This May Replacement Parts - Help Those Of You Who Need Replacement Parts

[Robotnut]

This will explain itself...

E-Machine Shop

[milwaukeemachineman]

Darryl, do you know if they make parts from a resin part?

I got lots of parts that need to be copied in plastic but am wondering how much each part would cost?

Are they the only ones? and if I do go to them will they NOT take my work and make what I did and sell it themselves?

Or do they want only PROTOTYPE pieces to make a mold from in the first place? and then again at what cost?

I have lots of questions, but no answers!

Plus if it costs more to make the parts (53) than to make the whole robot, it kinda ruins the whole project, don't ya think?

Anyway just my 2 cents worth.

MMM

[mike van]

MMM, I saw a TV show where this place was featured. If I remember right, you download their program, design your part, submit it, they get back to you with a time & price. One item or a thousand of them. Pretty much any material, metal, etc. Worth a look?

[Robotnut]

Mike, the only thing I know is that the first part is expensive and

additional parts are quite reasonable. You would have to check

their site for a quote...

[MrFuture]

Here are a couple of other online part-fabrication sources

Big Blue Saw is primarily for cut parts, in a variety of materials. You can upload cad files, gifs, jpegs, etc. with the shape, though it seems to be primarily for 2d-designs.

http://www.bigbluesaw.com

Shapeways is a newer service that does 3d-printing in 3 types of plastic. http://shapeways.com They're great in that they only charge by the cubic cm, but it's still not what you'd consider cheap. I'm trying to ramp up my Blender 3d-skills a bit to make the most of such a service. It's not the easiest cad program to use, but you can't beat the free pricetag or community support. http://www.blender.org

Hope that helps,

Mr. Future

[milwaukeemachineman]

Look Guys, While I appreciate all the places you can get parts made you still have to do it by CAD programs or have dimentions in a computer program.

But I don't have that kind of ability to have my parts in CAD, all I have is the part I have made. IF those places would accept the part to make or take measurements off of then it would be fine and then estimate a cost per part I would be all for it.

But Since they don't accept the actual part and want only computer CAD renditions of your parts that you want made it kinda ruins the whole process.

If you know any place that accepts the actual part and will make copies of that part in limited amounts, and usually that is only Model Companies, many of which I know and even they won't do all the parts I want due to the cost of making the molds to make those parts.

You see I am currently having problems with the guy that casts my parts as he has been paid for the parts but has only given me a small amount of those parts and he is an artist himself so it basically when he can get to it, that's when I get some parts.....usually years! So it put a damper on my building.

I am looking for someone to cast my parts that can do it cheap enough and will do it in a timely manner, and all I ask for is Resin parts.

Here's a pic of my parts, as you can see it's rather extensive and a lot of the parts are very small so when a mold is made it would contain several parts, not just a single two sided mold for each part because that would really be expensive.

Anyway, if you guys know of anybody that is willing to make parts for me at a reasonable cost I'm all for discussing the proposition.

MMM

[Kilroy]

Mike, casting resin parts isn't that hard, maybe you should give it a try. Seems to me I saw a nice tutorial here that I think was using plaster and if you google it, you will come up with the resin/latex manufacturers sites like smooth-on that have lots of tutorials.

You could pick up a small molding kit and try one of the simpler parts. If you take your time and plan the mold properly you will never be dependant on anyone for that part again.