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Who do you use for online machining

Who do you guys use for online machining? I have some stainless steel parts that need to be prototyped and it would be nice to have a system like 'print 3d' in the file menu in solidworks for getting RP's done. By the way on another note I used Quick parts the other day and I am some seriously impressed with the part, service, and time frame involved! I highly recommend these guys.

So what I am looking for is a manufacturer (machine shop) that has a mill and lathe that can take native solidworks files and then make them

I am in Alberta Canada if that makes any difference

Ben

Reply to
Ben
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Prototypes and Rapid-Prototypes are two different beasts. If you really need your parts in Stainless you are going to have to wait.

I don't think there is anything "Rapid" about any machine shop I have ever worked with. I would expect at least a 4 week lead time. Even with an in-house machine shop it's tough to get anything in a timely manner.

Reply to
ick

Ok then I will wait and my question still stands

I am looking for a manufacturer (machine shop) that has a mill and lathe that can take native solidworks files and then make them

Ben

ick wrote:

Reply to
Ben

Ben,

This shop in the US had been good to me:

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The requirement to use a native SW file may be obviated by using the "save-as" feature in SW to produce an IGES or STEP file, which seem to be what the shops use for creating their CNC programs to machine parts. Shops without CNC usually work off paper drawings anyway. The machinist wants a drawing he can set on the bench, and not have to bring a computer by the manual mill or lathe. As you know, he will be looking to the paper drawing for tolerance information, which is not so easy to dig up in a native SW model.

Reply to
Paul

I'm curious. I don't get any exposure to shops other than ours, so I don't know if we are typical or not. Almost all of our mills have at least 2.5 axis controls, and our most-used lathes have CNC controls also. Even though usually working from paper drawings, our guys usually do some programming right at the machine's controller. They only turn cranks during setup. I know they can work from my SW files because they routinely ask for them, so they can feed them into Esprit. (Our designs are only part of the total work in the shop). Is this the norm in the machine shop biz, or are most shops still using mainly manual machines?

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Reply to
Dale Dunn

Hi Ben,

How quick of a turnaround are you looking for? Depending on the material and size of the part, it may be in stock or it might take 1 day to a week to be delivered. Once we have material the lead times can range from a day to a couple weeks. We have Solidworks Office 2006. If your interested change cAm to com in the e-mail.

Mike Carr

Reply to
Mike C

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