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If you are in need of a custom part, you will find your local machine shops an invaluable resource in getting the job done. There are many methods to have a custom part machined. Depending on your budget and level of expertise, you could settle with the method that would require some additional cleanup work. For instance, a particular machine shop may employ a metal hole saw to cut a hole, but you would do well to clean up the holes with a set of reamers. That being said, whether the machine shop has a laser cutter, plasma cutter or water jet cutter, there are some steps that you yourself can take to bring down the overall cost.

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EditSteps

  1. 1
    Determine how much money you are willing to spend. If you let the machine shops know ahead of time what your budget is, they may be able to work with you. At the very least, it will give you a baseline from which to determine which bids are too high. On the same token, don’t be in too big of a hurry to disregard a high quote. The reason being, that there may be some hidden costs that can be removed if you know what you are doing.
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  2. 2
    Determine how many parts you need. It is very important to note that if you only purchase one part, the cost will be very high. While this may be fine for prototype parts, this can make your weekend project go belly up in a real hurry. If you think that you will need extra parts, you may find that ordering two, and maybe even three, parts will cost the same as if you were only purchasing one part. The reason for this is that the shops are charging you for setting up their machines for your part. The setup cost is the same whether you are ordering one part or a thousand parts.
  3. 3
    Have your pattern ready. Every shop, irrespective of the type of cutter that they use, uses a pattern to achieve the finished product. This pattern is a digital CAD file (usually in a DWG or DXF format) that contains both the outer and inner geometry of your file. This file is mission critical to processing your part. If you do not have a pattern, the shop will have to engineer it for you, which means that you will get charged for it.
    • This engineering charge is usually a one-time deal, but what a lot of people may not realize is that this is not always a mandatory charge. If you have access to a CAD program, you would do well to avail yourself to it. If you can draw up the pattern yourself, or have a friend do it, you could save upwards of fifty dollars, depending on what the engineering charge is at a given shop.
  4. 4
    Do as much of the work as you can. If you have access to a metal hole saw, reamers and anything else that would aid you in cutting metal, you could bring the overall cost down by cutting all the inner geometry yourself.
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Categories: Tradesman Occupations

Recent edits by: Maluniu, Theburn7, James Dutton

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