[meathelmet]

Here is a .dxf drawn to scale of what I need cut. There are multiple parts on 1 profile They need to be cut out of 1/8 material. I would like this quoted for mild steel and stainless. because i am not sure which way I want to go yet. This would be a prototype part (I only need 1 of each). I need all of the pieces to be +- .002 from what is drawn.

[Jim G]

Have you received any quotes on this yet?

Jim

[universalfab]

Yeah I quoted him, no reply. Must have figured it's not worth it. This job is going to cost any some money just in endmills, if it is machined.

[meathelmet]

I have recieved 4 or 5 replies on this project. I have not responded to the ones that were outrageous.

[universalfab]

Outrageous, huh, obviously you don't know how much money endmills cost and how long it takes to cut stainless steel or steel. Let alone the finishing deburr work which is a pain. Maybe you only got 4 or 5 replies is because every one knew you were going to be a cheap skate. If you don't know anything about what your asking about maybe you should'nt say words like outrageous, because the price I gave you is quite low in comparrison to what any proto-type website or local shop is going to charge. Another thing know it all, is you get what you pay for. I'd cut your parts out for a better price, but I can tell you right now what you'll be getting in the mail is a part with burrs. Deburr takes time and is a pain, which = more cost, you let me know if you'd settle for a part straight out of the mill and I'll get a quote back at you. Untill then I hope you learn something about this line of work, IT AINT CHEAP! Just like someone else said you call up a fat @$$ plumber to do a half @$$ job and don't bat a eye at paying him his $800.00 fee, your not going to tell him no, because he'll tell you to screw yourself or I'll see you in court. So don't tell me my price is out of bounds you don't know what your talking about.

[ckoehly]

Have you looked into having these waterjet? The numerous inside corners do not lend themselves to milling. The +/- .002 may not be possible with waterjet, if the tight tolerance is required a laser my work but will cost more.

Good Luck

[Advantage]

Outrageous, huh, obviously you don't know how much money endmills cost and how long it takes to cut stainless steel or steel. Let alone the finishing deburr work which is a pain. Maybe you only got 4 or 5 replies is because every one knew you were going to be a cheap skate. If you don't know anything about what your asking about maybe you should'nt say words like outrageous, because the price I gave you is quite low in comparrison to what any proto-type website or local shop is going to charge. Another thing know it all, is you get what you pay for. I'd cut your parts out for a better price, but I can tell you right now what you'll be getting in the mail is a part with burrs. Deburr takes time and is a pain, which = more cost, you let me know if you'd settle for a part straight out of the mill and I'll get a quote back at you. Untill then I hope you learn something about this line of work, IT AINT CHEAP! Just like someone else said you call up a fat @$$ plumber to do a half @$$ job and don't bat a eye at paying him his $800.00 fee, your not going to tell him no, because he'll tell you to screw yourself or I'll see you in court. So don't tell me my price is out of bounds you don't know what your talking about.

There you go again showing how unprofessional you are. Almost every post you make it is about how cheap the buyer is or how ignorant they are.

Maybe if you changed your attitude about the buyers you could get some more work from here and more people would post RFQ when there thread doesn't become a whining session.

Just a suggestion.

[Dualkit]

Another job, I stay away from. A buyer who has no idea how much it costs to manufacture an item in low volume and uses the term "outrageous" to describe pricing. They usually get their pricing ideas from seeing something similar that has been produced in volume, then are shocked at the cost to produce a one off. The Donald Trumps of the world do not come here to get their inventions made, it is usually a small budget guy who has taken his design to a local shop and figures they are ripping him off. He hits the internet thinking he can get someone to meet his target price which is 10% of what someone with the skills to make his parts correctly would charge. Anyone quoting guys like this a wasting their time. Unless one offs are simple parts you can make in a couple hours or less, the buyer won't like your price, and the hard feelings begin.
I doubt any of the one-off projects on this site it the $500 price range for good work are ever made. Anyone just bashing Universalfab is trying to suck up to a customer they would not want in the first place. The customer is not always right if they expect you to work all day for $100. I see numerous one-offs that require 8 hours work or more and the guy wants to spend $100, when will people stop wasting their time with people like this?

[universalfab]

Totally agree with Dual Kit "Again" and I wasn't holding my breath that I'd get this one. Took me about 5 minutes to throw together a quote so I did. No biggie not a drop of sweat off my back. Either these people don't know anything about machining and the price tags that follow and are just trying this website as a last resort, or there is some serious morons quoting really low on here that keeps them comming back.

[Dualkit]

I always have this evil idea to set up another name and pose as a prospective buyer to see how bad some of the machinists on here are. I am looking at a good print for the test, smallish part but I think I am going to bid them out for $10.00 each for the 100 pieces. Pretty tight tolerances and 316. Pretty much definite screw machine parts, could be made on a fixed headstock lathe, but it would murder your cycle time. Tight thread call out. I wonder how many would bid 316 like it was 303, .002 t.i.r like it was .010, and check the thread with a nut they bought at Home Depot. I wonder how many $2 each bids I would get, I am so curious, but I am not evil enough to waste anybody's time. Wouldn't be a waste if I could buy good ones for $2 a piece and sell them for $10, but what is the chance of that happening?

[chunkymonkey]

What a can of worms. There seems to be some misconseptions on both sides of this war. The buyer probably is inexperienced in purchasing the onesy twosy stuff and hasn't a clue on what all is involved in a "prototype" run. And the person thats all pissed off about his wording is not understanding that people won't ask others for quotes if that is the response they feel they will get. Instead of chewing A@#, educate. Break down the total for him/her so that the person can see that material, tooling, and machine time are expensive. And to top it off, the pud-money you pay yourself to do it is less than minimum wage sometimes. Education is the route when people are blown away by prototype prices. They don't know that carbide endmills are very expensive. and the electricity to run a cnc machine gets costly on the hour, etc. both sides need to hug and quit taking it personally. educate each other and all will be better prepared for the next time. p.s. prototype is usually triple cost. been doin it for a while now in the ortho side.

[meathelmet]

I must have been misunderstood when I used the word outrageous. I know the price of endmills and machining are very expensive. I work in a machine shop and I see alot of the bills. That is why I didn't machine this part myself. I was hoping there was a person out there with a better suited machine for this part. I do not know much about machines other than mills and lathes. What I was trying to figure out was if this part would be cheaper doing it with a different machine such as a waterjet or wire edm or laser cutter. I did not respond to quotes with higher prices than what I can do it for myself because I didn't want to waste any more of their time.
I have had quotes that were well under half of what guy's running mills quoted. that is what I was trying to say in my last post. sorry for the confusion.

[universalfab]

Lazer for just that ammount of parts is going to be expensive also, probably just as expensive. And finding a lazer that is well tuned enough to cut those radius's, hah. Just to calibrate a lazers beam is over $1,000 + of course knowing how to do it. EDM also is going to be very expensive, EDM's use alot of electricity that is something I don't own but do know are expensive to own and operate. You sure seemed interested when I told you the minimum sized endmill I could use and the minimum radi you'd except, but when it came down to the price you blew a gasket. The only way you would save going any other rout then machining is if you had a large quantity of them and that is the only way. This website is funny...

[universalfab]

Lazer for just that ammount of parts is going to be expensive also, probably just as expensive. And finding a lazer that is well tuned enough to cut those radius's, hah. Just to calibrate a lazers beam is over $1,000 + of course knowing how to do it. EDM also is going to be very expensive, EDM's use alot of electricity that is something I don't own but do know are expensive to own and operate. You sure seemed interested when I told you the minimum sized endmill I could use and the minimum radi you'd except, but when it came down to the price you blew a gasket. The only way you would save going any other rout then machining is if you had a large quantity of them and that is the only way. When you get a quantity of 50 of these things you need made, you let me know and I'll lazer these things. Untill then I don't see you getting your project done, at least correctly that is.