Mechanical Magic wrote:
On Mar 10, 7:36 pm, Tim Wescott wrote:
Is there a website or some other reference that I could use for
guidelines of what will and won't cost a lot of money at the sheetmetal
shop when I go for a real quote?

Something as simple as "a bend will cost you $4, a hole $0.50" would be
nice, but I understand that it's never that easy.

In the thread "Sheetmetal sticker shock" someone suggested getting five
pieces laser cut, and bolting them together -- no bends. I'm wondering
if that's going to save me all that much, but I'd like to find out
without terminally exasperating the estimating folks at the various shops.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Serviceshttp://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 athttp://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html


Tim,
You might torment:
http://www.emachineshop.com/
to get quotes.

I know of no online resource for estimating machined or sheetmetal
parts.
Mainly because tolerances are the cost driver, in addition to the
number of tight tolerances.
Estimating parts is an art, requiring many years of experience. Some
jobs are simple; some, like yours may require days of tooling to hold
the tolerances. (Assuming you still use the original sketch.)
Dave

The group has pretty much talked me out of the notion of trying to get
precision out of the sheet metal shop (as did the estimator that I
talked to). If the part is amenable to it, once I get done with the
sheet metal shop I may get a price for having the holes drilled on a
mill as a secondary operation, but I think my best bet is to either
assemble the board onto the base with a jig to center everything, or to
hand-adjust things as the board is assembled to the base.

That's if I don't just use the pot as one of the bearings -- I think
this is going to prove to be a Bad Idea, but I'll be testing one soon to
see just how much violence I do to the thing.

--

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