Need Some Ideas

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 12:14 am

A friend of mine owns a machine shop and is awaiting delivery of a new machining center.

He's looking to branch out from his typical stampings and wire forms to more custom parts.

So if you ever said "I wish the made..." then he wants to hear it.

It could be anything. A tool or a car part or whatever.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 4:52 am

Is this "new machining center" a CNC milling machine? A lathe? Surface grinder? All the above?

A crimping tool for Pex pipe cost about $150. A guy on eBay buys $10 steel cutter, removes the jaws, and CNC machines pex crimpers to fit the jaws. For $85 he sells crimpers that work well. He even throws in the old cutting blades so you can convert back to wire cutters if you want. He's found himself a nitch. Perhaps you can squeeze in and sell some too.

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 7:50 am

Yes, a milling machine. Sorry. To me, a VMC (vertical machining center) is a mill.

Thanks for the idea. That's the kind of thing he is looking at. Something he can sell on Ebay would be great.

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 10:24 am

jpete wrote:A friend of mine owns a machine shop and is awaiting delivery of a new machining center.

He's looking to branch out from his typical stampings and wire forms to more custom parts.

So if you ever said "I wish the made..." then he wants to hear it.

It could be anything. A tool or a car part or whatever.

Have him check out http://www.emachineshop.com/ and then become one of their vendors. There is lots of work out there for small shops that embrace the CAD/CAM technology. Emachine shop is one way the customers and shops find each other.

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 12:17 pm

How do I go about that?

I checked their site, they seem pretty self contained.

Rick 386 · Post by **Rick 386** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 3:57 pm

jpete wrote:How do I go about that?

I checked their site, they seem pretty self contained.

Try this page of their site : http://www.emachineshop.com/machine-shop/Supplier ... age13.html

Rick

wlape3 · Post by **wlape3** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 4:06 pm

There are probably loads of custom automobile and antique machine parts he could get into making. Some obscure parts are no longer available even in junk yards.

jpete · Post by **jpete** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 4:14 pm

Thanks. I forwarded that to my friend. Hopefully he'll get some work out of it.

Yanche · Post by **Yanche** » Thu. Mar. 10, 2011 9:23 pm

The emachine shop software is an entirely different design philosophy. Their design software uses "cost" as a design parameter up front as you are designing. Doing this allows you to choose a lower cost material if a low cost product is what you desire. It's been a while since I used the design tool but it would allow you to import and export CAD files. With some effort your design in other CAD tools could be modified to use lower cost materials. The underlying cost database is periodically updated to keep it current. It's an outstanding example of an innovative way to design lower cost products.