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How reasonable is reasonable? Here is one place I used once a long time ago but for 3d machined parts (not cut sheet metal) it will start at $184. It appears that their prices have gone up since I last looked at them (about 7 or 8 years ago), but I don't know by how much.

I have a feeling emachineshop.com will refuse to make you anything obviously intended to kill people. Their terms of use allow them to refuse for any reason, and it's just not worth it from a public relations perspective.

Well if the real thrill is designing the stuff in the software rather than the printing it out in 3D and want someone else to do it, there is Shapeways. They have several types of plastic and metal to choose from as the RPT material. YMMV for how cost effective it is. I've seen some very cool custom W40K figures made for about the same cost as the stuff in the shops.

An AC mentioned eMachineShop that tends toward more old-school milling and cutting. I figure a very cool resource if you do scale model projects that need an exotic cam or bolt with tight tolerances that a plastic extruder can't give.

From personal experience, AutoCAD Inventor is really easy to use for Shapeways. Blender gave me a headache trying to keep things within size limits and to have some sort of meaningful metric discipline throughout. Sometimes just paying for the right tool is better than trying to force a free tool to do something extra.

Looks like they want you to use their own cad software, which apparently can estimate the cost while you work on the design. I bet some googling can find other, similar, shops.

http://www.pad2pad.com/
A printed circuit board manufacturer providing all your custom printed circuit board

http://www.olimex.com/
Electronic design and PCB sub-contract assembly

http://www.eurocircuits.com/
PCB manufacturing; verified a la carte on demand specifications ...also...

http://www.emachineshop.com/
Machine shop to create custom parts, products and prototypes

http://www.tapplastics.com/
TAP Plastics specialize in fiberglass resins and fabrics for fiberglass repair, plastic containers, and custom fabrication

(non-affiliation yadda yadda goes here)

There are already a number of small-amount manufacturers, as you call them. Some are prototyping shops, some will build any number of items for you.

http://www.emachineshop.com/
http://www.tapplastics.com/
http://www.pad2pad.com/
http://www.olimex.com/
http://www.eurocircuits.com/
(no affiliation to any of them)

But you have to supply a sellable idea that's not been done yet, and bear the cost of iterating the bugs out of the design.

Also, and more to the point, the burden of IP is on your shoulders; at least, they're just punching out parts on your behalf and AFAIK that's not been contested in court as of yet.

For big stuff: McMaster-Carr

For little stuff: Small Parts, Inc.

For custom stuff, use a local machine shop or emachineshop.

good luck.

emachineshop.com

How bout metal? A nice service is eMachineShop, which lets you download their CAD software and design and order your own stuff in a number of alloys of metal, plus wood and plastics. But there is a setup overhead. So you can't just order one little $5 dohicky for a project you're doing -- it's not going to make financial sense unless you're going to need a bunch of the dohickys to cover the initial setup cost (or unless it's an inherently expensive part you want, like a replacement engine part for a custom engine). I suppose there's no service that would give you a reasonably priced one-off in metal?

For those of you who have no idea how real, physical stuff is made, there's an entire industry of small "job shops" that will take your design and make a part for you. If you're anywhere near a industrial city, there's probably one in your neighborhood. Most will use machine tools, but ones with stereolithography machines aren't that rare.

If you're in Silicon Valley and want to use a stereolithography machine, check out TechShop, which has one of the better ones. It won't be busy when you visit.

Many young inventors are shocked to discover that you can't just design a part using CAD-CAM and email the design off to a factory in China to be mass produced.

Sure you can.

You're missing one other obvious use. Even though it may not be cheaper per se, it will one day be possible to design custom parts that are unavailable on the open market. For example, the first thing I'd do with a 3D printer is develop a holder for all my Atari 2600 carts. This would make sense for me, because there are very few such holders left on the market. The few that do exist are based on the economics of the 80's. (i.e. When everyone was only able to afford a dozen or so cartridges rather than the hundred or so cartridges I can cheaply purchase today.)

While people have been making similar items out of wood for as long as man has been around, not everyone has the tools, the open space, and the skills to properly craft such items. 3D printers could offer the much easier method of crafting objects in a CAD program. And you can tweak the design in ways that are difficult or impossible with wood-working.

Speaking of cartridges, one of the designs I used to test the eMachineShop CAD program was a replica of an Atari 2600 cartridge. If there weren't already more economic ways of obtaining such replacement shells, I could have easily have had a 3D printed replica at my door for a hundred dollars or so. (Or so the program told me.) If it was just a bit cheaper, I'd probably would ship myself some custom cartridge holders. ;)

http://www.emachineshop.com/demo/index.htm

Don't know about open source CAD, but the folks at http://www.emachineshop.com/ have a free downloadable CAD program that can be used to design things that their company can then make for you. No reason why you can't download it and try it out just to learn how CAD works.

So let me get this straight. A company that has failed to knock together a custom PC that boots CDs despite FOUR YEARS of trying now thinks that they're mogul enough to take the PC World by storm with an online game delivery application (like Steam?) that appears to have little to differentiate itself in the market?

Excuse me while I don't hold my breath in anticipation.

This company has churned through incredible amounts of talent to produce nothing more than press releases about a fancy keyboard and mouse! In that time, Microsoft has launched not one, but TWO separate game consoles that both compete in the exact same space. In that same time, the company was believed to have been a Pump and Dump scheme by the SEC. In that same time, they have never demonstrated an actual working prototype of anything more than their mouse and keyboard!

Excuse me? Could someone please tell me how long it takes to send a manufacturing file out for a custom case, then stuff standard hardware into it? (Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question.)

I have absolutely no trust in this company, its vision, or its future; and I feel deep sympathy for anyone who has had the displeasure of dealing with them in the past.

I was looking into something similar for a Soekris-based project recently. ProtoCase looks promising. I haven't actually placed my order, so I can't comment on quality just now. I did download their software and do a quick design to estimate costs. Looks like, for a typical soekris-sized project with a couple serial ports and a couple ethernet ports I'd be facing approx. $130/unit in very small quantities with about $70 in one-time setup fees.

These guys have also occasionally been recommended on soekris-tech, and also offer free software to help you design and submit projects to them.

Good luck!

These people can help with part of your problem: http://www.emachineshop.com/

1. Learn how to make a general sound compressor.
2. Hire a few electrical engineers and send them to order a few thousand PCB circuits.
3. Hire a mechanical engineer and have them make the encasings. Oh, most importantly, make sure the encasings are iPod white in color.
4. Your design should have a 1/8" audio jack in and a 1/8" audio jack out with a 3" length of audio cable. It's plugged into any media device and then your headphones plug into it.
5. Profit!

It would be great to see DIYers make some more cool iPod mods and post them online to share (someone with more time than me could set up a wiki or a blog for this). I would love to see something like a brushed stainless steel casing that would be resistant to scratching, maybe using that same material they use in grocery store checkout scanners (manufactured emerald or something) as a scratch-resistant display cover.

I'm looking at on demand machining rather like http://www.emachineshop.com/ I already have a number of shops in my area offering such service.

For instance, I like to build boats. I tend to use stitch and glue construction. Rather than loft and cut designs I send a cad doc to the shop supply the marine plywood and voila back comes my ready to stich panels.

I also like sculptures based on formula, weird I know. I have had a few 'small' scultures made in resin $$$

At present the cost of this type of manufacturing is prohibitive i.e. material cost is a small portion of the cost. There are a few shops doing it and they have no incentive to drop prices. Now if a lot of people wanted stuff made this way the market would expand and more companies would enter. I'm hoping to many will enter and supply outstrips demand and prices they go down :-)

If you have anything other than a desktop cnc mill then I'm insanely jealous :-) Stop wasting your time here and go and make stuff.

I think part of the problem is they no longer make generic parts that you can custom build from any more. It's all custom made and not reusable for any other purpose. It will only get worse until the ability to customize becomes cheap and ubiquitous.

It's about as self-replicating as a machine that connects to the web via its ethernet port, places an order for parts here, waits until the UPS web site says the parts have arrived and then emails its owner to tell it to assemble the parts sitting in the box on the front doormat.

It's about as self-replicating as a machine that connects to the web via its ethernet port, places an order for parts here, waits until the UPS web site says the parts have arrived and then emails its owner to tell it to assemble the parts sitting in the box on the front doormat.

It's about as self-replicating as a machine that connects to the web via its ethernet port, places an order for parts here, waits until the UPS web site says the parts have arrived and then emails its owner to tell it to assemble the parts sitting in the box on the front doormat.

It's about as self-replicating as a machine that connects to the web via its ethernet port, places an order for parts here, waits until the UPS web site says the parts have arrived and then emails its owner to tell it to assemble the parts sitting in the box on the front doormat.

Maybe I'm just a luser who hasn't been paying attention, but this Pad2Pad thing is extremely cool.

You, my friend, are far too easily impressed.

But what the hey? Go build yourself a plastic case for your custom board. ;-)

More fun links.

Just happened to see this in the sidebar: eMachineShop

ou may think it wouldn't take much R&D to develop an SNES-equivalent console

It doesn't. I've been looking into the issue and here's what I found:

- Fully featured, ARM-based boards are cheap and easy to acquire. Most fit in 2"x3".

- Linux or NetBSD can be leveraged for controlling the board.

- USB can be used for a simple interface for controllers. This would even allow PC style controllers to be plugged in.

- "Smart cards" are very cheap and easy to acquire on the market. Their only drawback is the relatively low amount of data they can hold. (8K - 1MB)

- Controllers parts and the case be easily manufactured using eMachineShop for the plastics. Pad2pad can be used for the controller circuit boards. Microswitches or rubber button paddings can be obtained from a variety of manufacturers.

In short, a guy in his garage could develop such a console in a few months time. The problem with NES consoles is that they're cutting edge. When the SNES was new, they had to build custom hardware to produce something cheap enough for the features they needed. Similarly, Nintendo also had to spend a lot of money on new low-power display technologies for the GameBoy line of consoles. Sega had a handheld console more powerful than the gameboy years ago, but it failed due to size, battery life, and fragility.

None of this new fangled USB bullshit that these kids today are into.

You have to admit, though. A USB connector is a lot more like a game console connector than a gameport or parallel port connector.

And is it just me, or does it seem like cheating to buy a prebuilt kit to solder onto your controller?

Not really. As I said, this "kit" is really just a couple of electronic parts. The real magic is the PIC chip which they probably built using a standard PIC software package. The beautiful thing about modern technology is that you can rely on pre-built stuff to get projects done faster and easier than you could 10 years ago.

Of course, if you really want a challenge, go ahead and pick up a few switch components and use eMachineShop to manufacture your own controller design. Molded high-impact plasttic is where it's at. :-)

Hmm... you know, with manufacturing being as easy as it is these days, it's a wonder that the Phantom game console is still vapor. Some guy in his garage could whip out a similar product in the span of a few months. Sure, it might lack some of the polish of a "professional" system, but it would at least get done!

IDE may have a limit, but get the elctronics out of one of those USB drive enclosures. Now your limit is about 6' (it could actually be more, correct me if I'm wrong)

Also, a good place to design and manufacture parts for this might be http://www.emachineshop.com/. I'm working on parts for a case mod through them.

Well I didn't know that. I should get a switch blade and not assemble it.

I should also order an AK-47 kit and not order the missing receiver through some place else or have some manufacture a custom one for me cheaply. (yes you too can have an fully automatic illegal assult weapon for under $200, as long as you don't assemble it).

Funny how the same place also carries high capacity magazines, ammo and drums for that particular fire arm. but you're not suppose to have any of this stuff. (Sorry won't ship the mags to california, you'll have to buy them at a local gun show for half the price).

I have used emachineshop on a few occasions. ... I found them about a year a go

January 8, 2004 eMachineShop today announced the pre-opening of their new online service

Can someone more familiar with machining comment on their samples prices? It seems a little expensive for the pieces they list. I can imagine something much more intricate would cost a small fortune. Granted, the prices go down with quantity but most hobbiests aren't going to order 100+ pieces of a part.

Machined parts are expressed as machining instructions cranked out by CAD programs. You can look at the part in 3D, then send it to the machine shop to be made. (Check out emachineshop, which is a free CAD program. Select the material, design your part, click on "Price" to get an estimate, then use "Place Order" to order the part. A machine shop in New Jersey will make it for you and send it back.) That, too, is clearly a "writing".

At some point, anything complicated that's done by multiple people is expressed as a "writing" in some form.

The article misses the whole point. This isn't a efficient way to make things you can make now. It's a way to make things you can't make now. Things with detailed microstructure. Things with moving parts and electronics inside.

This is inherently a slow technology, because you have to build up thick objects layer by layer. But it produces objects that are more "organic", not in the hippie sense, but in the sense of having "internal organs." The first applications will probably be medical devices.

What else? Photonics parts such as switching mirror arrays. Peristaltic pumps. Cell sorters. Sensing devices. Once it's clear what you can do with this approach, there will be new, interesting things to be made that way. But they'll be small, high-detail objects. You're not going to make an I-beam that way, even if you could.

Almost all manufactured objects made in quantity (with the notable exception of wood products) are produced by some kind of "moulding" process. Casting, stamping, lithography, injection moulding, hydroforming, etc. are all "moulding" processes, where material is formed to match a master pattern. All these processes are fast and cheap. That's the great achievement of the first half of the twentieth century.

Machining, by contrast, is slow and expensive. Almost nothing you buy in a store is carved out of a solid block of metal. Many things could be, but that's only done for the prototype. Volume products are made by moulding-type processes. There may be a bit of finish machining, but it started with a moulded blank that looked almost like the finished part.

You can have a computer-controlled milling machine, and all the software to drive it, at home right now. I know two people who do. They don't use them for making routine household objects. It's too slow and too much trouble.

If you want a sense of what one-off manufacturing is like today, download eMachineshop. It's a free CAD program with a difference. After you design the part, use the Job->Material menu to specify the material, and use the Job->Price menu to get an estimate. Then use Order->Place Order to have one made. An automated machine shop in New Jersey will make one and send it to you. Most parts cost $100-$300 for the first one, and a small fraction of that for each additional copy.