I'm thinking of making a strut brace for my cappuccino. They sometimes come up on the Japanese Yahoo bid thing but you have to a) read Japanese 2) find a seller who is willing to ship 3) pay the postage. Anyway there is a small demand for them so if I make one, I might make 2 or 3 for other club forum users.

So what's the going rate for laser cut bits. For each brace I would need 2 rings with 3 mounting holes in them, say 110mm OD and 70 ID plus 4 plates with a hole in perhaps 90mm tall and 50mm wide at the base.

I'm not sure what material is best. 3, 4 or 5mm mild steel plate, or for "Ooo" shininess perhaps stainless. What might it cost for a few of these to be made (from paper drawings)?

There was a guy on here offering ater jut cutting wasn't there - might be another option.

I used to work for a company that got a few laser cut metal pieces cut by this company

http://www.ileicestershire.com/local/laser-cutting-services/

Give them a ring, I bet its much cheaper if you can draw up the parts yourself in CAD and send them the drawings.

water jet is just as good.

theres a thread similar to this on the main page.
andyw7de is good for waterjet (happy customer myself )
flak monkey dave does laser cutting. not had anything done myself though

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=121921

Thanks for the links. Anyone have any idea how much money are we talking about? £20? £200? £2000? I don't want to waste their time asking for a quote if the minimum order cost is prohibitive.

You wont be looking at much to get them cut.

No minimum order charge or silly delivery costs either.

If you can do a drawing of what you need I can get you a price.

Delivery is currently running at about 3 to 4 weeks though.

Cheers,
David

to answer the question, it's more in the £20 order of magnitude. Its a time based calculation so the thicker the plate or the more cuts = more time.

Places do vary a huge amount though. Some quotes I've had in the past have been 5 times the best quote. Waterjet is generally more expensive than laser as it is slower for the thinner stuff.

Rob