Quote Originally Posted by Nelso View Post
Can you draw them up and have them CNC machined? I heard half the cost of CNC machining is drawing it up and writing the program to cut things out. If you can draw it up, you would think it would make things a bit cheaper to make.
yes and no... the 3D model is the starting point.. then there is the conversion into the tool path that takes a fair bit of time...

by all means, passing on a 3D model in the right format is a step in the right direction, but you are still up for a lot of programming time.

Some of the guys wear the programming time as they look at it as an investment into the part that they willl recoup by selling a whole heap.

It all depends on how unique the part is and who ends up owning the IP....

At some point I will have a CNC...I just love tools...