CNC Bottom Metal

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anietfeld

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Leduc, Alberta
Hey guys, wondering what the difficulty is on this one. I’m looking for some Mauser bottom metal, along the same lines as Sunnyhill.

Are there any CNC guys who could give their two cents as to the viability of having someone do this?
 
anietfeld said:
I guess that’s one of the things to figure out. What would it take to scan an existing one I have now and create a file from it?
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you need to get a quality 3D scanner, make a mesh, fix it, create a STEP model of it, then apply toolpaths to your model in a CAM environment.
 
anietfeld said:
What’s a ballpark guess?
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Whatever Sunny Hill wants for theirs it will be far cheaper than paying someone to scan/model/CNC it as a one-off project. A WAG for the scanning/clean up/modeling work is $750-$1200. This is a WAG, but no one who has the equipment and skills is going to work for less than $100/hr and this would blow the better part of a day I would guess.

After that you then need to pay someone to CNC it for you, at well over $100/hr for machine time.


Mark
 
mmattockx said:
Whatever Sunny Hill wants for theirs it will be far cheaper than paying someone to scan/model/CNC it as a one-off project. A WAG for the scanning/clean up/modeling work is $750-$1200. This is a WAG, but no one who has the equipment and skills is going to work for less than $100/hr and this would blow the better part of a day I would guess.

After that you then need to pay someone to CNC it for you, at well over $100/hr for machine time.


Mark
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What can I say, I’m sick of exchange rates. You’d think there would be enough custom builds on our side of the border for someone to have already looked into this.
 
anietfeld said:
What can I say, I’m sick of exchange rates. You’d think there would be enough custom builds on our side of the border for someone to have already looked into this.
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I completely understand, but sometimes there just isn't a great option at anything like a reasonable price. Your best bet might be to find a hobbyist to do the scanning and modelling (hopefully for fun or just beer money), then shop around for CNC.

If you're willing to wait there are online CNC shops where you can upload your model and get a quote, then order and wait for it to arrive in the mail. The cheap ones are most likely China if that bothers you, but there is a range of options out there if you look.

I just took a look on a few of the 3D printing sites but didn't find a credible Mauser 98 action to download. If you could find one that is accurate you would be able to skip the scanning/modelling parts and jump almost all the way to CNC.


Mark
 
anietfeld said:
What’s a ballpark guess?
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Several thousand for sure.
The first part is the most expensive, cost per unit drops drastically as production runs get longer.
I work for a large manufacturing company that does some of this sort of thing.
We don't do outside work, so I can't say what our costs would be, but I know what the machines are worth, and I know how much the tooling cost, and I know how much the engineering department gets paid(hint, it's ALL expensive).
The only way this would be anything like reasonable is if you found somebody who does this as a hobby and take advantage of them.
 
Sadly the above estimates are true. You may be able to find a machinist with weekend access to his/her place of employment that could take this on for the fun of it, but from a business perspective, building a one-off is prohibitively expensive.
One of the factors often overlooked with machining (vs 3d printing which many people are quickly becoming more aware of) is that once a drawing/model and programs have been written to make the part its self, there will also need to be soft jaws or fixtures made in order to handle the partially machined part. This becomes more parts to design, program and make before the actual part can be started.

In this case of a hinged floorplate/bottom metal/magazine, we're looking at several components too.

Here's a couple pictures of a fixture I built a while ago while developing bottom metal for the T3/x.




As a note, the form tool in the above picture was custom built for me of South Carolina and cost $280US
 
I love these threads. Guys seem to think a CNC is a magic machine, you just push a button and a part pops out.

Realistically CNC is only good if you are making many of something. CNC is the worst possible route if you only want a one-off part.

mmattockx said:
there are online CNC shops where you can upload your model and get a quote, then order and wait for it to arrive in the mail.
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The online stuff is mostly in the USA and they won't touch anything that could come a cropper of ITAR. I asked. :rolleyes:
 
I Dont Care About You said:
I love these threads. Guys seem to think a CNC is a magic machine, you just push a button and a part pops out.

Realistically CNC is only good if you are making many of something. CNC is the worst possible route if you only want a one-off part.


The online stuff is mostly in the USA and they won't touch anything that could come a cropper of ITAR. I asked. :rolleyes:
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I strongly disagree with that statement. While a CNC excels at making runs of parts, it is also uniquely suited to making one-offs of complex parts, which is vastly better and easier than trying to cobble the same thing out of a manual machine. If you're making a square block, then you're right, other methods are better. If you're making something that has curved shapes and contours, a CNC is 1000x better than a manual machine, or trying to fabricate it by hand.
 
anietfeld said:
What can I say, I’m sick of exchange rates. You’d think there would be enough custom builds on our side of the border for someone to have already looked into this.
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Look at how our government has decimated the gun community, then think it through. The market to run businesses like this is getting smaller every year. - dan
 
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