Need quote to have a part milled

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
I know we have some guys here that mill/CNC custom jobs.
I have something I'd like to get a price quote on. The parts will be about 12"x10"x5" deep and roughly bowl shaped with a lot of extra stuff and presumably made from a solid block of aluminum. PM for details.
 
Fabrik8 said:
Making some aluminum head molds? :D
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gee what a random guess?

two halves, yes. Exploring costs for different materials so we know what to tell people when it's released.
 
I'm going to go ahead and say at least $1000 per part depending on how critical that 10x5x12 dimension is...as in will it actually need to start as a 6x12x13 and finish at 10.000x5.000 , how many parts you need, how many different features around the part/how many setups/is it a 5 axis part or is it just a rectangle bowl, what kind of surface finish, what kind of tolerancing, what type of aluminum, etc. Won't be cheap for sure.
 
I think the big question here is quantity. Are we talking 1, 3, 10, 50, 500, or 10000?
 
braxton357 said:
I'm going to go ahead and say at least $1000 per part depending on how critical that 10x5x12 dimension is...as in will it actually need to start as a 6x12x13 and finish at 10.000x5.000 , how many parts you need, how many different features around the part/how many setups/is it a 5 axis part or is it just a rectangle bowl, what kind of surface finish, what kind of tolerancing, what type of aluminum, etc. Won't be cheap for sure.
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What he said. Not sure what price would be but all those factors play a large role in it.

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braxton357 said:
I'm going to go ahead and say at least $1000 per part depending on how critical that 10x5x12 dimension is...as in will it actually need to start as a 6x12x13 and finish at 10.000x5.000 , how many parts you need, how many different features around the part/how many setups/is it a 5 axis part or is it just a rectangle bowl, what kind of surface finish, what kind of tolerancing, what type of aluminum, etc. Won't be cheap for sure.
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I assumed it would be a lot, pushing 4 digits easily.
I can provide all of that info.
I'm not expecting anybody to know or say a cost publicly w/o the details.
I just wanted to know if anybody here does this kind of work and could point me to somebody to quote it. I'll get quotes from various big "online" job shops too, was just curious if anybody had a connection here. I can share an .stl or anything, just not post it publicly (yet).

Re: numbers - I'm sure it wouldn't be a lot. One initially, then over time as other lab groups find the use for this thing they'd order their own, but realistically we're talking like a dozen over a couple years.
 
I don't know if this has been done already, and it's probably pretty obvious and may not need mentioning, but it would be well worth it to make different CAD files for a machined part versus the 3D printed parts you were talking about before. A 2 piece mold for a head out of machined aluminum needs to be as simple as possible (take rectangular block for each half, machine bowl into one face), as you're paying for time spent for material removal. 3D printed parts are the exact opposite, as you can do almost any level of complexity and are paying for the amount of material added and the time spent to add it. So a well-designed part for 3D additive printing is almost exactly the opposite of a well-designed part for subtractive machining.

The surface finish of a 3D surface machined part is going to be where most of the cost is. The material, the setup time, etc., is going to be small compared to the time spend making small passes with a ball mill to sequentially remove toolpath "scallops" from the last adjacent pass with a ball mill. That means that reduced surface finish is where the biggest cost reduction will be.
A half of a head will probably not have undercuts, and can probably be done with a 3-axis mill if the tools can reach proper depth for their diameter. That's the good news.
 
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I saw the other thread, what's wrong with this? Too small?
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braxton357 said:
I saw the other thread, what's wrong with this? Too small?View attachment 285833
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We have one of those :D
It's not nearly realistic enough. The head isn't a normal ("average") size and shape, and more importantly it doesn't fit the stuff we put inside of it.

And FYI that "mold" is a real piece if crap. It's literally just two pieces of plastic that look like they were vacuum formed around a plaster cast. They don't line up well - as you can even see in their pic (I mean come on, for your sales pic, wouldn't you at least make one that looked good?) and do not seal at all.
It work OK with Clear Ballistics b/c that stuff is really thick and viscous. But even then, their instructions are to mold it in two pieces, a front and back half, and then sort of stick the two together.

On a related note - Clear Ballistics gel IS a lot of fun to play with. It's super cool that you can re-melt it by just putting it in a crock pot. We've made all kinds of neat shapes with it. It's pricy though.

it's actually quite surprising how few good, realistic head molds there are out there on the commercial market.
 
I can tell you that the rapid prototyping online places will be 4-5 times what it should cost. I've used both Rapid Manufacturing and ProtoLabs but they are crazy expensive. Rapid Cut is economical but shipping may hurt you they have offices in the states but machine centers are in China. Price is right and quality is decent.
 
catfishblues said:
Knowing what homeboy gets into, this is probably better suited to a 23 axis machine. Our little 3 axis probably couldn't handle it! o_O
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I'm not sure that's really true. The mold has no undercuts - when we 3d print it, there is zero support material. This part of it really is not as fancy as you might think. It's literally an outer head mold, smoothed to remove the details.
Chris_Keziah said:
I can tell you that the rapid prototyping online places will be 4-5 times what it should cost. I've used both Rapid Manufacturing and ProtoLabs but they are crazy expensive. Rapid Cut is economical but shipping may hurt you they have offices in the states but machine centers are in China. Price is right and quality is decent.
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I can assure you, we won't be sending any work or info to China, at least not if it is known or stated...
 
Would using a printed model to make a sand mold for aluminum casting not be just as effective?

Seems the logical cost effective means.
 
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