Hello,
Long story short, I'd like to make a few revisions of things without breaking the bank. I ordered a CNC cut rear panel from DIY Audio store for my 3u slimline chassis. It turned out great and I think they did an excellent job- very much worth the money... if you only have to do it once. While what I have will work, moving some holes a few mm would make it that much better. I'd like another stab or two on the CNC mill!
However, paying $78+ shipping every time for a 120x435x3mm piece of aluminum hurts....
I have went through many online CNC quotes and I don't know if they only serve NASA because their prices are all ridiculous. I'm talking double the price previously mentioned for an unfinished piece of 6061 aluminum, plus shipping! Is there no service out there for small time hobbyists like you and I? Will DIY Audio offer me a 'noob' discount for trying again? I'm not sure, but I may email them.
Thanks friends
Long story short, I'd like to make a few revisions of things without breaking the bank. I ordered a CNC cut rear panel from DIY Audio store for my 3u slimline chassis. It turned out great and I think they did an excellent job- very much worth the money... if you only have to do it once. While what I have will work, moving some holes a few mm would make it that much better. I'd like another stab or two on the CNC mill!
However, paying $78+ shipping every time for a 120x435x3mm piece of aluminum hurts....
I have went through many online CNC quotes and I don't know if they only serve NASA because their prices are all ridiculous. I'm talking double the price previously mentioned for an unfinished piece of 6061 aluminum, plus shipping! Is there no service out there for small time hobbyists like you and I? Will DIY Audio offer me a 'noob' discount for trying again? I'm not sure, but I may email them.
Thanks friends
Thank you, I appreciate it- I did try them but even for the cheapest aluminum or mild steel would be $96 + $19 shipping. I am beginning to think my part is just too complex. I didn't think it was but I don't know any other reason. Maybe I have erroneous hidden cuts in my drawing?? I don't know!
Around 1/3 of the price is for the material. Then there's setup for just one piece, and the cutting time.
Their US shipping is free. Of course, overseas shipping is not cheap. Seems reasonable to me.
Their US shipping is free. Of course, overseas shipping is not cheap. Seems reasonable to me.
Shipping is free to US? That makes it better but still worse than getting it from diyaudio. With diyaudio I'm getting a brushed finish and cheaper to top it off.
Looks like economies of scale is the biggest factor here. I'll have to try to find a small time shop because none of these big wigs' time costs a lot more than I have to give.
Rayma,
Even in modest quantities (120” x 48” sheet) I would expect 6061 aluminum to be under $5 per pound from high priced sources.
What seems to set the price is laser time. I would of course use a punch to make aluminum parts. I expect small shop punching prices to be a dollar per hole.
As shown in the drawing, programing to punch that piece would be about 15 lines of code! Punch sizes are pretty much already loaded as it seems they should be pretty standard. The exception is the rectangular cutout. That would be nibbled and depending on the punch size could actually take most of the machining time! (practical rather than rated time is about 15 punches a minute. To nibble the rectangle would be for my setup about 30-50 hits!). I would expect my price to punch a panel like that at $120.00. (Don’t like to do outside work!!!)
Recently quoted on a new made in China turret punch at $225,000.00. Of course that doesn’t include tooling! Figure on a ten year life and running full tilt 6 hours (loading and unloading time slows things down) per shift gives a machining cost of 11 cents a hole without labor, overhead, supplies or profit!
Even in modest quantities (120” x 48” sheet) I would expect 6061 aluminum to be under $5 per pound from high priced sources.
What seems to set the price is laser time. I would of course use a punch to make aluminum parts. I expect small shop punching prices to be a dollar per hole.
As shown in the drawing, programing to punch that piece would be about 15 lines of code! Punch sizes are pretty much already loaded as it seems they should be pretty standard. The exception is the rectangular cutout. That would be nibbled and depending on the punch size could actually take most of the machining time! (practical rather than rated time is about 15 punches a minute. To nibble the rectangle would be for my setup about 30-50 hits!). I would expect my price to punch a panel like that at $120.00. (Don’t like to do outside work!!!)
Recently quoted on a new made in China turret punch at $225,000.00. Of course that doesn’t include tooling! Figure on a ten year life and running full tilt 6 hours (loading and unloading time slows things down) per shift gives a machining cost of 11 cents a hole without labor, overhead, supplies or profit!
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At McMaster Carr, a piece of 6061 of roughly that size and thickness is listed at about $30.
I doubt that sendcutsend charges any more than that for the material, as they buy in large quantities.
I doubt that sendcutsend charges any more than that for the material, as they buy in large quantities.
Which is why that is not where you should buy aluminum! My last order from a local distributor was for 80 pieces 20” x 48” costing under $1,000.00. I would expect folks offering finished pieces to be buying more than one finished size piece at a time.
Older lasers need a lot of gas, so they are often sold cheap due to high operating cost.
Try and find one.
Read up about it.
Try and find one.
Read up about it.
Thanks for the replies gang! You know something I hadn't thought of is I could have my 'test pieces' made of cheap acrylic, then turn around and make my final piece aluminum. In any case, I also found out they can make cuts out of "Aluminum Composite Material" or "ACM". They even offer it in brushed. It's half the price. Is there any reason to not use that, if it's rigid?
I also did some experimentation by removing cuts and pricing it. At the end of the day, there are two main things at work here, as you guys have said:
1) Economies of scale- if I order 2, I get 20% off. If I order 10, I get 40% off! Jeez, not so good for the little guy!
2) The number of cuts. This made by far the largest difference in price. Not shape, not size, but pure number is what skyrockets the price. Perhaps I am a bit ambitious with having both balance and unbalanced inputs/outputs!
Now to find one of those old lasers @NareshBrd mentioned... 🙂
I also did some experimentation by removing cuts and pricing it. At the end of the day, there are two main things at work here, as you guys have said:
1) Economies of scale- if I order 2, I get 20% off. If I order 10, I get 40% off! Jeez, not so good for the little guy!
2) The number of cuts. This made by far the largest difference in price. Not shape, not size, but pure number is what skyrockets the price. Perhaps I am a bit ambitious with having both balance and unbalanced inputs/outputs!
Now to find one of those old lasers @NareshBrd mentioned... 🙂
Have you tried https://www.frontpanelexpress.com ? I've had several things done there, and the quality is fantastic.
Bill
Bill
Hi DF,
Just wondering how you went here?
ACM is like butter to cut on a CNC router. It is fairly rigid but depends on how many holes you put in it 🙂
Acrylic trial pieces definitely make sense - acrylic is cheap, and a lot of DIY/craft type people will have smaller K40 type 40 watt CO2 lasers which will eat 3mm acrylic at about 20 inches/500mm per minute. Your job is too wide to fit into a K40 (cutting area about 8” x 12”) but it would be super easy to split in halves for the purposes of trialling.
I’d say the pricing of around $100 plus shipping for aluminium is around the mark (or even cheap) for a smaller/home CNC operator with few overheads.
Sing out if you have any questions - I have a K40 CO2 laser and CNC router at home, happy to advise etc.
Cheers,
SS
Aluminum Composite Panels are used for building exteriors, basically a Bakelite type sheet with Aluminum bonded to it.
A possible candidate for front panels?
An acrylic or ABS sheet can be painted quite easily, unlike other plastics, think about that as well.
A possible candidate for front panels?
An acrylic or ABS sheet can be painted quite easily, unlike other plastics, think about that as well.
Normally bends are up. Probably doesn't matter for this. However your small flanges are shown overlapping after bending.
Oops, sorry I deleted the above since I found what I thought was a better thread here. And yes, they will overlap as shown. I need to take into account also material shrinkage for the bends as well as reliefs at the corners.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/send-cut-send-laser-cutting.357217/page-3#post-7109664
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/send-cut-send-laser-cutting.357217/page-3#post-7109664