Metal Fab?

[HaRuMaN]

Anyone know of a metal fab place with good prices and no huge MOQ's?  I'm trying to get some parts made, last place quoted me an excellent price, but an MOQ of 15000.   

[Generic Eric]

Anyone know of a metal fab place with good prices and no huge MOQ's?  I'm trying to get some parts made, last place quoted me an excellent price, but an MOQ of 15000.   

I'll take 2.


Almost there.

[BadMouth]

Pretend to be a big company and convince a Chinese company that you need a few hundred samples to ensure quality before placing your multi-million dollar order.
That's how Ram Controls did it. 

[HaRuMaN]

Pretend to be a big company and convince a Chinese company that you need a few hundred samples to ensure quality before placing your multi-million dollar order.
That's how Ram Controls did it. 

Oi.  Yeah, not gonna go the Ram Controls route.   

[HaRuMaN]

Anyone?

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[Slippyblade]

I know a couple of places that do metal fab, not on a scale though.  What are you looking to have made and I'll get ya a quote.

[HaRuMaN]

Cocktail cabinet metal clips with a 3/4" opening.

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[yotsuya]

That'd be nice. I had to roll my own.

[Xiaou2]

Cocktail cabinet metal clips with a 3/4" opening.

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 Been a while since Ive seen a Cocktail..   but couldnt you just grab some aluminum U-Channel and cut to size?
You could use slightly larger channel... and then add some foam pads inside, as well as adding some thickness to the wood area where they will clamp.

 You can cut U-channel with a hacksaw or dremmel very easily.

[Slippyblade]

X2, you are right, for a one off, that would be the way to go.  But I think Haruman is looking for production quality work for his kits.  U-channel and a hacksaw is not reliably reproducible for production work.

[Howard_Casto]

Well a hacksaw isn't, but an electric miter saw with a metal cutting blade is.  I've done it before in my shop, it's fairly easy to get accurate results, especially if you mount a jig so that you don't have to measure the cuts.  You could get a cheap miter saw for under 100 bucks and a metal blade is less than 10.... considering how expensive it is to get metal parts made it might still be the cheaper route.

[HaRuMaN]

Well a hacksaw isn't, but an electric miter saw with a metal cutting blade is.  I've done it before in my shop, it's fairly easy to get accurate results, especially if you mount a jig so that you don't have to measure the cuts.  You could get a cheap miter saw for under 100 bucks and a metal blade is less than 10.... considering how expensive it is to get metal parts made it might still be the cheaper route.

May be right.  Hmm.  I'll have to look into that. 

[HaRuMaN]

Cocktail cabinet metal clips with a 3/4" opening.

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

 Been a while since Ive seen a Cocktail..   but couldnt you just grab some aluminum U-Channel and cut to size?
You could use slightly larger channel... and then add some foam pads inside, as well as adding some thickness to the wood area where they will clamp.

 You can cut U-channel with a hacksaw or dremmel very easily.

Thanks for this.  Don't know why I didn't see that myself.   

I think combining this with HC's metal miter saw idea may be the way to go.   

[JDFan]

Have you asked your CNC guy ? can he do metal as well as wood in the shop - might be able to get him to cut the pieces from some sheet metal and then just get a bending brake for about $40 at Harbor Freight ( ( 18 inch - http://www.harborfreight.com/18-inch-bending-brake-39103.html )to shape them.

[HaRuMaN]

Have you asked your CNC guy ? can he do metal as well as wood in the shop - might be able to get him to cut the pieces from some sheet metal and then just get a bending brake for about $60 at Harbor Freight to shape them.

He can do aluminum to 1/8" thick.  No ferrous metals.  hmm

[jennifer]

   Chopping a angle on a cheap saw isn't as easy as it sounds, You get blade flex, and you miters gets compromised, even with a thicker blade....You may want to consider cutting it a bit oversized and sizing it on a grinding stone.

[dkersten]

Well a hacksaw isn't, but an electric miter saw with a metal cutting blade is.  I've done it before in my shop, it's fairly easy to get accurate results, especially if you mount a jig so that you don't have to measure the cuts.  You could get a cheap miter saw for under 100 bucks and a metal blade is less than 10.... considering how expensive it is to get metal parts made it might still be the cheaper route.

Just be careful with jigs when using metal and a chop saw.. metal can expand as it heats up while being cut and then it will kick out of the jig if it can't move on the other end.  Plus you CAN cut aluminum with a regular blade (as long as the teeth are carbide) but it is best if you get an 80 or 100 tooth blade that is made for cutting metals because the pitch of the teeth is not as aggressive and it will be a safer and cleaner cut.  Grinder blades do the job but are a little less clean and accurate, particularly on soft metals like aluminum. 

For accurate repetition cuts use a jig that can swing out of the way once you have the metal in place, so if it does expand it won't bind or jump up on you.  Better to take the time to do it right than end up losing a finger

[eds1275]

Couldn't you just get table cloth clips from the dollar store?

[Nephasth]

Couldn't you just get table cloth clips from the dollar store?

Found some for a Frogger!



 

[melvinbates]

I've heard that these guys are friendly to smaller runs.

http://www.kzell.com

[HaRuMaN]

I've heard that these guys are friendly to smaller runs.

http://www.kzell.com

Local, too.  Thanks for that, I'll check