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Cost of CNC drilling from CAD file?
gregs - 18/10/09 at 07:05 AM

Hi all,

Am looking at a future project which will involve an engine to trans adapter plate. Question is, if I supply a 2D CAD drawing of a design and supply the material, how much should I roughly expect to pay a CNC machine shop?
Total working would be ~15 drilled holes, and 1 milled (large) hole. Work piece roughly 450x450mm.
Thoughts appreciated.


indykid - 18/10/09 at 07:56 AM

how thick does it need to be? would you be better looking at waterjet or laser? andyw7de cut me some 10mm stainless flanges on the waterjet and i've had 20mm plate cut at work. there'll be some taper in the edges with waterjet but it shouldn't be much of an issue.

tom


turbodisplay - 18/10/09 at 08:10 AM

At 10mm thick, laser cutting an adapter plate size would be less than £60 I recon.
Laser cutting is quite reasonable.
Darren


iank - 18/10/09 at 08:18 AM

I agree laser or water would be the way to go as it's simpler to set up for a flat plate job.

But for any technique most of the cash in a one off goes into the setup of the machine from the cad file. If you can sell them on ebay have 5-10 made and you'll get yours much cheaper.

Waterjet won't even break a sweat on anything for a car.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=104446

andyw7de's website is here http://www.waterjetscotland.co.uk/ and a u2u should get an estimate/quote.

Flak monkey is offering a laser cutting service so should be able do the same.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=118889


[Edited on 18/10/09 by iank]


gregs - 18/10/09 at 09:08 AM

thanks for the feedback guys, plate would be taking 450bhp ish V8 so was thinking 12/15mm ally plate - but no reason I couldn't do it in steel and be at 10mm.

What accuracy can water/laser achieve respectively?


iank - 18/10/09 at 09:27 AM

quote:
Originally posted by gregs
thanks for the feedback guys, plate would be taking 450bhp ish V8 so was thinking 12/15mm ally plate - but no reason I couldn't do it in steel and be at 10mm.

What accuracy can water/laser achieve respectively?


Those sizes of plate won't worry a laser or water cutter.

Accuracy depends on the machine
Andy's waterjet machine does +/- 0.1mm on profile, +/- 0.01mm on feature position

Laser is similar.


blakep82 - 18/10/09 at 09:59 AM

i think andy told me the waterjet can easily cut 1" thick steel.

accuracy is very tight


StevieB - 18/10/09 at 11:08 AM

You can always go to eMachineShop to get a guide on price - you can design a part and then et a quotation immediately.

The only problem is it's US based, so you have to do a conversion from USD to GBP and obviously discount any p&p costs.

I reckon eMachineShop is maybe a little expensive too, but it does serve to give you a rough guide on costs.


gregs - 18/10/09 at 05:10 PM

cheers all - that is really helpful, will probably amend my plans to a fully water jet cut adaptor.