Re: What Price to Expect, what place to ask?

Ed Huntress wrote:
"Tim Wescott" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:nqudnVdW2uOdXCTVnZ2dnUVZ_gGdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If I wanted to buy a bunch of 4.5" long shafts, 3/16 or 1/4 inch diameter, mill finish, with one end turned down to 4mm with a 1mm flat (to make a "D" 4mm diameter and 3mm from flat to round), about 5mm or so long, with the shoulder profile being quite unimportant.

Prototype runs of 10 or so, production orders of one or two hundred.

My understanding is that this is a job for an NC lathe, and that most if not all of them would have an attachment for milling the flat, so the operation would be feed, turn down, cut the flat, cut off, repeat.

What I'm not so sure of is where to find someone interested in those sorts of volumes, and if I can get this below the $13 that the one online machine shop I tried wants. I'm also not sure of where I can compromise on specs to get the price down (the "D" probably has to be +0 - 0.005", the shaft can probably vary +/- 0.005", since it'll be running in plastic bearings).

Any guidance appreciated.

Do you know Dave Corgill? ("Why") I'd give him a call. He runs old Brownies that might, or might not, have the capacity to handle those shafts. The flats are something he'd probably do on his mill.

We did lots of simple jobs like that in an old manual-machine shop I worked in, and they were mostly done in two setups. One setup with a CNC mill/lathe may not be the most economical way to do it.

Dave's phone is 214-741-9062. He rarely answers; leave a message. His wife passed away a few weeks ago, and I don't know if he's in gear yet or not. But he's your man for shafts with second operations.

--
Ed Huntress


I guess it depends on how fast you can pump them through the machine vs. how much time it takes to do the second operation on a second machine.

I could see this going pretty fast on a manual machine -- in fact I may end up doing some of the work on a CAC* machining center. But I don't really have a good enough mill to do this reasonably fast, and my lathe is barely up to it.

* Cranky Adolescent Control

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html
.

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