[webgeek]

Hi all; I've started selling some parts I make on my new Novakon mill and to speed up production, I'd like to stop cutting all of them on the mill and get some cut on a water jet as they are simple 2d through cuts on .09" 3003 aluminum. Then I can use the mill to do some of the finishing work (small pockets in a few places and some holes smaller than a water jet will do) as a second operation on the mill.

I can provide a DXF file designed as a 2' x 4' sheet (or smaller so it can ground ship cheaply) with a couple of part designs densely nested with holding tabs and proper spacing already set up. The idea is to cram as many parts onto the sheet as I can get away with. I'll likely need 3 or 4 of these sheets done for this initial run. No idea how many in the future - depends on the success of this first run though I'm feeling pretty good about it.

1) How much does it cost? There must be some way to estimate this so I know if it's even an option. Right now, I don't have any guess at all other than somewhere I read $3/sq inch which seems incredibly expensive at ~$3500 for each sheet.

2) Are there any companies you experts would recommend for something like this? I found tons of companies that can do water jet cutting, but I'd like to pick one someone here knows about. I don't need top quality as the parts are not that precise, but I'd like to get a good price with an accurate ship date estimate.

Thanks much!

-Mike

[ryanschmidt224]

Southwest Waterjet Corporation - Water Jet Cutting - Acrylics, Aluminum, Metals, Stone, Tile, Almost Anything! This is who i use. They do good work for cheap and are good with their dates. I don't know anything about their shipping i just do local pickup.
Hope it helps,
Ryan

[webgeek]

Thanks Ryan; I'll be giving them a call when they open this morning!

-Mike