TurboFabSupply
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2009
- Location
- Orlando, FL, USA
My experience is with CNC milling mostly but some turning. Recently a job came up with a 24" x 24" x .625" plate (like a flange, all pockets were through holes) with four 4" x 4" pockets, some bolt holes, a 3" diameter pocket and four 1" x 12" pockets. I estimated the milling time of this at about 30 minutes give or take 5 and it was a little bigger than what we could do in one setup so I suggested the local waterjetter. The water jet ended up being the cheapest route and made the plate well enough. They said it took them about the same amount of time.
This really opened my eyes to a new possibility. I'd like to run a business that would run very little inventory of parts and mostly raw materials. This business would sell maybe 20-50 of a certain water jet cuttable part in a year and in about 50 different varieties each selling 20-50 per year and each made out of the same steel or aluminum plate thickness.
Could I basically take a DXF for these parts, run it quickly through a cam program and just cut them basically as we sell them? Is it really that straight forward? No fixturing required for flat plates?
This really opened my eyes to a new possibility. I'd like to run a business that would run very little inventory of parts and mostly raw materials. This business would sell maybe 20-50 of a certain water jet cuttable part in a year and in about 50 different varieties each selling 20-50 per year and each made out of the same steel or aluminum plate thickness.
Could I basically take a DXF for these parts, run it quickly through a cam program and just cut them basically as we sell them? Is it really that straight forward? No fixturing required for flat plates?