Having a clone of the Switchcraft S3FM manufactured. Anyone interested in a group buy?

[Solomute]

See title. If you have any small projects that would fit in an XLR barrel, this is ideal. I'm having them anodized black and I can laser engrave your logo or text if you want. Achieving a black finish is why I'm cloning the Switchcraft part rather than simply buying theirs, attempts at powder coating the Switchcraft caused unsightly bubbles in the nickel plating. Also the giant "Switchcraft" logo is ugly.

Anyway, hit me up.

 

[andia]

Hi, whats the price going to be? Are other anodizing colors possible? is it just the barrel or are the connector parts included? thanks a lot.

 

[Solomute]

I haven't gotten a quote from the machine shop yet. It becomes worthwhile for me at a price of $5-6/per part so I'm hoping for a quantity that gets me around that point. Raw material should be about $.50/part so it really just depends on the cost of setup, machine and operator time.

I can powder coat in my own shop, but would need to outsource an anodize, so the cost of anodizing would be a factor for me too... I'm guessing I'd have to do the whole batch the same color if anodizing, if I powder coat I can just grab a different color of powder and do a few in that color instead.

I'm having just the barrels manufactured, the inserts that go into them are the QG3M and QG3F from Switchcraft.

 

[sr1200]

would be cool for inline pad/polarity switcher.
EDIT: id be down for a hand full of black ones unmarked.

 

[Solomute]

Quote from the machine shop is $18 each in quantity... If you just want an XLR barrel and don't mind if it has a switchcraft logo on it, buy the S3FM. If you want something without a logo on it, and powdercoated black, hit me up, you can have some at cost.

 

[Whoops]

Hi,
Why going to all the trouble and expense of custom making these barrels, when you can buy them new (without logo) for really cheap?



Maybe I'm missing something, and if I do I'm sorry, but otherwise I'm really not seeing the point

 

[k brown]

Hi,
Why going to all the trouble and expense of custom making these barrels, when you can buy them new (without logo) for really cheap?

View attachment 99802

Maybe I'm missing something, and if I do I'm sorry, but otherwise I'm really not seeing the point

Are these available black?

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I can powder coat in my own shop, but would need to outsource an anodize,

Anodized implies the use of aluminium for the body. Other metals can be black-zinced, but protection against oxidation is not terribly good.

 

[Whoops]

Are these available black?

You can enquire the seller about that

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Hi,
Why going to all the trouble and expense of custom making these barrels, when you can buy them new (without logo) for really cheap?

View attachment 99802

Maybe I'm missing something, and if I do I'm sorry, but otherwise I'm really not seeing the point

I recently purchased a dozen (12) of these adapters from "AliExpress" for less than -- HALF -- the price that your image shows!!!

They look and work "good enough" for me and my purposes!!! I am going to design a small PCB that contains a ribbon-mic phantom-powered pre-preamp circuit on it and enclose the whole shebang inside one of these XLR-barrels. I was also thinking of drilling a small hole inline with the XLR-insert screws for a "POWER" LED, but doing that sounds like too much trouble to do!!!

NOTE: NO!!! The units I purchased are -- NOT -- black and they're -- NOT -- anodized, either!!! However, being black-anodized is going to end-up looking kinda crummy after awhile of being dragged around various stage and studio flooring, being stepped on and run over by stage equipment. Black anodizing looks really cool on a piece of rack-mount equipment, but it doesn't wear too well after being abused by stagehands and drunken musicians and who knows where the groupies have inserted them???

When I was designing equipment for use by a major concert sound-reinforcement company here in the U.S., I would have all of the rack-mount front-panels finished first with a "60-grit" horizontal grain and then black-anodized. The effect of the grain along with the black-anodizing created an awesome and powerful appearance!!! Then, when I added-on rack-handles, all of the staging equipment took on a "SERIOUS" appearance and everyone would comment, "That equipment MEANS BUSINESS"!!! Point being, I'm not against using a black-anodized finish at all. I just wouldn't use it for something that's going to be laying on the floor and stepped on, that's all.

/

 

[Whoops]

"Why typing in all-caps looks like you’re yelling"

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/23/us/all-caps-typography-history-tweets-trnd/index.html

 

[Solomute]

Hi,
Why going to all the trouble and expense of custom making these barrels, when you can buy them new (without logo) for really cheap?

View attachment 99802

Maybe I'm missing something, and if I do I'm sorry, but otherwise I'm really not seeing the point

I don't think I can fit a PCB inside of that.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Or
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005...00028159323918!sea&curPageLogUid=mkWFPreUgkbl

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I don't think I can fit a PCB inside of that.

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/3296...d5!12000022805374806!rec&gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

 

[Solomute]

View attachment 99841
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/3296...d5!12000022805374806!rec&gatewayAdapt=glo2fra

Yes, I am aware of this style of enclosure.

The one you linked is plastic, which means the internals are unshielded. Not acceptable for my application.

I am also very fundamentally uninterested in making an audio product with $.40 chinese connectors.

Getting this style of enclosure in metal is more expensive than even the quote I got for the custom-manufactured barrels, once you factor in the $18 or so it costs to put NM3FD/NM3MD connectors on it, which is necessary to get the same utility that you get out of the barrel form factor (i.e. stab it straight into a stagebox without needing an additional patch cable)

 

[MidnightArrakis]

"Why typing in all-caps looks like you’re yelling"

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/23/us/all-caps-typography-history-tweets-trnd/index.html

I am assuming that your comment is directed at me since your comment is only about 15-minutes after mine. In any case.....out of all of the words within my previous comment, around 8 of them are "all-caps". So, I wouldn't necessarily consider that to be "yelling". And, of the words that I have capitalized and even put as "bold", I did that as a means of "emphasis" and not "yelling".

I am finding that hardly anyone can hardly do or say anything within this forum without somebody else getting all bent out-of-shape about what some other member did, mentioned, said or even -- thought -- about!!! I guess it all goes with today's all-out and new "cancel culture" where everybody complains and whines about every possible minute thing that someone else did. Sadly, in the end.....it all becomes rather tiring to me.

And.....as far as your reference to CNN.....I personally wouldn't even consider, let alone trust, -- ANYTHING -- that has to do with CNN!!! Practically everything that CNN has been spouting-off on for the past 6-years or so has been verifiably documented and proven to be either a flat-out LIE or a falsehood. Yet, they continue to spew forth their on-air garbage to the point that the network now has hardly any viewers anymore!!! So, what does that tell you?

But.....THANK YOU!!!

/

 

[MidnightArrakis]

Yes, I am aware of this style of enclosure.

The one you linked is plastic, which means the internals are unshielded. Not acceptable for my application.

I am also very fundamentally uninterested in making an audio product with $.40 chinese connectors.

Getting this style of enclosure in metal is more expensive than even the quote I got for the custom-manufactured barrels, once you factor in the $18 or so it costs to put NM3FD/NM3MD connectors on it, which is necessary to get the same utility that you get out of the barrel form factor (i.e. stab it straight into a stagebox without needing an additional patch cable)

I am planning to be using these NEUTRIK enclosures:



They are made for PCB's and they are also just the correct size for XLR connectors!!!

/

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Yes, I am aware of this style of enclosure.

The one you linked is plastic, which means the internals are unshielded. Not acceptable for my application.

I understand that. The ones I got are metal, but I can't find the link.

I am also very fundamentally uninterested in making an audio product with $.40 chinese connectors.

I also understand that, that's why I use Neutrik connectors on them.

Getting this style of enclosure in metal is more expensive than even the quote I got for the custom-manufactured barrels

I don't remember exactly how much I paid but it couldn't have been more than $3.

 

[transient]

It's a Neutrik NA-Housing:

https://www.neutrik.com/en/product/na-housing

 

[abbey road d enfer]

It's a Neutrik NA-Housing:

The on eproposed by MidnightArrakis, yes.
The one I posted is not, it's a cheap chinese substitute.