
Rapid CNC Prototyping Process for Smartphones and Tablets - teriiehina
http://www.hatchmfg.com/android-smartphone-tablet-how-rapid-prototyping-process/
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fmstephe
I am looking at options for building custom electric guitars. This is just for
a hobby, so no mass production at the end.

Can anyone with experience in doing this tell me if it is feasible to get
CNCed products made as one offs?

It seems likely that this step is part of a longer and highly involved process
resulting in mass production, which wouldn't be appropriate for me.

Can anyone offer experience/tips for getting this kind of CNC work done as a
one off. I live in Germany.

Thanks in advance.

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tonylemesmer
I've worked successfully with Star Prototype[1] which is a company set up in
China by an English gentleman, Gordon Styles - excellent turnaround time on
some large CNC aluminium parts. We did a parallel job with a UK based company.
Same part, same material. Even with shipping to the UK they took half the time
and cost half as much.

I don't know what an electric guitar costs or what its made from (MDF?) but
this would be a reasonable starting point. It depends if you just want bits or
if you also want assembly and finishing.

[1] [http://www.star-prototype.com/](http://www.star-prototype.com/)

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fmstephe
Thanks Tony, I'll look into that link.

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vlehto
"The cost is much higher than a mass production case (likely 50-200+ times
more expensive)"

Mass production case has two advantages. Big batch size and insignificant cost
of design/product. For the CAD-work I would pick someone I can meet personally
and often. After that, if you pick plastic, you have multitude of options how
to produce the prototype. However it's "only" hundreds of dollars now.
Casting, CNC and 3D printing are all competitive options for crude model.

For refined piece like the example, i'd seriously consider making aluminum
permanent mold for a casting run. It's good for production run of few thousand
products, while CNC milling aluminum mold is not very expensive. You have to
spend bit more time in design phase, because now you have to think how the
finished piece exits the mold, etc. But the good thing is that this is
identical to the mass production tools you are eventually going to order. The
only differences are the hardened tool steel as material and possibly Electric
discharge machining replacing CNC.

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n00b101
I wonder what the cost/turnaround time for a one-off prototype would be?

For these work piece sizes and materials, you can do it yourself for ~$3,000
USD one-time hardware cost:

* Sherline 3-Axis 5400 CNC-ready* [1] $1,300 USD

* Stepper Motors + Controller[2] $500

* PC + parallel port $500

* Measuring and holding tools $500

\+ Materials

\+ CAD/CAM software

\+ Several hours/days of time for setup and machining

The cost of these materials is low, so I guess you could make a prototype like
this for maybe $50 in material costs? As an added benefit you could machine
some or all parts in aluminum, if preferred.

[1] [http://www.sherline.com/](http://www.sherline.com/) [2] [http://www.omc-
stepperonline.com/](http://www.omc-stepperonline.com/)

* I would recommend retro-fitting limit switches onto this mill, which is relatively cheap to do

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noselasd
Somewhat related, I really like the NYCNC videos .
[https://www.youtube.com/user/saunixcomp](https://www.youtube.com/user/saunixcomp),
showing CNC machining, CAD work - you can learn a lot from those videos!

