I bet all these name brewing equipment companies like B3 farm out and not make in house. My guess John Blickmann's conicals, boil kettles and other products are also farmed out.
The size of the machines used, tonnage applied, weight and cost of them to deep draw these pots I bet is way beyond a company like Blichmann to afford to draw and spin his own pots and conicals. JMO's here after working around wiring GM body panel stamping machines costing millions of dollars each. How many pots must one sell to just pay off the inital machines cost? Maybe this is the reason why Blichmann is asking top dollar to pay off his stamping machines if he does manufacture in house? If he has them in house I would be surprised and find it hard to believe. There must be is a rather big profit being made off each pot or conical with home brewers on the ready to hand over their money fast as they can no matter what the asking price, supply and demand. Beer Beer & More Beer claim they weld together their own pots and brewing equipment, was in their store in the back "welding area", saw nothing as it's all farmed out. When they say "we weld every fitting", this means who ever they contracted out to welds the fittings. This "we" makes them sound bigger than they are and this fools the public in thinking they are really that big.
Example, William's Brew Company looks big on their online site. They operate out of a leased corner section of a warehouse, rather small and 80% empty. Phoned in orders they then order the item from their supplier then ship to you. You can operate out of a public storage area for what I saw in their building as I walked into the warehouse and got a first hand look.
I wouldn't be asking for the B3 conical, but my own that coincidentally is a copy. Hmmm.
