Used to be one here but he has gone to work for mining
(Glen - Grrrr 
)
I am chasing somebody to do a pretty basic job. I have the material to be cut so - extra easy.
Had a horrific quote from one place and another has taken over a week and asked questions but then not given me a price.
Anyone...?
Sorry - to clarify
cutting aluminium plate (6mm and 10mm) and finished pieces have a couple of threaded holes in them.
Technically you could mill them but would be too hard with radiused ends and would take a week to make 20 of them.
Yeah I have done some Ali but not really equipped for it, no coolant facilities, and it's messy on my machine as it's not enclosed in a cabinet.
Mostly wood and plastics for me.
What about laser cutting, quick easy and from my experience relatively cheap. Tap the holes yourself afterwards.
Select to expand quoteSlashrockson said..
What about laser cutting, quick easy and from my experience relatively cheap. Tap the holes yourself afterwards.
Edge finish MAY not be good enough (I use a coating afterwards that only goes on 1thou thick so imperfections are obvious) and the holes need to be very accurate. I am considering it though as they are very cheap - if anyone can post a pic of laser cut ally I'd be inetrested
Select to expand quoteDarkspi said..
are you making fins for your/others board? ??
No, definitely not aluminium ones ;-)
Slashrockson, reading a bit it seems gas assisted laser does a very fine edge finish so may be better than the CNC cutter / mill jobs I have had done previously.
have you thought of casting it if its a simple shape with complex curves it maybe easier to to cast rather then cut cheaper to long term
Ignoring Milsy's usual uncalled for filth -
thanks guys but I am aware of the options. Casting, yes but still have to mill it flat as they stack flat side against one another and the flatter they are the better. So given the need to finish it with a mill, may as well CNC cut from the outset. Plus the ally plate is worth stuff-all really, I do think casting would cost more.
Don't need enough of them to outsource to China.
There are plenty of places in Perth who can do it but like I said they are slow to reply or some charge outrageous prices. I'd rather give a fellow 'breezer a cashie but seems nobody here is in that line of work so I will persist with the others.
Ta
BTW for the conspiracists - it is really boring: 
Save yourself the coin and go oldschool ! Should have them done by next century !
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..Slashrockson said..
What about laser cutting, quick easy and from my experience relatively cheap. Tap the holes yourself afterwards.
Edge finish MAY not be good enough (I use a coating afterwards that only goes on 1thou thick so imperfections are obvious) and the holes need to be very accurate. I am considering it though as they are very cheap - if anyone can post a pic of laser cut ally I'd be inetrested
Finish is surprisingly good, I would think less than .001" surface roughness. In any case a quick run over with fine wet and dry would sort it. Ill see if I can load a photo of what I had done on 6mm al plate.
Select to expand quoteSlashrockson said..
What about laser cutting, quick easy and from my experience relatively cheap. Tap the holes yourself afterwards.
The last time I checked the maximum thickness for laser cutting of aluminium was 8mm.
Laser cutting with Nitrogen does improve the finish but it's still not that good, mostly just gets rid of the burn mark.
The esges can be very tapered as well.
mark are you making ali foils so you can slice through the reef for next years ledge to lano at the finish line.
sorry to say m8 the reason you arnt getting any replys is they are hoping you go away and the big quotes are hopeing you are rich enough to pay their time on machines for what should be a hand made job in ya back yard shed with a hack saw and linisher/bastard file
Nothing worse than people who are too tight to pay specialised trades what they are worth.
And the tight ones are usually the first to complain about how there are no skilled people coming through the trades and they cant get the skilled work done they need in Australia.
Its because of tight axxes wanting cashies that robs the Aussie trades that are trying to have a go and keep their heads above the water.
Support your local trades people, the couple of extra bucks spent will keep the specialist trades alive in aussie.
Select to expand quotelotofwind said..
Nothing worse than people who are too tight to pay specialised trades what they are worth.
And the tight ones are usually the first to complain about how there are no skilled people coming through the trades and they cant get the skilled work done they need in Australia.
Its because of tight axxes wanting cashies that robs the Aussie trades that are trying to have a go and keep their heads above the water.
Support your local trades people, the couple of extra bucks spent will keep the specialist trades alive in aussie.
Are you serious? A lot of trades people seem to want cash jobs. The ones I have dealt with seem to want to do you the favor of 'forgetting about GST' as their idea of a discount, and pocketing the rest tax free. I don't think you are screwing them over by doing this. I think you have got it around the wrong way and that there would be more tradies in favor of this than against it.
Of course, its a normal market where if no one wants to do it, no one will offer.
Would you seriously pay the setting up costs and the rest for someone to make these things as part of a commercial order? You would be crazy to do it unless you can't find anyone else to do it, for such a small job.
Why do you think the legit workers he went to first have to charge so much to survive? Because of tight wads who wont spend on a good aussie job, but will fork out heaps for an iphone etc. People who support tax evaders are criminals stealing from their own country and destroying local trades for their own penny pinching ways. SHAME SHAME SHAME.
Select to expand quotelotofwind said..
Why do you think the legit workers he went to first have to charge so much to survive? Because of tight wads who wont spend on a good aussie job, but will fork out heaps for an iphone etc. People who support tax evaders are criminals stealing from their own country and destroying local trades for their own penny pinching ways. SHAME SHAME SHAME.
The legit workers would have looked upon it as a pain to setup for such a small job, so they quoted accordingly. If they get the job, they get great money. If they don't they don't care. You see the exact same thing with all trades. If they don't need the work, they quote high.
I have seen this with tilers, concreters, plasterers, and probably a few other trades. They add in a factor for it being a small job. If they were low on work, you would see their rates come down.
You could argue the trades are doing it to themselves by offering to work for lower rates, but in reality, someone would do this job on the side for cash.
The way I see it, this is a job where a tradesman would do it for cash, or if he had to pay the commercial rates, he would probably do it himself. Some things are just not viable any other way.
I have never heard of a cash job by any tradesman where they took the money reluctantly, and insisted that they should pay tax and do it on the books. In fact, there is nothing stopping someone taking cash, doing the job, and then paying the ATO the correct amount of tax.
So where does the problem really lie?
Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..lotofwind said..
Why do you think the legit workers he went to first have to charge so much to survive? Because of tight wads who wont spend on a good aussie job, but will fork out heaps for an iphone etc. People who support tax evaders are criminals stealing from their own country and destroying local trades for their own penny pinching ways. SHAME SHAME SHAME.
The legit workers would have looked upon it as a pain to setup for such a small job, so they quoted accordingly. If they get the job, they get great money. If they don't they don't care. You see the exact same thing with all trades. If they don't need the work, they quote high.
I have seen this with tilers, concreters, plasterers, and probably a few other trades. They add in a factor for it being a small job. If they were low on work, you would see their rates come down.
You could argue the trades are doing it to themselves by offering to work for lower rates, but in reality, someone would do this job on the side for cash.
The way I see it, this is a job where a tradesman would do it for cash, or if he had to pay the commercial rates, he would probably do it himself. Some things are just not viable any other way.
I have never heard of a cash job by any tradesman where they took the money reluctantly, and insisted that they should pay tax and do it on the books. In fact, there is nothing stopping someone taking cash, doing the job, and then paying the ATO the correct amount of tax.
So where does the problem really lie?
I guess it depends on the business but most wont say no to a small job these days just because its a "bit of a pain", they cant afford to. Its still "a bit of a pain" for a cashie to set up to do it, no difference??
Its not really a case of "will bring their rates down if they need the work" , but more they cant afford to to cover costs, insurance, equipment, tools etc,
Of course you have never heard of someone not taking cash and not paying the tax, hence the problem of legit companies cant compete with the fraudulent tax cheats that are destroying the trades.
Guns shouldnt be allowed to be owned by general public in Australia, especially by red necks in WA who just like to kill stuff cause it makes them feel tough", just asking for trouble. Oh, unless the owner looks like her than its ok, otherwise ban all firearms.
D1 that is one of the nicest things with pink bits I've seen 
Loving all the talk about files and linishing machines when people don't know what the application is. 
Stephen got it right, they stack so have to have 100% perpendicular sides and very sharp 90deg corners so they stack well with no gaps..... plus anything more than 10thou error on the hole locations means they don't stack right also.
I don't need to spend 20hrs making them just to have an inferior product, I challenge anyone to make one by hand as good as I have them come from from a CNC machine.
Milsy, your $200 is about right, but a guy wanted over $360 so that's why I am asking here.
Thanks very much to those sending sensible helpful P.M's
Only $360!!! WTF ???,,,, not much for 20 of them on a precision job. Whats the crying about? I thought it must have been a huge amount by the way you were whinging ??
. Seriously, if you think a business can afford the tools and materials, rental, insurances etc to do it cheaper you're dreaming. You obviously havent run a small business yourself to realise all the overheads.
Maybe way back 20 years ago it might have been steep, but in nowadays with all the back yard cashies going on that a REAL business has to try and some how compete with, thats a pretty good price for skilled trade work.
Grinding ally on a surfacegrinder, that would be interesting to see.doin them in a lunch break must be a long one 
Select to expand quoteggf said..
Maybe there are some people who know something over here 
Naaa, he just moved from NZ so about still 10 year ahead of " y'all" .
milsy if it's such an unpopular site you can leave mate.
If anything, you have brought down the vibe with your land right for ghey whale activism over every comment.
And mark mentioned a thing with pink bits. the rifle had pink bits. It's called a double entendre and a sense of humour mate.
It's not rude unless u are old enough to know it could be and by that stage it wont offend.
Like someone else said, you had to draw attention to it and make a fuss.
