Elastomer Fan Mount Grommits - A Group Buy

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 7:06 am

i have contacted a manufacturer of the elastomer gel mounts in the UK thay have sent me a price list etc. to cut a lot of waffling out if a can buy more thant 100 of the mounts it brings the price (including VAT P&P and enough to cover the postal price to send them on again) to around 50p each. therefore i was thinking that if there was enough interest in them i would consider buying say 104 (minimum more than 100 and a multiple of 4) and then passing on all i dont want to other people. i just wanted to gauge the interest.
i would be after 20, perhaps 24. therefore if enough people would be interested to take 80 off my hands then i would be willing to buy them and send them on.
i reckon the price should be 50p per unit but say a maximum of 55p depending on postage costs etc. thats a lot cheeper than most places that want about £1 each.
Ok post you interest here and we'll see how it goes.

ps there are three availible sizes as detailed in the picture below, i think it would be the medium one the 344 model that is the right size but let me know if thts not the case.

[/img]

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:03 am

I wouldnt mind getting some but im in the US, and i dont know how the shipping prices would be? Plus I have no idea how much 50p is, but if its any where near .50 cents in US money then that is pretty cheap.

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:08 am

id guess that its about 60 or 70 cents, i have no idea what it would cost to ship these units, far too much for a 'parcel delivery' however i can find ut about sending them just plain airmail.
unless of course we make this even more complicated and i ship a job lot to you in the us at parcel rate and then you can send them on to other people after them.
perhaps a little oo complicated.

1884 · Post by **1884** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 9:44 am

hey myci

i'd probably be looking at getting 48, i'll need to check which type i need first.

sp

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 11:14 am

I wouldnt mind shipping them out to people. But they would have to money order you beforehand and once they get to me I could send them right out to whoever ordered them. I wonder if you can send these things out in a normal envelope so that way I wouldnt have to pay shipping for everyone that I would have to ship out to? Hmm this is kinda complicated, damn the post office!

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 11:19 am

i dont mind just sending them out in envelopes, i dont know how long they would take to get there etc, but if theres sufficient call for them i will certainly find out.
the reason i bothered with this was that silicon acoustics price seems a little too much, especially to get it to the uk. so perhaps there is already a good us distributer.
not sure, lets see how the demand goes.

||Please post if you would be interested||

fancontrol · Post by **fancontrol** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:32 pm

US Postal is $3.20 to the UK. I imagine it's similar UK->US?

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:06 pm

I would be very interested in these... and I'm also in the US. I wonder if there is a US manufacturer where we could do a similar group buy??

.. I wouldn't mind putting the money up front & then using my paypal account to accept payments & mail them out.

Are there any US suppliers??

Thanks!

Brice

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 6:58 am

I'd certainly be intested in a group buy, but I'm also in the US and I think it would end up being a hassle to get them from the UK. I'd go for 36-48 of them. If anyone can find something similar here in the US that'd be real cool.

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 7:03 am

BriceB,Ralf the company is http://www.gelmec.co.uk/ they would surely be willing to post a job lot to one of you guys in the US and then you could divvy it out amongst yourselves. give them an email, they seem to be quite busy at the moment but will definately get back to you eventually.
of course a US supplier would probably be cheaper.
Why doesn't someone ask Silicon Acoustics?

efcoins · Post by **efcoins** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 7:19 am

Yes I would take 5 fans worth = 20 pins, delivered to UK.

Are you sure that 100 mounts means 100 individual pins, not 100 fans worth = 400 pins. Just that 100 seems quite a small quantity to buy direct from a manufacturer.

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 7:29 am

yes im fairly sure but will send an email to them now to get confirmation. the smallest order you can make is 4 so that sort of implies its one fans worth.
the 104 order is the smallest amount that falls into the second lowest price bracket. i could get 50 but that would cost around 10p more per unit and 4-25 would cost over double.
they seem to be the primary distributer come manufacturer, they said they have had a LOT of enquiries for items like this (they do HDD decouplers etc as well) and they are trying to be accomodation of private and 'large buyers'.
I make that 40 ish that have been requested so far (including me and efcoins) if i can get enough to confirm,say, 80 i will buy them and risk having to loose the last 40 on ebay (after all they are half the price they are in low quantities so ill be as well off as i would be just to buy them)
let me know if there are anymore people in the UK after these.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 12:39 pm

OK.. I just finished my wild goosechase involing talking to Ear Specialty Composites, the manufacter of our wanted grommets (I think MikeC mentioned this), A local distributor of their products, and McMaster, Inc.

I have good news for US residents looking for these things. They are available via McMaster for $9.71 in packages of 20. Unfortunately they are out of stock, and the sales rep let me know they'll be available in 20 days. The item # is 5801k6 on pg. 1212 of their catalog and is the equivelant of EAR's F-344 (which looks to be the correct model for typical 80/92mm fans).

EAR is also sending me a sample of their fan mounts & hdd gromets. If I find them to be useful, they'll hook me up w/ a distributor & I'll make a few bulk orders in order to have these available via ebay or a website for a good price.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 2:10 pm

If anyone read my above post, I pointed to the wrong URL for the fan grommet supplier. The correct one is: McMaster-Carr

Brice

efcoins · Post by **efcoins** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 3:45 pm

Do they sell Hard Disk mounts as well ?
There are many sizes on the EAR web site, I do not know which is the best.

Can you post the suppliers web site

thanks

mynci · Post by **mynci** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 4:37 pm

if you can get 20 for ~$10 then i may participate in the bulk order to get them sent to the uk!!!
Thats about 30p a unit. all done. thats a good bit less than the uk price for even 1000 units, hence if you guys can buy direct from the supplier then it may well be cheaper to get them sent over for the uk.
let me know how you get on (perhaps i can use this to bargain with the UK distributer!!)

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 5:45 pm

efcoins wrote:Do they sell Hard Disk mounts as well ?
There are many sizes on the EAR web site, I do not know which is the best.

Can you post the suppliers web site

thanks

efcoins, I posted it in my above message. The EAR model we're looking for is the F-344, and is part #5801k6 at McMaster-Carr website. I talked to the guys at EAR & this is what they recommended. As for HDD Mounnts, the guys recommended the G-410 for silence, and the G-411 for HD performance... although they both will have similar results.

Brice

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 5:52 pm

mynci wrote:if you can get 20 for ~$10 then i may participate in the bulk order to get them sent to the uk!!!
Thats about 30p a unit. all done. thats a good bit less than the uk price for even 1000 units, hence if you guys can buy direct from the supplier then it may well be cheaper to get them sent over for the uk.
let me know how you get on (perhaps i can use this to bargain with the UK distributer!!)

mynci,
You may be able to purchase these from McMaster & have them shipped to the UK. I'd contact via e-mail 1st to find out on the availability though. The sales rep said they currently were out of stock, but should have some in @ 15 days.

My samples should be arriving this week, and if I like them (which I'm sure I will...) EAR will turn me on to a distributor that will supply me w/ these ( probably 500 -> 1000 ).. although I won't buy them if I can't get them for much less than 50 cents a piece (which is what McMaster is selling them for)

Brice

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Feb 26, 2003 6:33 am

BriceB - could you please keep us posted on the stauts of your samples? I'll order some from McMaster-Carr if you get good results from your samples.

FYI - note that on page 1212 there are three sizes of isolators available. You can also ge the #5801K8 which will work on the 120mm Panaflos which have the thicker frame.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Wed Feb 26, 2003 1:16 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:BriceB - could you please keep us posted on the stauts of your samples? I'll order some from McMaster-Carr if you get good results from your samples.

Ralf,

This brings up an interesting point.. how to scientifically test the effectiveness of the mounts. Any suggestions are welcome. I however have no advanced equipment for measuring db....

On a side note, you may want to wait & see if I can find these for an even better price before purchasing from McMaster. If I can, I'll supply them through my new Iceburg specialty store, and I'd appreciate the business. EAR will turn me onto a supplier once I decide that these are "effective"..

The samples should arrive this week (fan+hdd)...

I'd be happy to send them to anybody that would have the means to adaquately test them. A lot has been said on the subjet.. but no formal reviews that I know of.

Brice

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 6:18 am

BriceB wrote:
Ralf Hutter wrote:BriceB - could you please keep us posted on the stauts of your samples? I'll order some from McMaster-Carr if you get good results from your samples.
......... I'll supply them through my new Iceburg specialty store, and I'd appreciate the business. EAR will turn me onto a supplier once I decide that these are "effective"..
Brice

Send me the URL and I'll buy 'em from you when (or if) you get them.

jamoore9 · Post by **jamoore9** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 6:59 am

I'm also interested in getting some of these. I need 16. Let me know how and when to order! And Thanks!

Also, do you have a model number for either the G-410 or G-411 products? Because I can't locate tham on the McMaster-Carr website.

seishino · Post by **seishino** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 8:39 am

BriceB wrote: I'd be happy to send them to anybody that would have the means to adaquately test them. A lot has been said on the subjet.. but no formal reviews that I know of.

Brice

Hi.

I have a dB reader that drops to 30, but in an apartment that is bloody loud (50 dB base cpu room, 40 dB kitchen). It's not as good as what Mike can get if he pesters his musician friends again, but it is an option if you want to drop 4 in an envelope to Boston. I've been meaning to run a test of hard mounting, tape-mounting, and earplug mounting of a 12v L1A and a loud taiwan special, and would love to add these to the batch. I wouldn't mind paypaling you the cost + stamp. I'm hesitant to go full gromett until I see performance VS earplugs, which I have so far been pleased with.

Ah what the hell. I'm ordering a batch from Silicon Acoustics in another window right now. Hopefully it will arrive soon (US Mail) and we'll have a review on Monday or Tuesday. These appear to be the same things, so the results should be comparable.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:53 am

If you're in the other window ordering mounts from SA, I guess there's no sense in me supplying you

.. but let me know if you still need them! Also, I wasn't able to see what model # + material the mounts at SA are.

I'm assuming they are the F-344 ... although they may be the F-345 which has a smaller & deeper Fan Diameter & hole ( 3.5mm / 3.8mm). This would result in a looser fit, as the typical 80mm fans have a 4.4mm hole (which the F-344 fits snuggly into).

Specs are available here

They also come in 3 different types of "ISODAMP" material found on this page

At any rate, what piece will you be mounting the fans onto? I've found that the most vibration occurs when hard mounted (metal screws) on the front & rear panel intakes of some cheap midtower cases.. ie. this wouldn't be a good test in a high quality, anti-resonance case..

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 10:03 am

jamoore9 wrote: Also, do you have a model number for either the G-410 or G-411 products?

Good news! They have these instock in packages of 25 for $7.76. Item # is 9311K138 (G-410), on pg 3436 of their catalog...

Brice

korsch · Post by **korsch** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 11:33 am

Anyone know what they are charging for shipping to Canada on a small order like the 25-pack?

Seems like UPS is the cheapest option, which means the usual inflated brokerage fees and such. I'm curious if this works out cheaper than the Silicon Acoustics option I'm only looking for a few isolators.

seishino · Post by **seishino** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 3:27 pm

BriceB wrote:If you're in the other window ordering mounts from SA, I guess there's no sense in me supplying you .. but let me know if you still need them! Also, I wasn't able to see what model # + material the mounts at SA are.

I'm assuming they are the F-344 ... although they may be the F-345 which has a smaller & deeper Fan Diameter & hole ( 3.5mm / 3.8mm). This would result in a looser fit, as the typical 80mm fans have a 4.4mm hole (which the F-344 fits snuggly into).

Specs are available here

They also come in 3 different types of "ISODAMP" material found on this page

At any rate, what piece will you be mounting the fans onto? I've found that the most vibration occurs when hard mounted (metal screws) on the front & rear panel intakes of some cheap midtower cases.. ie. this wouldn't be a good test in a high quality, anti-resonance case..

Since I don't have the Sonata set up yet (not until I decide on fan mounts, ironically), it will be mounted into an old Powerspec 7725 with either the custom fan holes, or the stock fan holes (probably rear stock).

I just did a photoshop superposition of the image they have on their site and the link that you sent me. They are the F-344, the F-345 is too narrow (I won't bore you with the image). As for the material, send me four and I'll see

.

Somehow I doubt the Silicon Acoustics guys are going to pipe in here and give away their secrets.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 3:45 pm

Depending on the weight, which I don't think would be much. I guess the price of shipping to the US would cost about £2 (US$3) to ship about 20 of these. This is a guess from the price it cost to send a letter at 47p (I think upto 60 grams in weight).

Hope this helps.

jamoore9 · Post by **jamoore9** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 7:17 am

BriceB wrote:
jamoore9 wrote: Also, do you have a model number for either the G-410 or G-411 products?
Good news! They have these instock in packages of 25 for $7.76. Item # is 9311K138 (G-410), on pg 3436 of their catalog...

Brice

Okay, I'm definitely not sure what to do with those. Insert into the drive side, then insert into drive cage hole?

I'd be interested in 8. I'm leaning toward suspension, but since these are so cheap, I'll give em a try. If worse comes to worse I'll throw them in my old Dell.

Oh! And I want to change my "order" for the fan mounts. I need 20, not 16, so whenever you have them available, please let me know how to order.

BriceB · Post by **BriceB** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 9:12 pm

jamoore9 wrote:
BriceB wrote: Okay, I'm definitely not sure what to do with those. Insert into the drive side, then insert into drive cage hole?

They fit between the drive cage and whatever the cage may be mounted onto (in the diameter of the screw hole).. pardon my french.

NOTE TO ALL FAN/HDD Grommet Purchasers:
McMaster Carr is currently out of stock on the F-344 fan grommets. They have plety of the G-410 HDD mounts in stock. If you're going to order from them I suggest calling them at (630)833-0300, or corresponding via e-mail on their availbility. If you have the time, I'd appreciate your help in helping me get rid of these things once I can find a suitable distributor

Brice