I was just curious on another thread there is a sale on some crap c8s with the old pill design which I like being able to swap out pills on the go without complete teardown abd unsoldered and resoldering abd thermal pasting everything.
So to you people out there that know about metal shops and cost and I’m sure some of you have done this.
How much roughly. I know prices vary shop to shop region to region. If I brought like a c8 pill, or s2 pill even the larger hd2010 pills to a machine shop and said make me this exact piece out of copper. I can drill my own wire holes. Just wondering if it would be reasonable or they’d want like 30 40 dollars for one pill
Or I wonder if I bought the bar stock if like a votech type school would do it. To give the kids something to work on.
When I was in shop, we would repair the cars free they just had to supply the parts and fluids. And we were happy to do it
It only makes sense when you get 10 — 20 made and I have a friend with a CNC Shop— It cost me $23 a piece for 12/ S2+ copper Triple pills—He was like 1 or 12 same price —Look on Kaidomain or Fastech they have them in brass CHEAP
Thanks I was just curious man they really price gouge for cutting a few threads into a bar. I guess fasttech is probably ordering 1000 pieces at a time in brass so it can be cheap.
Still never had a s2+ triple maybe one day. Kinda on the high end of my budget even to build currebtly. I’d have to order a couple parts here and there. One day though
Where I live machine shops would not accept this job because no one wants to bother with single piece job. If you were to manage to find someone that has a time to do the job you would be looking at roughly 20-30€ for machining + you have to buy material -> CU rod and you can’t buy just 2cm you need, you have to buy at least 10cm piece because you need extra lenght to hold it in lathe… Copper rod 10cm lenght 2,5cm diameter is about 20€.
Not cheap at all, been there, done that…
As mentioned above, copper is hard to machine, its soft and sticky, you need new/sharp tools and cooling because copper expands when heated…
Ya it’s a no go, I’ll just go for the brass ones for 2 dollars a piece whenever I’m ready. That’s within budget.
I was just thinking maybe a high school or college votech class might be willing to make a few if I bought the copper to give the students practice on something real. The school pays for the equipment and tools and upkeep for all of it. So it’s not like a owner would have to pay for a new bit/tools to make it. They already have a large budget for maintenance Like we did in auto shop. We would wait for someone to bring a car in. The high school still does it by me. You bring the part they will fix your car. Usually 2nd year students depending on the repair and the teacher supervises it and then checks everything at the end to make sure it’s all correct and torqued to spec and all that.
They aren’t just cutting a few threads into a bar. They are paying rent on their shop. They are taking the time to talk to you, to understand the job and estimate it. If you go ahead and pay a deposit, they are reverse engineering the part you’ve provided. They are either spending time and money to acquire bar stock, or they are using existing inventory and paying the cost of carrying inventory. They are setting up the lathe.
Only then are they cutting a few threads into a bar. As they are doing that, they aren’t doing paying work for someone else. And, of course, there are consumables, depreciation/maintenance on tools and equipment, pay back on training, vacation, health care, etc.
There is a reason you aren’t just doing it yourself, right?
You can get good C8 hosts for, what, $12? Don’t mess with the crummy ones.
I’ve “upgraded” a few hosts by modding the existing pills with the addition of copper for better thermal path and thermal mass. The first time, I didn’t really know what I was getting into, and I probably spent 4+ hours on it. The second time, I knew I should just order a brass pill and be done with it, but I didn’t want to wait to build the light, and I thought I had a quicker way. It still took 4+ hours. I’ll probably make the same mistake again, but I’m learning
That said, look around here. Kiriba-RU has a thread about custom work at a reasonable price, but I think minimums are still 10+.
I agree, it’s better to start with a better host, I Havnt ordered the cheap c8s yet. But I wouldn’t mind a few s2 pills. Probably will email Simon and see if he sells them Seperstly. Or if I ever get the parts for a triple I’ll have a spare pill. I still might take mine up to the high school and community colleges around here and see what they say. It won’t hurt to try all they can say is no. With a small amount of luck they may do it. Since they don’t have the overhead of a machine shop. Since my dad is a teacher there they might make a few.
Look into 100kgarages. You may get lucky and find someone operating more as a hobby than a business.
It also pays for the labor that isn’t just skilled enough to do this simple job, but skilled enough to do higher paying parts. I’m glad you rather than I set the record straight on what goes into skilled labor.