Some time in the next 24 hours laser cutting service will be available on the new site. It is highly experimental!
http://dangerousprototypes.com/store/lasercut (http://dangerousprototypes.com/store/lasercut)
I would really appreciate a couple test orders from kind patient people who understand this will be a rough bring-up and things might take 2 weeks to ship... This is a brand new system and supply chain that has never been tested.
Is it cheap? To be honest I have no idea. At 5 pieces we're charging $0.024 per cm2. That works out to 5 pieces 10x10cm for $12. Price breaks at 10,20,50, and 100 pieces.
We're not going to fret about design complexity or machine time because the prices are quite negligible in China.
Laser cutting is live now. There will be another update later today. If the measurements are off, we will let you put in your own dimensions because (for my test files at least) I had some wrong measurements.
Interesting - I just need to find a use for it now!
Out of interest, do you have any plans to expand to include printed overlays? That is one thing I have never managed to find a supplier of at sensible prices.
Also, I guess the shipping might be prohibitive, but I wonder if you couldn't expand the laser cutting (or other machining) to small enclosures? There are loads of nice small Hammond (for example) enclosures I'd love to fit things in to, but short of investing a lot in to tooling I can't do a 'good job' of cutting apertures etc.
thanks for the suggestion. By overlays do you mean the printed covers the go over keypads and displays on the front/top of cases? Manufacturers are all over the market here, but I've never priced it.
I'll add whatever we can find a supplier with predictable prices. We spent the last year and a half building the store custom to make stuff like that easy, instead of hacking it awkwardly into zencart (or whatever) like *ehm* everybody else :)
That's the one. Usually self-adhesive backed 'plastic sheet' printed that sticks on the front of a product. If you can also do the ones with buttons in that is even better, although for prototyping you can generally just hack somethign with a physical switch.
No shortage of suppliers in the UK but they all either want you to order hundreds or aren't set up for low volumes. (Mechanical / die cutting, non-digital printing so artwork charges etc)
Really loving the site - made PCBs so much easier and cheaper for me. Previously I had to order 14"x12" panels to get sensible prices which took ages to get enough prototypes together to justify one. Not only are yours cheaper and more flexible, the quality is usually much better than my UK supplier.
Tempted to look further in to getting some product made in China, currently what I do is a mix of prototypes and small scale production (ebay / hobbyist business) and keep thinking it would be so much easier to just get someone else to do the manufacturing for me...
Maybe you'd like to try our super secret alpha Dirty Assembly service. Currently minimum 100pcs. You can write me (ian@this site) with your user name for the new site (http://dangerousprototypes.com/store (http://dangerousprototypes.com/store)) and I will enable access.
Still possible to order laser cut pieces? Site says delivery never ;)
I am interested in the printed adhesive overlays, too, so if you could find a supplier, that'd be great!
Does laser cutting service support engraving as well? Like other services making lines/object light gray to signal engraving and black for cutting?
Thats a good question. I'd say probably not, but order and open a ticket and we'll walk it through.
Add me to the list for overlays. I'd be very interested in that as well.
Hi ian
I am interested in this service, but I have some queries:
1) .DXF files sent for the cut, have to have a single model or can be several models in one?
2) The price of the service would be by model or by all models in the .DXF file.
It would logically send the .dxf file and the size of Higher and Width.
Attached image of a captured image. (I have the .DXF file) and which I want to cut.
Thanks ian.
I'm interested in knowing that as well. Simple files upload okay, but nested files don't (I was trying the .dxf on this page (http://http://github.com/THX2112/Laser-Cut-Eurorack-Case) which I used on a G.Weike laser many times.)
(http://http://github.com/THX2112/Laser-Cut-Eurorack-Case/raw/master/Lasercut%20Eurorack%20Cutting%20Dimensions.png)
Neither file gave a final quote.
That's a good question, thanks for sharing your experience.
If the automated measurement fails you can enter the height and width and hit "update quote" to get a price. So far all the laser cuts have covered the cost of making them, so we're not too worried about getting an exact price based on the cut length as it doesn't seem to matter a whole lot.
Maybe it would be better to take the automated measure and visualize out completely to avoid confusion?