Thinking of making my own gaskets. Is there a market?

Recently got an idea since I have a cnc to make my own thin gaskets. Like 1/32 thick from a fel pro roll.

You think there is a market out there for small sized gaskets (like throttle body, egr, etc) for say $5/shipped each?
And how thick are gaskets normally?

I can easily make them out of 1/64 but I think it's too thin and would like to keep them 1/32 if not thicker, but it costs some money up front to be able to do them nicely.

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[Gone_2022]

Unless you already knew how to make them and already had a shop partnered with for income I do not foresee this to be a good way to make money.

Last thing you want to happen is your gaskets leaking due to improper thickness or being off a millimeter and it come back on you.

But for your own personal projects it is perfect.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Unless you already knew how to make them and already had a shop partnered with for income I do not foresee this to be a good way to make money.

Last thing you want to happen is your gaskets leaking due to improper thickness or being off a milometer and it come back on you.

But for your own personal projects it is perfect.

Milometer?

 

[Gone_2022]

Milometer?

Sorry typing fast on phone during work. Its a new form of measurement get on my level lol

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

That's a thick gasket!




Gaskets are cheap, I don't see how you'd make any money unless said product is of better quality somehow

 

[Primalzer]

Agreed...neat idea, but how would you get patterns? Would you do custom? Seems like after time and materials, it wouldn't be very profitable...only reason fel pro and other large companies can do relatively cheap, is because of mass production...doubt you'd be able to match that, if you are doing one at a time, using materials you bought from them (probably at some markup itself)

 

[Gamble]

Unless you already knew how to make them and already had a shop partnered with for income I do not foresee this to be a good way to make money.

Last thing you want to happen is your gaskets leaking due to improper thickness or being off a millimeter and it come back on you.

But for your own personal projects it is perfect.

They are being made from gasket material and just being cut on the CNC.
Rated for oil and gas as well. All my stuff is designed in CAD and would be test fit either way. I sell a lot of EGR plates so was thinking of pairing them up with those too

 

[Gamble]

Agreed...neat idea, but how would you get patterns? Would you do custom? Seems like after time and materials, it wouldn't be very profitable...only reason fel pro and other large companies can do relatively cheap, is because of mass production...doubt you'd be able to match that, if you are doing one at a time, using materials you bought from them (probably at some markup itself)

The roll from the parts store is about $6 and 9" wide by about 3 feet long. Plenty of room for smaller scaled gaskets
Patterns and measurements and design are the easy part

 

[Bub]

would be a fun side gig to fuck around and grab some beer money.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

make some and test the market.

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

I think automotive stuff, it's so high volume and already so low priced that it'd be hard to make a buck doing.

I'd be looking at getting into doing custom gaskets for industrial stuff. There's a lot of old equipment out there still running that no one makes parts for. I cut a gasket for something by hand probably once a week.

 

[Gamble]

make some and test the market.

Thinking about it, but it will cost me an additional $250 to dive into it.
Currently trying to figure out a way to emboss some of them too which I think can be done but won't stick out as much as the factory ones (at least I don't think they will)

I think automotive stuff, it's so high volume and already so low priced that it'd be hard to make a buck doing.

I'd be looking at getting into doing custom gaskets for industrial stuff. There's a lot of old equipment out there still running that no one makes parts for. I cut a gasket for something by hand probably once a week.

Small things like that are easy. Scan the piece on the pc and save it as a pdf. From there it's easy to trace and export to cad.

 

[greasy]

The only way you can make money IMO is finding some type of specialty performance niche. Otherwise you will just be spinning your wheels.