In article . com,
jw wrote:
Your simple description left a lot out to give a real quote. You won't
find many(any?) shops that will quote you something without some sort
of drawing.
How many flutes? what size? full length?
*And* -- what *shape* flutes? The easy ones would be concave,
formed by a ball-end mill or a half-round side milling cutter. However,
they could be *concave*, in which case a special side milling cutter
would have to be ground to cut the shape.
Also -- everyone has been assuming that the flutes are parallel
to the axis. I can imagine someone wanting *spiral* flutes, which would
call for much more complex machining and setups. (I know that *I* could
not make even *one* of them, let alone fifty.
If $45 per is too much for you, I suspect this project is doomed. Any
shop that can crank them out fast enough(ie CNC) to make them cheaper
is going to have expensive equipment to amortize. Anyone who is doing
it by other means(lathe, shaper, mill) is going to have substantial
labor time to bill you for.
Exactly why I am not bidding on it.
I don't *want* a job like that which needs fifty of them made.
*One* would be fun to try. Fifty is *work*, and I am retired, and want
to stay clear of committing to that much work.
I'm not going to even semi-commit someone by making a guess as
to what would be a reasonable fee for someone else to do the job, if
*I'm* not willing to do the job for that amount.
I'll speculate on *how* to do it, but not on the price.
I no longer remember whether the original post specified *which*
metal. Aluminum would probably be not bad. Stainless steel would be a
serious pain.
The suggestion that someone else posted for it being more a job
for casting seems reasonable to me. (But -- I don't do casting.)
And -- looking at the size of this thread (I've fallen behind in
reading usenet recently, and have a *lot* yet to read), I'll probably
soon do a "catchup" on this thread and go on to other threads.
Enjoy,
DoN.
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