to become a vendor for the Insurance companies although they did grant some for the bigger franchises in the past, but now want any newcomers to work via a registered windscreen replacement company who will take a handling fee and not be too keen to refer a customer whose ws can rather be replaced. The cheapest car here is a Chevrolet Spark at R62000 = $8850 and a BMW 330i is R377200 = $54000. Petrol R6.48/L, about a dolar a litre. Maybe this puts things in perspective a bit.
Please do not misunderstand me, not everything is expensive, just certain items and some lines of items and I would not change this country for any other!
Regards and keep well.
ChipRite

[StarQuest]

ChipRite,

Thanks for providing the detailed response. It really helps in understanding your current situation with repair in South Africa.

Maybe you should research the idea of becoming a South African supplier for this biz. From what you wrote, sounds like it could possibly be a very lucrative venture.