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.

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.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

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

thank you for the info. i want to get in touch with some local machine
shops and go that route, but it's difficult. i work a full time job
and run the online store. but i will try that route when i have some
time. i already printed out a long list of shops in the area.

in the beginning, i will run about 50 of each part in one order(i have
three parts i want made out of 1/16" aluminum). after that i'm not
sure because this is a new product. once again, thanks for the help.

Is this something I can do with my CNC plasma cutter? Do you have a
dxf or dwg AutoCAD file I can look at? My website and "real" email
address is on the contact page. Website
http://www.trinitytooling.com
I'm located in Iowa. B.G.

"kevinlongisland" wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

How many do you need (per order and per year)? Press tool section is
extremely dependant on quantities.

A die with two piercing punches and a cut-off station could be all you need
(and use 1-1/2" coil stock).

Regards,

Robin