On 6/22/2022 at 7:07 PM, tutmeister said:

Thanks guys, the issue with any of these is the up front development cost. We can 3d print them all day long but people want metal and that means thousands in tooling and a much higher per yoke cost. These are not going to be cheap. We might offer some resin and metal ones at a cheaper price point. Our 3d print is incredibly dense and they would be finished to the same high gloss paint that we currently use. I might get some made to show off.

Does it really HAVE to be metal though? Isn't this a question of mass and surface coating, so a very similar feel could be created without using metal? The surface of the current yoke handle feels extremely realistic, if that could be replicated but using resin at its core, I'm all for it. 

The real yokes I'm familiar with flying are of the McDonnell Douglas type (MD11 and MD80). Those are solid metal alright and are extremely heavy. However, never would I expect for you to deliver something like that for the Fulcrum yoke price point, the base couldn't even handle all that weight anyway. So certain compromises are perfectly fine for me. The only thing that I do hope for the 737 handle are higher quality buttons. The ones used on the current handle do not feel realistic I'm afraid. Their haptic is not like something that would ever be used on a real aircraft, they feel too fragile and have too much play.
High quality coating, good weight and realistic buttons, and it will be just perfect. Don't care what's inside 🙂

In any case, I hope this won't take too long now. After all, the Fulcrum was sold with the promise of being able to buy other handles 😉 I'll gladly pre-order if it helps!

On 6/28/2022 at 1:09 AM, mburkhard said:

Does it really HAVE to be metal though? Isn't this a question of mass and surface coating

No it doesn't and yes you are right, it is down to mass and surface finish. There are a couple of points to bear in mind though. We have some 3d printed resin yoke handles here that we have finished in the same 2K gloss black paint and assembled them with all the metal work and buttons plates etc. They feel great and you can only tell if you have 2 handles to compared directly. Obviously there is the weight but once all the hardware is mounted they are quite substantial. The other thing is the coldness of the metal. This doesn't really matter though if you aren't comparing side by side.

If this was acceptable then it opens up many styles of yoke. What we have found every time we mention this on any platform is a lot of people saying well I'd pay extra for the metal one and don't want a plastic one. This means we are a bit shy of diving in to resin yokes as we have many positive comments  with regard to the current metal one and also people saying they would rather only have metal. The problem is knowing if they are the majority or vocal minority.

Cost wise, a metal or resin one won't really be much different. Apart from saving us tooling for the metal one there is little difference between the cost of either method as the finishing and hardware carries a good chunk of the cost. We might have to make a few and get them out for reviews but there is an assumption that 3d printing is inferior.

Thanks for the offer of a preorder, I might investigate that but based on our kickstarter it seems not a huge number of people are up for preordering products that are not off the shelf items.

Chris

Hi Chris, 

just get some teaser, shots of 737 handle.... its too long ... please 🙂

brds

hello, 

any new info about it...?

brds

On 10/10/2022 at 10:45 PM, Epgd said:

hello, 

any new info about it...?

brds

Waiting on quotes from the foundry, more to follow soon!