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FrozenGate by Avery

emachineshop

I tried to make a rubber O ring... and MAN. $4000 just to cast the mold.. and like $1 each after that.

I had heard it cost a lot to make a mold, but I had never imagined it could cost that much!
 





Ablaze said:
I tried to make a rubber O ring... and MAN. $4000 just to cast the mold.. and like $1 each after that.

I had heard it cost a lot to make a mold, but I had never imagined it could cost that much!
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I'd be interested in seeing your eMachineShop CAD file for the part - without knowing the details, that sounds very high. We do work actively to correct problems in the pricing model when we see them, and I'd like to see if this priced correctly. Making a mold IS expensive, but that sounds off. You can send it to me at garykosits@emachineshop.com

Thanks - and thanks for trying the software!
 
It case anyone is wondering, the high cost was just a temporary problem. I guess the machines were busy that week or something.
 
The other thing I'll sort of gripe about - is that I had two options enabled in my design. The first was to wrap parts individually. The second, was to sell 50 of my last parts in the EMS store (in order to recoup some of the cost).

Both options were ignored. The parts came unwrapped, and none (that I know of) were with-held for sale in the store.

I've got another design that I'm going to have manufactured in the next few days. I may start a thread and just chronicle the process for everyone, at each step of the journey. I've used more specific machinist instructions this time, and have even offered to provide a copy of the part that my design must thread into, upon request, to ensure that the threading works. It would be a neat design to follow along with too.
 
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Gary,

The bugs in emachineshop software are preventing me from placing my order. Please do what you can to get the issues addressed so I can build an awesome laser and report nothing but great things about your company. I have emailed you and the tech support people and look forward to getting a positive response.

Thanks

-J
 
Are there other options? I really like the idea of emachineshop - but there are some serious drawbacks to the pricing structure. I understand the software is designed to keep you from finding another shop to make the stuff designed with emachineshops software but if the prices were competitive, that wouldn't be such a problem.

Maybe I am wrong on this, but I would like to know of competitive options if there are such a thing. I think the idea is really, really cool. But the implementation is sort of pricey.

I know Moh seems to have something going with "the chinese" on machined parts. Maybe this is an avenue to pursue, although I would assume this would require large orders of parts.
 
tsteele93 said:
Are there other options? I really like the idea of emachineshop - but there are some serious drawbacks to the pricing structure. I understand the software is designed to keep you from finding another shop to make the stuff designed with emachineshops software but if the prices were competitive, that wouldn't be such a problem.

Maybe I am wrong on this, but I would like to know of competitive options if there are such a thing. I think the idea is really, really cool. But the implementation is sort of pricey.

I know Moh seems to have something going with "the chinese" on machined parts. Maybe this is an avenue to pursue, although I would assume this would require large orders of parts.
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The solution, for me at least, this summer, is to learn SolidWorks.
 
I'd like to find an easy-to-use cad program with a good user forum and lots of starter files.

Heat sinks for instance. If someone already has the basic design there, then modifying it could be a breeze.

Then find a shop that can make them at a decent price and you are off to the races!
 
Solidworks is the way to go. Easy and effective. However it does not import very well into e-machineshop. I tried importing as IGES, STEP, etc. The issue is that objects like circles are treated like polygons not a smooth curve. So you cannot apply machining functions such as threading because it is not recognized as a circle.

Pricing is not the issue with me. I have quoted my part with other machinists and emachineshop is competetive due to the intricate nature of my part requires CNC. If you are looking for a simple heatsink just make a drawing and send it to someone like eudamonium or any number of awesome machinists on this forum.
 
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rhd said:
The solution, for me at least, this summer, is to learn SolidWorks.
Click to expand...

Learning a software program doesn't do anything to get your part built unless you have a machinist or CNC at your disposal. It does facilitate communication and getting quotes, however.
 
I will check it out -sounds interesting. I have Cartomap installed on my ipad but haven't played with it much yet.

Jubathoph said:
Learning a software program doesn't do anything to get your part built unless you have a machinist or CNC at your disposal. It does facilitate communication and getting quotes, however.
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I may be wrong, but I think there are lots of e-shops out there if you can supply them with standard files like DWG or DXF. Emachineshop stymies that by not letting you export a usable file to send out.
 
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If you know of any others let me know. This is really pissing me off that literally the last thing keeping me from finishing my project is a buggy software program.
 
Jubathoph said:
Solidworks is the way to go. Easy and effective. However it does not import very well into e-machineshop. I tried importing as IGES, STEP, etc. The issue is that objects like circles are treated like polygons not a smooth curve. So you cannot apply machining functions such as threading because it is not recognized as a circle.

Pricing is not the issue with me. I have quoted my part with other machinists and emachineshop is competetive due to the intricate nature of my part requires CNC. If you are looking for a simple heatsink just make a drawing and send it to someone like eudamonium or any number of awesome machinists on this forum.
Click to expand...

Jubathoph said:
Learning a software program doesn't do anything to get your part built unless you have a machinist or CNC at your disposal. It does facilitate communication and getting quotes, however.
Click to expand...

tsteele93 said:
I will check it out -sounds interesting. I have Cartomap installed on my ipad but haven't played with it much yet.

There is a CNC forum called CNCZone where you can get part quotes. As a heads-up, it's really F-ing expensive for most things, compared to emachineshop. However, for small QTYs, a guy on CNCZone might be a better approach.

That said, you should be prepared for the fact that getting heatsinks done with EMS is pretty much a deadly expensive route ($50 for an aluminum heatsink? no thanks) unless you're getting ~100 made.
Click to expand...
 
rhd said:
tsteele93 said:
I will check it out -sounds interesting. I have Cartomap installed on my ipad but haven't played with it much yet.

There is a CNC forum called CNCZone where you can get part quotes. As a heads-up, it's really F-ing expensive for most things, compared to emachineshop. However, for small QTYs, a guy on CNCZone might be a better approach.

That said, you should be prepared for the fact that getting heatsinks done with EMS is pretty much a deadly expensive route ($50 for an aluminum heatsink? no thanks) unless you're getting ~100 made.
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(RHD) I know you are familiar with my project at this point and why I need CNC; lots of precision and threading involved in a 7 diode handheld. The emachine quote I had was ~$300 for (4) of these parts; a price which is actually extremely competetive.
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Juba - yes, sorry, i was responding to tsteele's comment about getting heatsinks
 
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