I am needing some assistance on finding a fab shop to help build an aestheticly pleasing enclosure for one of my applications.
Looking for a startup/quick turnaround - friendly place, so I won’t break the bank on going thru 2-3 protoype iterations.
Does anyone have any reccommendations of firms they might have used that can assist? If possible, prefer somewhere around CO, TX area in CONUS.
Size? Material? Budget? Features? Already designed or do you need it designed too?
size=48"X4"X.75", Budget(s)=(1) Proof of Concept $200, (2) Initial Run setup/fab $1000-$1500, Features: just imagine this (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00 … UTF8&psc=1) with 1.5"x 5" beveled cut outs (windows/ports) that hold a 1.4"x2.7" sliding rectangle.
It should be a somewhat simple project at this time, just need a good semi-local /available firm that could probably work with us now and going forward. I would hope there are such prototyping places out there, I don’t seem to be able to find any.
Its just our local CNC shops (OK) are focused on oil and aerospace, so their scale of prototype jobs usually start in the $10,000 and 2 month range - a bit out of our budget.
From a production stand point, it sounds like you’ll have at least an extrusion operation and a stamping operation.
I can not imagine you’ll get a job shop to touch it for only $200. Cutting your shape from solid stock would cost almost that just in material. And for extrusion prototyping, it would cost more than that to have a custom die made.
Could you bend this from sheet metal stock?
If you are working in plastic, try to find someone that does plastic extrusion prototyping. Maybe you could 3D print the part in sections and join them? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to want to add a zero to the end of your budget numbers.
yeah, thats probably where we are at for now… just wanted to make sure I wasnt missing anything
For a $200 budget, you’re looking at modifying an off the shelf enclosure. Try Polycase.