On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 20:13:26 -0800, the renowned Tim Wescott
wrote:

kevinlongisland wrote:

Hello all. i need to make some small aluminum parts for my small
online sto www.thecrawlerstore.com . Currently, a friend of mine
that's a machinist is making the parts but we can't keep up with
demand. The parts need to be made out of 1/16" aluminum. the parts
mount small light components, so a standard 6061 or similar material
will do fine. I need to find an economical way of making these plates.
they are flat 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" with two holes. I was thinking about
using emachineshop and using the turret punch tool. the parts need to
be cosmetically appealing. what type of finish does the turret punch
leave? thanks and any other suggestions for lowering cost, etc. would
be greatly appreciated.

Call sheetmetal shops around your area -- this is the kind of thing that
NC punches are made for. Expect to pay some money for the programming
(either up front or as part of the first few jobs), a setup change for
each batch, and a piddly little insignificant amount for the actual
parts themselves. If you take yourself to the shop they'll be able to
show you some different finishes you could use.

Agree with this. Look at sample parts if you have internal nibbled
holes-- that can save a fair bit of money for a very slight cosmetic
difference. They are really economical for quantities of a few hundred
up to the thousands-- no hard tooling.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com