Clean It Up

UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: james cairns on September 02, 2006, 11:01:47 pm

Title: why are poles so dear
Post by: james cairns on September 02, 2006, 11:01:47 pm
guys I understand carbon fibre being expensive

but nearly £400 for 29ft glass fibre from facelift and touching a grand for the same in carbon fibre,

are suppliers just taking the p@@s

jinky
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: freshwater on September 02, 2006, 11:25:44 pm
Jinky,

Thats what they cost, with a bit of profit. If you have £10,000 to spae to buy a consignment of carbon fibre poles from Excel, then have a go and make a few quid.

steve
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: neil100 on September 02, 2006, 11:28:27 pm
Their is a shortage of carbon fibre so the price as increased. We pay more.

Nel
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: james cairns on September 03, 2006, 02:56:23 am
yes I can understand carbon but why fibre glass
from 150 = nearly 400 for a 30 footer is there that much difference

jinky
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: stuart@skypole on September 03, 2006, 08:49:13 am
jinky,

the widley used universal exel pole comes in four or five colours, you pay your 30,000 euros choose your colour and off you go,
so the exel poles are 99% identical as they are made in finland by exel.

glass fibre is a reasonably priced material as widly stocked.

carbon fibre / kevlar is expensive any way and due to the shortage largely due to the contract for airbus it means the cost of buying the material will be sky high,

hence you the customer pays more, there is no lets think of a figure and multiply it by (hhmmmmm ) 300% its down to manufactureing costs.

Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: groundhog on September 03, 2006, 10:51:10 am
A friend of mine uses an ordinary unger pole (30ft) it cost him less than £100, he runs a hose up the outside of the pole from his home made system, it works as well as my £450 pole and is much lighter! >:(
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: jeff1 on September 03, 2006, 10:56:13 am


carbon fibre / kevlar is expensive any way and due to the shortage largely due to the contract for airbus it means the cost of buying the material will be sky high,

How stong is the carbon fibre/kevlar poles??  if there made of kevlar at least they'll be bullet proof.  ;D
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 03, 2006, 11:28:56 am
Groundhog yes the alu poles are on comparison with lightened carbon fibre ergolite poles up to 35ftish. But the lightened c/f  is stiffer and has less joints. Still got my 60fter for sale. The new Unger 60fter is 22lb. I now only ever use my original Featherlight fishing poles which weigh about 2.5lbs, to reduce RSI probs.

Carbonfibre anything is going up in price quarterly so anything you buy should hold its price and be an investement. Many of the fishing pole suppliers buy in 1,000 lots. Say they charge £500  then  by the time they sell them in a years time the the prices will have risen by comparison and they will seem cheap, one time they didnt change the prices much but now they may wll do. Its very difficult for a supplier because by the time the delivery comes in the price may have changed.
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 03, 2006, 02:11:03 pm

£400 for 29ft glass fibre.........a grand for the same in carbon fibre,

jinky

my poles dont cost that much!!!!!!!!!  :o

32ft carbon pole (4 x 2.5mtr sections) is £499 complete. this includes brush head and goose neck.

Gary - WELMAC SYSTEMS
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: stuart@skypole on September 03, 2006, 02:14:26 pm
welmac have you tried the facelift carbon pole?

we have a few in for demonstration and yes they are dearer to purchase than our own poles but what a difference *

* we have also changed the head to a vikan sill brush even better results

rgds
stuart
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 03, 2006, 02:18:04 pm
welmac have you tried the facelift carbon pole?

we have a few in for demonstration and yes they are dearer to purchase than our own poles but what a difference *

* we have also changed the head to a vikan sill brush even better results

rgds
stuart

stuart

no i havent tried their poles, mainly because i build my own, also as others have said most poles are way too expensive.

im not knocking their product, im sure they are good, but nearly a grand for a 29ft carbon pole really does sound OTT.
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: stuart@skypole on September 03, 2006, 02:20:35 pm
welmac we import, supply poles as well but dont knock what you havent tried,

rgds
stu
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 03, 2006, 02:22:22 pm
welmac we import, supply poles as well but dont knock what you havent tried,

rgds
stu

as my previous post said "im NOT knocking their poles", they may well be good, but a grand does seem pricey!
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: jeff1 on September 03, 2006, 02:23:00 pm


mainly because i build my own,

Welmac do you build poles for your own personal use or do you sell them.

If its for your own personal use then can you give tips on building your own?
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: stuart@skypole on September 03, 2006, 02:26:50 pm
welmac,
no probs,

and yes they are in the expensive range of pole prices, but the finish on the tubes is quite amazing even when wet they give excellent grip.

still rather expensive to some i guess!

but they in my opinion are worth a look.

rgds,
stuart
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 03, 2006, 02:29:47 pm
Quote

Welmac do you build poles for your own personal use or do you sell them.

If its for your own personal use then can you give tips on building your own?

Quote

i build poles for my own use but also build and sell them for others.

i can supply just the carbon tubing on its own if ones are happy to sort out their own clamps/connectors and brush head etc. i do have a few customers who buy the tubing from me and then put the extras on themselves.

as an example, the cost of the tubing on its own for a 32ft carbon pole (4 x 2.5mtr sections) would be about £300ish.

Gary - WELMAC SYSTEMS
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Clear Vision on September 03, 2006, 05:35:38 pm
Their is a shortage of carbon fibre so the price as increased. We pay more.

Nel

Neil,

 :o A shortage of carbon fibre! :o

Not where I am!

A friend of mine has his own farm a he lets out a huge shed for a local company who make carbon fibre. And It's packed to the roof! He told me that each box Is worth £1000 and are packed In sheets. The boxes measure roughly 1m qube.

He reckons that there's about 800 1200 boxes In there at the mo.

So If anyone wants to make there own pole I'm sure we could come to some arrangement ;D
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Clear Vision on September 03, 2006, 07:12:59 pm
Take a look at this.

Can this be used for poles???

Very cheap

http://www.carbonology.com/shop_det.asp?pd_id=15919&sec_id=2116
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 03, 2006, 07:54:34 pm
The thicker sections of the fishing poles are made from 2mm walls, the prob is that they are parallel tubes so you would need a locking mechanism and thats were trouble starts cause the lever locks can crush the tube if they need to be telescopic. Dunno maybe use a piece of broom handle to join them ? Theres a project for you  :)
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Clear Vision on September 03, 2006, 08:01:25 pm
Not a bad price jeff?

Any Ideas how I could get clamps or something to hold them together?

I know you will think of summit ;)
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 03, 2006, 08:17:51 pm
Ask Gary I think hes been doing them for a couple of years.
I wasnt joking about push fit internal doweling broom handle or something equally simple, possibly with an exterior sliding collar to reinforce as well.
Maybe this is off topic and should be on Matts site  ???
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Clear Vision on September 03, 2006, 08:22:08 pm
Maybe this is off topic and should be on Matts site  ???

Does'nt matter now as the subject has been answered several times now ;)

Who Is garry? Can I contact him. Oh Is It gazh20?
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 03, 2006, 09:43:38 pm
Welmac
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 04, 2006, 07:47:11 pm
Welmac

if you got any questions guys then feel free to ask and i will try to help where possible.

i know how frustrating and hard it can be to try and get sorted with poles etc as i was in the exact same boat about 5yrs ago. thats why in the end i have started making/selling my own poles/systems.

Gary - WELMAC SYSTEMS
07753 748650  gary@welmac.co.uk
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 04, 2006, 09:53:52 pm
Bit of a long shot on my side there Gary, but I do remember that you posted that you had found tube suppliers years ago but nobody was that interested and the post went into history. Good for you for pursuing it and having the bottle to come up with the goods in the end.
What wall thickness do you find the least you can get away with for telescopic poles using say a 8- 12oz brush.
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: welmac on September 05, 2006, 10:04:11 am
Bit of a long shot on my side there Gary, but I do remember that you posted that you had found tube suppliers years ago but nobody was that interested and the post went into history. Good for you for pursuing it and having the bottle to come up with the goods in the end.
What wall thickness do you find the least you can get away with for telescopic poles using say a 8- 12oz brush.

the wall thickness of the tubing is 1.5mm. the tubing is constucted with the carbon running at different angles which means you have a pole that is strong but also lightweight as you do not need as thick a wall as some to keep the strength.

on our 56ft poles we sell, the outer diameter of the biggest section is only 44.5mm ( 7 sections @ 2.5 mtrs). the first big pole i used (not one of mine) felt like you were holding a lamp post!!!!! ;D

hope this helps!

Gary - WELMAC SYSTEMS
Title: Re: why are poles so dear
Post by: Jeff Brimble on September 05, 2006, 12:44:56 pm
yep the manuf. firm also sells lamp posts.  :)