[eggman6]

Anyone know of a good place to get funnels spun (i only need the one), i've emailed a couple of companies, and will continue to do so.

I get the impression many just dont want to know unless you are going to be sending thousands of £ their way, and wont even bother responding.

Any advice is apreciated.

[Donkey Hotey]

In order to spin a funnel, they have to make a mandrel to shape it over. How much are you willing to spend on just one funnel? It's not that they don't want the work; it's that they know you won't pay the price necessary to make the tooling so they don't bother responding.

[eggman6]

How do they know how much cash i have?

Also as i understand it some companies can make tooling from a number of materials including wood for small runs.

Turns out the only funnel close to my required specification that is available to purchase is $177/£119 which i think is a bit over the top for a mass produced item.

[Donkey Hotey]

How do they know how much cash i have?

I wouldn't make the mandrel for $177. That's why they won't answer you. They know you won't pay what it will really cost.

What kind of ballpark figure do you think such a job is worth? I'll do the job for you but I'd be doing you a huge favor if I charged $500.

[Geof]

$177 seems a lot for a funnel. What are your dimensions/requirements.

[eggman6]

I wouldn't make the mandrel for $177. That's why they won't answer you. They know you won't pay what it will really cost.

What kind of ballpark figure do you think such a job is worth? I'll do the job for you but I'd be doing you a huge favor if I charged $500.

I never told them how much i was willing to pay, so that doesn't explain why i haven't recieved a reply, they dont know i wont pay the cost.

Also i experienced many non replys was when enquiring about a small enclosure a while back, that required no custom tooling.

My under estimation for the cost is down to the fact i was unaware of the tooling required and was under the impression the only part needed was the shape that the metal is spun over, and being that wood can be used i thought that it wouldn't be too expensive. I wouldn't have considered spinning as an option if i knew large metal parts had to be machined for my job.

To Geof,

The funnel starts off as a cylinder with a diameter of 120mm, which is about 65mm tall, then tapers down to 35mm over a length of 80mm a total hieght of 145mm.

So something like this

[Geof]

I wondered about the size because sometimes it is cheaper to be unconventional and do something like machining from solid but obviously that is impractical for the size you need.

$177 stills seems a lot if it is mass produced but getting a one-off would definitely be more. The hardwood alone for the mandrel would be a good portion of that sum.

Have you considered seeing if a sheetmetal place could fabricate one?

[eggman6]

I will look into this.

[Nastyzen]

I would make one out of thin cardboard.Then lay it out on sheetmetal roll it n tig weld the transition between cone and cylinder.About 4 hours work @ $60.00 per hour.
Good luck!

[eggman6]

4 hours? is that including your lunch break?

I know i can get the welding done for no more than £30 (including the postage back to me)

I may be able to get it cheaper but i can get the metal for around £20

So thats $75 (very bad exchange rate at the moment)

I cant imagine rolling the sheet metal taking all that long, hardly an extra $165/£110 worth of work.

I could probably save more money if i can get an offcut of seamless tube for the cylindrical part.

At $240 i could buy a sheet roller and just pay to get it welded and have a bit of cash to spare, then sell the roller on.

[HuFlungDung]

By all means, have it and do as much as you can yourself. That is how lots of businesses get going, one guy figures he can do it more cheaply himself, or can do a better job himself.

BTW, why would a customer expect to not pay for a lunch break, a coffee break and a 30% bonus for taxes off the top, as well as a percentage of the overhead costs such as knowing how to do what you want done, and for having accumulated a bunch of equipment and/or premises on which said equipment is situated and set up to do the work conveniently?

[Donkey Hotey]

I cant imagine rolling the sheet metal taking all that long, hardly an extra $165/£110 worth of work.

Whoa! Hang on, you said spinning, not rolling. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

You asked for a spun part. That implies a seamless part, made over a mandrel, usually from flat material but sometimes stretched from tube. This is the process you asked for:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_gq1ahrmk"]YouTube - Metal spinning a light fixture[/ame]

If you now just want it fabricated any old way, yeah, you could just cut the pieces from sheet and weld them up. There is a huge difference in the quality, cost and appearance of the two methods. The welded piece probably won't be nearly as nice and it won't be seamless, but then maybe that doesn't matter. You haven't shared what you need this for, whether cosmetics matter or if it's going to have to carry pressure.

[eggman6]

Donkey Hotey

If you were following the thread closely you'd notice spinning is allready out the window, and i said i would look into a sheet metal work, and Nastyzen was on about using a sheetmetal roll, unless i got him wrong and he was on about something to do with spinning.

Also i'll just say a thanks for the knowledge thats been kicked my way.

[facegarden]

4 hours? is that including your lunch break?

I know i can get the welding done for no more than £30 (including the postage back to me)

I may be able to get it cheaper but i can get the metal for around £20

So thats $75 (very bad exchange rate at the moment)

I cant imagine rolling the sheet metal taking all that long, hardly an extra $165/£110 worth of work.

I could probably save more money if i can get an offcut of seamless tube for the cylindrical part.

At $240 i could buy a sheet roller and just pay to get it welded and have a bit of cash to spare, then sell the roller on.

You seriously underestimate the amount of time it takes to make a custom part. I don't deal with sheet metal or welding, I run a CNC mill and lathe shop, but from conception of design to finished part takes at least a few hours on even a simple part. Four hours is totally reasonable for getting the material (at a minimum just ordering the material would take if minutes, which is $15 of shop time at that rate). The guy said he would make a cardboard pattern, which would probably take an hour of messing with it just to get it right. Then you need to transfer the pattern and cut it out, which would probably take a few minutes to transfer, a few minutes to setup, and up to maybe 15 minutes or more to cut it out and deburr it, so that's another half hour. Then you need to bend it cleanly and tack weld it, then do the real weld, this may take another half hour. Then you need to deburr it and check it dimensionally, and if anything does not go right the first time you may need to repeat any or all of those steps.

That's a minimum of 3 hours of work, but I'd quote 4 just in case i mess up or it is more complex than you initially described, especially without having seen a drawing yet. People always quote high when they are ballparking something, you never want to get a drawing and then have to tell a customer it will be more than you first said to them.

And a shop with work is definitely not going to try to rush and do it in two hours, because if they take any longer they are working for free while other paying jobs sit unattended.

Not trying to be disrespectful but don't think everyone is trying to overcharge you, there is actually a lot of work for custom parts, no matter what process is used.

Hell, people think the CNC mills i program and the software I use to do it do everything automatically, but that's not true, there is still a not insignificant amount of work even for something basic.
-Taylor

[Nastyzen]

Hmm.I must of been ripped off when I paid $450.00Cdn dollars for my 36'' 16 gauge hand slip roller!

[eggman6]

I probably didn't make it clear i would have the design/detailed diagrams drawn up, and would supply the metal myself if it worked out cheaper.

I wouldn't need a heavy duty roller since i'm going to be working with quite a light gauge metal, and fairly small peices.

Anyway just a bit of an update, found a funnel that although is a bit larger can be cut down to my specifications, and only £4/$6.

Just need to sort out the cylindrical bit which shouldn't be too dificult.