Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Where can I go to get a custom design cut out of a thin sheet of metal?

I've created a design for the side of my PC case - but have no way of cutting it myself. Can anyone recommend any laser-cutting services (if indeed that is the right way of doing it?) around London?Where can I go to get a custom design cut out of a thin sheet of metal?
I do lazer cutting at my work. This is what is involved. Need to draw your design on auto-cad or a similar program and tag it into a pdf file (could take 5-10 min depending on how difficult the design is) . then all the pieces get laid out into a sheet using another program takes about 5-10 minutes. That program gets sent to the lazer and the operator will then load the sheet of steel and run the program (10-30 min, depending on how many pieces). the average price the customer pays for lazer work is about anywhere from 80$ to $150 an hour + the price of the material + the price of designing your piece. so we are talking big bucks here. you may be able to find a metal fab shop that can do this for you for cheap if you are willing to wait. They can simply just add in your piece if there is room on a sheet they are cutting in the future. If you already have the file designed and ready to go in pdf form then that will make things cheap. look around on the web for someone to draw it for you and import it to pdf (or whatever is compatible with the lazer the fab shop is using) just tell em you are looking to do it cheap and at their leisure. you may be able to pick it up for 20-30 bux (im assuming it's about 10in square or smaller) or you may get lucky and get it for free. if they don't have to design it for you. we always decent sized unused pieces coming off the lazerWhere can I go to get a custom design cut out of a thin sheet of metal?
It will cost you more than you will want to pay. The setting-up cost is the same for a one off as it is for a 1000. I would suggest you learn to do it yourself or find a metal worker who can do it by hand.
I suggest you look to a firm who does water jet cutting. Laser cuting is expensive and specaliased. Water jet cutting is cheeper and less specailised try the yellow pages.
on ebay, the are people that will cut your designs out onto sheet steel

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