On Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:57:28 -0700, Tim Wescott
wrote:

Karl Townsend wrote:
I think a good part of that $13 (which was the unit price if I ordered 25)
was for something machined all over, nice and shiny and bright and within
a gnat's eyelash of the nominal diameter all over.

Looks like that shop charges $300 for setup and cleanup. Then a dollar a
part. If you use cold rolled stock instead of ground you could have saved
$10. bet they didn't even look at that. "The Kid" was an estimator for a
while. for a small new potential customer don't spend but a second doing the
quote. 90% aren't serious.

Karl

-- or 90% find out how much it'll cost, and get less serious in a hurry.

I need to make this work, and I think I can

get the overall price down
to something I can stand, but it's taking more work than just 'make this
here part be shaped this way'

If you're not having any luck getting bids for you to shop, you might
try saying what you would be willing to pay per lot for 10, 100 and
200 pcs. Makes it easy for others to simply respond or not. That
might include folks in this n.g.

You don't mention schedule. Could this be a fill or "spare time" job?
You don't mention material.

I would think you could make these parts on your Smithy yourself in
less time than you'll spend screwing around with negotiations,
particularly if you allow use of more expensive but easy-to-machine
materials like 12L14 steel, brass or aluminum.

Don't forget that another person who makes these for you has to
procure the material, ship you the finished parts, and spend whatever
time it takes to bill and collect.

I agree with Gunner: even with non-CNC machines and making the flat
as a second op, I rather doubt that it'd take me 2 hours to make 100
of these parts as you've described them -- but I'm not at all sure
that a price you'd regard as reasonable would match my threshold for
doing your project instead of mine -- e.g. going fishing or something.
If you posted a print, spec and acceptable price somewhere you might
get more interest. It would also save you time in the long run. Say
in your spec that if parts meet spec they will be accepted even if
they aren't quite what you had in mind. Making the spec and print
describe what you need and want is your responsibility.