Question: What was your final cost for the
revolve? Looks great!
Thanks for the interest Scott. I just went back to look at some of the numbers-
All in, I was right about $2750 for this project,
BUT- I already had some parts from a much smaller prior
turntable project years ago. The casters are the big thing, and I wanted good quality, quiet casters, which aren't cheap. I already had about 50 of them, but, as this saga unfolded, I needed many more (nearly another 70). I also had all the rope leftover from a rigging project a few years ago. It also should be noted that there is a considerable amount of time and labor, but I sorta see both of those as "free."
So, if I was starting this exact project with nothing, I'd estimate the costs closer to $4000(+).
There are ways to make it cheaper, but I think it would be at the cost of quality of the end product, and in the end, I was also marketing this as a longer term investment since it'd all be stored for future use. You could use cheaper 4in casters, and I actually even experimented with some knock-off "blue" casters in the beginning. I actually couldn't believe how noisy they were and poorly they rolled. There was just no comparison to the Blickle casters, other than they looked similar. Also, that much AC ply isn't cheap, but again, you want a really nice smooth rolling surface, so I needed AC for at least one layer.
The quotes I was getting to rent similar revolves weren't terrible by the week... but my people wanted the
unit for 5+ weeks and with delivery
etc, those costs became extremely high, not to mention I lose all the long-term investment into a short-term rental.
Looking back on it all, it was a great project and a good experience. Plenty of stress and hiccups along the way, but in the end, it was very successful.