Hello everyone
I've recently had an idea about making and selling my own test leads and I am trying to find out if there would be a market for made to order leads from good quality materials, It's a barmy idea but it could be a interesting sideline to my current job so I thought I would ask you all for your opinions.
First some clarification, The sorts of leads I am thinking of are your fairly standard red and black pair with varying connectors on each end (Spade, Croc, 4mm Banana, shrouded & unshrouded, stacking & non stacking, Spring hooks etc etc) the only one I will not do are your standard probes for testing. I will use new parts for each lead and a choice of cable would be available like silicone in various sizes, double insulated and my least favourite PVC (the stiffness makes me cringe).
Why make these when cheap as chips ones are available off eBay you might ask? well I will do my best to answer that now.
Your experiences may differ but mine have not been so great, leads are often poorly made up with higher than acceptable resistances and built from fairly cheap materials. I started making my own as a solution to this issue and found it much more preferable as I could make up just about any type of lead I could imagine, Its only recently I have wondered if this would be a service of interest to others.
I would want to do my best to offer a high level of service which could include testing each lead set to ensure they are of acceptable resistance and build quality, I even considered the idea of individually marking each lead set with a serial for traceability should there be any problems. Obviously these would be for home and hobby use only and not commercial/Industrial.
So the big question is this, would you be willing to use a made to order service where your leads are made with care and attention by a passionate enthusiast? I'm aware pricing would be a major factor and I would like to keep prices low while making it worth my time, I'll post more on that later if people like the idea. Oh I'm located in the UK so I expect most business would be there but I see no reason to limit such a service to one country.
Thanks and I look forward to your replies
I've recently had an idea about making and selling my own test leads and I am trying to find out if there would be a market for made to order leads from good quality materials, It's a barmy idea but it could be a interesting sideline to my current job so I thought I would ask you all for your opinions.
First some clarification, The sorts of leads I am thinking of are your fairly standard red and black pair with varying connectors on each end (Spade, Croc, 4mm Banana, shrouded & unshrouded, stacking & non stacking, Spring hooks etc etc) the only one I will not do are your standard probes for testing. I will use new parts for each lead and a choice of cable would be available like silicone in various sizes, double insulated and my least favourite PVC (the stiffness makes me cringe).
Why make these when cheap as chips ones are available off eBay you might ask? well I will do my best to answer that now.
Your experiences may differ but mine have not been so great, leads are often poorly made up with higher than acceptable resistances and built from fairly cheap materials. I started making my own as a solution to this issue and found it much more preferable as I could make up just about any type of lead I could imagine, Its only recently I have wondered if this would be a service of interest to others.
I would want to do my best to offer a high level of service which could include testing each lead set to ensure they are of acceptable resistance and build quality, I even considered the idea of individually marking each lead set with a serial for traceability should there be any problems. Obviously these would be for home and hobby use only and not commercial/Industrial.
So the big question is this, would you be willing to use a made to order service where your leads are made with care and attention by a passionate enthusiast? I'm aware pricing would be a major factor and I would like to keep prices low while making it worth my time, I'll post more on that later if people like the idea. Oh I'm located in the UK so I expect most business would be there but I see no reason to limit such a service to one country.
Thanks and I look forward to your replies