Manufacturing a die

when you say < 1 mil, to most machinist, that's less than a 1 thousands of an inch accuracy.. or did you mean mm ? if the former, expect to pay money!

--
"I\'d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

"Daily Thought:
   It smells around here "

http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"

1 mil. < 1 mil doesn't seem that bad? Seems like an CNC's can do about 1/10 of a mil.

I'm definitely not talking about doing it by hand. The hole tolerance could be ~1 mil though.

for example.

In fact I might be able to get away with 1 mil accuracy if necessary.

You should look in the yellow pages. A lot of machinists are old school. Contact your local trade school.

It'll cost more than 50 bucks just to square up a piece of stock to your 3 in^3. It'll also cost more than that to take your order, enter it, and invoice you. And yes, your tolerances are no problem, especially for CNC machines, but I've yet to see one that's self-programming, so you better figure at least $100 to $150 for that. The suggestion to find a local school is a good one.

Best regards,

Ralph in NH

Yoou could try

. I don't know if they can drill it with your tolerance requirement and I've never used it before, but it was in my bookmarks. Please report back, how much your project costs at this shop and if it was good, if you choose it.

--
Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de

:>> I need a die manufactured for an electronics project(I know this is more :>> mechanical than electronic but its to be used in an electronic project). :>>

:>> All I need is a bunch of ~30 mil holes) drilled into an aluminum or steel :>> block about 3in^3 or so. The tolerances should be < 1 mil or so for the :>> positioning of the holes. :>>

:>> Does anyone know where I can get something like this done at and :>> approximately the cost(seems like it shouldbe relatively cheep and just :>> take a few mins to do so I don't expect it to be more than about $50)? :>> (in fact its quite simple and I could do myself except for the :>> tolerances) :>>

:>> Thanks, :>> Jon :> when you say < 1 mil, to most machinist, that's less than a 1 thousands of :> an inch accuracy.. or did you mean mm ? :> if the former, expect to pay money! :>

:>

: :1 mil. < 1 mil doesn't seem that bad? Seems like an CNC's can do about 1/10 :of a mil. : :I'm definitely not talking about doing it by hand. The hole tolerance could :be ~1 mil though. : :for example. : :

: :In fact I might be able to get away with 1 mil accuracy if necessary. :

Your best bet is someone who is into making model steam engines or similar, or a metal trades school. Someone who has plenty of time and doesn't have to bother fitting your one-off into a busy schedule and won't charge you the world.

This my guess If you go to a precision metal workshop. They work their pricing on how much they expect to make per unit time (15min, hour or whatever) per machine. If they have to stop a production run to fit in a one-off which requires an accurate drawing to produce the program setup then you would have to provide that drawing or pay them to do it (something like $100/hr). Down time to re-program the machine at say $100/15min plus skilled machinist time at $100/hr and say 15 min to make your die - I reckon you'd be lucky to get out of the exercise for under $300 - $400.

Holes drilled into metal with conventional twist drills tend to wander if they are very deep (eg. more than 10 diameters or 0.3" in your case). Getting them even within a few thou is a two-step process- centre/er drill and then drill because a drill alone will tend to skate around on the surface before biting in. What you are asking may not even be realistically possible, let alone easy/cheap, depending on the material and details.

Getting the machine spindle and clamped pre-made block to move relative to each other to a fraction of a thou is easy with a modern CNC machine, but getting the *hole* of the size you want and the position you want relative to each other and to reference planes defined by the side(s) of your block is not necessarily easy.

$50 is nothing to a machinist. A whisper. Are you going to supply the block cut and surface ground to dimensions and perpendicularity? Or do you expect them to purchase material for this and make the precision block?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Sounds like a job for laser machining to me. Find someone who has just bought a machine and needs to get work in quickly.