Anyone made up their own parts? CNC milling experience?

[(steven)]

Does anyone have any experience of making up their own custom parts? I was thinking of getting some stuff drawn up on CAD and then getting a company to make it up on a CNC milling machine.

Wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this and could indicate what the costs were likely to be and if there is any good websites on the subject.

Thanks

[spyder dryver]

Hi Steven. Our Phoenix trackday car has loads of one-off CNC parts but I make them all myself. Aluminium and titanium. Having them made for you won't be cheap as a program needs to be produced, even for one-offs.
I do my own programming at the machine. There are probably loads of small firms capable of doing your stuff but machine time isn't cheap. It will depend on the value you put upon unique-ness.
Try googling for local CNC firms.
Geoff.

[robojxb]

Have you thought of making your own cnc machine??
Take a look here:
http://lumenlab.com/store/robloks/micro-kit.html
I havn't built one,but I have built another product they sell,and they great to deal with.
Cheers James.

[tegwin]

IMHO... by the time you have learned how to program a CNC machine etc or payed someone else to do it...

you might as well save up and get a proper old school vertical mill....

£400-£600 second handish.... then learn to use it properly... none of this computer aided gash!

[Josh Smith]

Hi Steven, I may be able to help with the CAD. email me on [e-mail] if interested


Josh

[Josh Smith]

Any more pictures of your phoenix to share Geoff? My green phoenix r1 rgb car has just sold. Be nice to see some pictures of a new build.

Josh

[spyder dryver]

Engage " tongue in cheek mode"....

Here's a little more "computer aided gash".
Geoff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LCaRqQ8Qf8&fea...

Edited by spyder dryver on Saturday 25th July 23:42

[spyder dryver]

Josh Smith said:

Any more pictures of your phoenix to share Geoff? My green phoenix r1 rgb car has just sold. Be nice to see some pictures of a new build.

Josh

Hi Josh. I'll take some pics next saturday an post them in our "Readers cars" thread.
Geoff.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[GnuBee]

[quote=(steven)]Does anyone have any experience of making up their own custom parts? I was thinking of getting some stuff drawn up on CAD and then getting a company to make it up on a CNC milling machine.

Wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this and could indicate what the costs were likely to be and if there is any good websites on the subject.

Thanks
[/quote]

Yes...

I have a Heiz S400 CNC machine running off a dedicated PC on which I use Alibre Design for drawing/modelling then Deskproto for toolpath generation prior to passing the program to WinPc-Nc to drive the machine.

Steep learning curve would perhaps be somewhat of an understatement and initial costs are very high (it's not the machine it's the software that ends up costing the money).

On the upside you do get the ability to go through the following; find you need a part in the early morning, draw it, cut it and fit it by the afternoon. No internet trawling, no waiting for deliveries, no compromising by using something that "will do the job if...".

From my (very limited) experience if you can do the drawing side of the work and generate a proper NC program (G-Code) then you could save youself money by only buying machine time.

[atlasworxs]

Hi Guy's,

I work as a cnc programmer / setter and also do all the cad work as well. If anybody wants parts made
i would be happy be to help. You can email me on [e-mail]

Nice work at the top of the thread.

[GTRCLIVE]

Bought this Japanese machine locally from a Auction for less than £1300. Yes it is going to cost another £800 to convert to a newer PC driven machine but that's still cheap.... Has the capacity to machine up to 18" wheel centres and my new design Ally uprights etc...

PS no I don't dress like that all the time.... before you ask.

[GTRCLIVE]

Being able to design and Machine these from scratch is priceless..... To me anyway...

[spyder dryver]

Hi Clive. Email me on [e-mail] regarding milling cutters.
Geoff.

[bogwoppit]

Anyone ever deal with emachineshop.com?

[singlecoil]

As a matter of interest, how much does billet aluminium of a suitable quality cost?

[danny84]

I've just machined a 1 off top yoke with risers for my brothers motorbike and the ally billet was 300x200x75mm and it only cost 40 quid.That was thru work mind so maybe a bit more from joe public.Like everyone else says its the design and machining time that costs the money.If i were to sell this yoke it would stand someone in the region of 400 Quid.It was designed and programed on delcams featurecam software from scratch and machined on a hass vm3.Maybe 11 hours total time.This ofcourse is quite complex and the likes of ally brackets will cost a lot less.Work on about 30 to 50 quid and hour for a machine shop.1 offs are always ging to cost more too.Batches of 10 or 20 will halve your costs if you know anyone else who needs the same.The ally i used was 6082.Or aircraft grade aluminium as eveyone else likes to call it.I'll make anything you want if the price is right for all.Pm me if you need any help or e mail [e-mail] aka BILLETMASTER!!!

Edited by danny84 on Wednesday 7th October 21:30

Edited by danny84 on Wednesday 7th October 21:31

Edited by danny84 on Wednesday 7th October 21:32

Edited by danny84 on Wednesday 7th October 21:41