PCBWay for metal fabrication

[Phils Arcade]

So last night I was happily working away on the Defender cab, and had pulled the control panel latches off the panel sides. One of the backing plates has severe corrosion on the back to thought about fabricating one myself. It's simple a piece of flat mild steel sheet, a hole in each corner and 2 more towards the centre for fixing the latch to the backing plate. A quick rummage around and found some spare steel, cut to size and holes drilled. Quick sand and sprayed silver, similar to what the original would have been. Must have been 10 to 15 minutes, no biggie.

That night, I was designing out some jigs for the helping make the speaker grill for the Defender cab, and watching some YouTube videos. One of the guys in a video was using PCBWay to get some metal parts made and delivered. Hmmmm, I thought. I wonder how much they would charge for something simple like what I made. So loaded up FreeCAD, drew a flat square 42mm in size, and added a hole in each corner, very simple.




Logged into PCBWay and uploaded the design, added in the thickness and other specs and was given a quote of $104.28 for 10 of them.

WHAT THE HELL!

Turns out, this was just an estimate generated by the system and after a review of the part, a proper quote would be given.
Phew! Heart beat returning to normal.

So this morning logged into PCBWay, and true enough it was reduced in cost, to $72.24 and after shipping and fees back up to $102.44. That's over £76 for 10 small flat parts with 4 holes drilled, not even threaded. So don't think I'd be ordering anything simple from them anytime soon.




What are your thoughts? Is this the cost of outsourcing, these days?

 

[K1ngarth3r]

I need some parts making up for a Dragon‘s Lair project, I’ve uploaded the designs and currently waiting. I hope it’s nowhere near as expensive as that but let’s see. Is there anywhere in the UK that can do this sort of work via uploading the design and having it delivered. I wonder how their process compares.

 

[Phils Arcade]

I need some parts making up for a Dragon‘s Lair project, I’ve uploaded the designs and currently waiting. I hope it’s nowhere near as expensive as that but let’s see. Is there anywhere in the UK that can do this sort of work via uploading the design and having it delivered. I wonder how their process compares.

Would be interested to see what they charge. Is it completed or something simple like what I was testing?
Do you have an image of what you're after?

 

[Fantazia2]

Not sure if they ship to the UK but always heard good things about https://sendcutsend.com/ in the US for metal fabrication.

Edit: Looks like its US and Canada only.

 

[big10p]

Why not just use a local metal fabricators?

 

[Flyback2021]

So last night I was happily working away on the Defender cab, and had pulled the control panel latches off the panel sides. One of the backing plates has severe corrosion on the back to thought about fabricating one myself. It's simple a piece of flat mild steel sheet, a hole in each corner and 2 more towards the centre for fixing the latch to the backing plate. A quick rummage around and found some spare steel, cut to size and holes drilled. Quick sand and sprayed silver, similar to what the original would have been. Must have been 10 to 15 minutes, no biggie.

That night, I was designing out some jigs for the helping make the speaker grill for the Defender cab, and watching some YouTube videos. One of the guys in a video was using PCBWay to get some metal parts made and delivered. Hmmmm, I thought. I wonder how much they would charge for something simple like what I made. So loaded up FreeCAD, drew a flat square 42mm in size, and added a hole in each corner, very simple.

View attachment 39296


Logged into PCBWay and uploaded the design, added in the thickness and other specs and was given a quote of $104.28 for 10 of them.

WHAT THE HELL!

Turns out, this was just an estimate generated by the system and after a review of the part, a proper quote would be given.
Phew! Heart beat returning to normal.

So this morning logged into PCBWay, and true enough it was reduced in cost, to $72.24 and after shipping and fees back up to $102.44. That's over £76 for 10 small flat parts with 4 holes drilled, not even threaded. So don't think I'd be ordering anything simple from them anytime soon.

View attachment 39297 View attachment 39298


What are your thoughts? Is this the cost of outsourcing, these days?

Not surprised by the price. Had various metal working done over the last year including - welding , milling, blanking etc all beyond my skill level and current set up and while the price was more than I thought initially it is done locally to a very high standard and finish.

 

[Phils Arcade]

Not surprised by the price. Had various metal working done over the last year including - welding , milling, blanking etc all beyond my skill level and current set up and while the price was more than I thought initially it is done locally to a very high standard and finish.

It's good if you can find a decent person or company that can do this without charging a small fortune as well.

I has a job needing done, which to my mind was welding 2 pieces of metal together to create a form. The company that I approached wanted £540 for the work, as they needed to CNC it from a block. Asked why they can't just weld it, the response was it wasn't structurally strong enough if it's to be used as a metal forming tool. Didn't want to spend that much so ended up simply buying some metal stock, borrowing a small welder, which at the time I've never welded anything before, and joined the two pieces together. Cost a grand total of about £25 and I have some stock left over for other work.

Since then I've now bought a decent German made welder and plasma cutter in one. Great job has to be said, and the wife and I went to welding lessons at the local college a couple of years back so another wee bit of knowledge gained, just enough to be dangerous, lol.

 

[Flyback2021]

It's good if you can find a decent person or company that can do this without charging a small fortune as well.

I has a job needing done, which to my mind was welding 2 pieces of metal together to create a form. The company that I approached wanted £540 for the work, as they needed to CNC it from a block. Asked why they can't just weld it, the response was it wasn't structurally strong enough if it's to be used as a metal forming tool. Didn't want to spend that much so ended up simply buying some metal stock, borrowing a small welder, which at the time I've never welded anything before, and joined the two pieces together. Cost a grand total of about £25 and I have some stock left over for other work.

Since then I've now bought a decent German made welder and plasma cutter in one. Great job has to be said, and the wife and I went to welding lessons at the local college a couple of years back so another wee bit of knowledge gained, just enough to be dangerous, lol.

Good on you and your partner for learning welding !
I wouldn’t mind doing a metal working course one day it’s just time - not enough hours in the day.!

 

[bones]

Yep, our local metal fabricating firm now has a minimum £42 charge + parts on anything they do. Probably not their fault in truth with costs and everything, but you'd think this scenario would open up the good old ' £20 for cash mate ' market again lol.

 

[K1ngarth3r]

Would be interested to see what they charge. Is it completed or something simple like what I was testing?
Do you have an image of what you're after?

I'm after 2x of each of these parts.

It's about $50 on send cut send, but pcbway is over $100

 

[Flyback2021]

I'm after 2x of each of these parts.

It's about $50 on send cut send, but pcbway is over $100

What are the dimensions ?

Yep, our local metal fabricating firm now has a minimum £42 charge + parts on anything they do. Probably not their fault in truth with costs and everything, but you'd think this scenario would open up the good old ' £20 for cash mate ' market again lol.

Yep, our local metal fabricating firm now has a minimum £42 charge + parts on anything they do. Probably not their fault in truth with costs and everything, but you'd think this scenario would open up the good old ' £20 for cash mate ' market again lol.

That seems pretty reasonable if they are good !

 

[Flyback2021]

Yep, our local metal fabricating firm now has a minimum £42 charge + parts on anything they do. Probably not their fault in truth with costs and everything, but you'd think this scenario would open up the good old ' £20 for cash mate ' market again lol.

Seems reasonable if they are good

 

[davey d]

I Have my own fabrication company with CNC cutting and bending machine. Prior to this we used to sub the work out to profiling, and bending companies.
Most companies have a minimum order cost for cutting.
Depending on what you want ( e.g a small plate from 2mm steel) and a minimum order cost at £60.00 if you want just 10 plates it would cost you £60 ( so £6 / plate), but if you ordered as many as they can cut for for £60 you might get them for equivalent of £1 / plate.

You are better off getting more done at once to bring the cost per plate down.

 

[K1ngarth3r]

What are the dimensions ?


That seems pretty reasonable if they are good !

 

[K1ngarth3r]

I Have my own fabrication company with CNC cutting and bending machine. Prior to this we used to sub the work out to profiling, and bending companies.
Most companies have a minimum order cost for cutting.
Depending on what you want ( e.g a small plate from 2mm steel) and a minimum order cost at £60.00 if you want just 10 plates it would cost you £60 ( so £6 / plate), but if you ordered as many as they can cut for for £60 you might get them for equivalent of £1 / plate.

You are better off getting more done at once to bring the cost per plate down.

I don't suppose you'd be open to making some parts for this hobby would you?

 

[Phils Arcade]

I Have my own fabrication company with CNC cutting and bending machine. Prior to this we used to sub the work out to profiling, and bending companies.
Most companies have a minimum order cost for cutting.
Depending on what you want ( e.g a small plate from 2mm steel) and a minimum order cost at £60.00 if you want just 10 plates it would cost you £60 ( so £6 / plate), but if you ordered as many as they can cut for for £60 you might get them for equivalent of £1 / plate.

You are better off getting more done at once to bring the cost per plate down.

It's more the setup and break down that costs money. Once done it's simply rinse and repeat, especially on a CNC machine.
Think I'll be looking into a CNC at some point, or building my own.

 

[davey d]

I don't suppose you'd be open to making some parts for this hobby would you?

I do already. Made all sorts of bits including:

Control panels for Asto City cabs (including all sort of custom ones like my Point Blank gun panel with holsters)
Control panels for woodie cabs
Marquee holders for driving games
Supergun/Arcade stick enclosures (got 1 left in stock)
Locking tabs for Astro city doors (Bag full in stock)

 

[K1ngarth3r]

Would you be able to make the bits I posted, I have the .step files.

 

[davey d]

We use Solidworks for our design. I've had a look, and can't see that it opens .srep files. I'm presuming they are your 3d designs you've screen shotted above?

 

[K1ngarth3r]

Sorry the file extension is .step, yep that was the images from pcbway.