Cheap Rapid Prototyping?

Ugha

I know that rapid prototyping machines cost a fortune... and the homemade ones are
hard as heck to assemble and don't always work as well as expected.

So.... I was wondering if anyone knew of a rapid prototyping service that doesn't cost
an arm and a leg?

From what I understand... once you got the machine all it costs is a few pennies worth
of plastic and the power to run the machine. So there should be SOMEONE out there
SOMEWHERE that isn't padding their prices overly much.

To any of you who do have access to one of these machines... You could make a
fortune making single-runs for hobby use at a reasonable price.

Bean

There are a couple things that make the prices high:

1) Like you said the machines are expensive, and they don't last forever.
2) The bit are very expensive (some almost $10 each) and they don't last very long.
3) Setup time. File conversions, material prep, etc. Could be as much as an hour.
4) Time. These machines are not speed demons. A couple hours of time babysitting the mill is gonna cost ya.

What type of product are you wanting to make a prototype of ? (PCB ?)

I have two LPKF machines. I've made everything from encoder wheels to pan-tilt fixtures to PCBs with it. They are very handy to have.

Bean.

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Ugha

Funny you said that...
Those are pretty much the two things I wanted to have made... a pan-tilt setup and encoder wheels.

Also would love to have some parts for a gripper arm made.

I know there are tons of custom PCB services out there... they cost more for small-runs but its still
well within reason for hobby use. I was just hoping there was something like that for rapid prototyping.

LoopyByteloose

Using Eagle CAD software and Mainland Chinese circuit board fabricators brings the costs of boards way down. Sparkfun represents one in the U.S and the cost is surprisingly close to what I get by going direct.

The Chinese companies would be quite happy to no only provide more than the boards. They are willing to partially or completely populate them. Testing is available too.

In general, I don't think they are charging more to the small customer for similar prototype services because they aggressively want the business. It is just that small runs set up is just as intensive as setting larger runs. So, it is the labor and other set costs that are the barrier.

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PLEASE CONSIDER the following:

Do you want a quickly operational black box solution or the knowledge included therein?······

···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Bean

Ugha,
There are pictures of the Pan/Tilt fixture here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=592076


I would design it differently if I made it again. I've found that using 0.062" double sided copper plated FR4, I can put a groove in one piece and solder another piece inserted into the groove to make a right angle (instead of using bolts and nuts).

Bean.

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