Outsourcing CNC Work for an Avengers project.

Question

I'm working on a Tesseract case like from the movie The Avengers.

Pictures of the build so far:

https://plus.google.com/photos/108019745978944993252/albums/5949225630784484385

I have the parts and the sizing pretty much figured out and was wondering if anyone knew of a website that I could send a file to have it cut out of metal and chromed.

I was thinking 1/4" aluminum but I'm not really sure what kind of metal or how thick would be best. I'd also like to have some cutouts done in between the parts and over the speakers I'd like to have some holes cut for the sound to pass through.

Is there an opensource or free program that will turn a drawing into a file that a CNC machine can read?

Any recommendations for companies that you trust or members of Element 14 I could pay to have these parts made for me?

mfratus2001 · Answer

Try eMachineShop. They have a site and a Windows program (that also might run on Wine in Linux) that lets you draw a part and then select materials and methods. You can put multiple parts on one sheet, but the price for any project seems to start at about $150. It is a nice CAD program, though, and you can get a 3D view of your part before you submit it. They also bend and finish the material if directed to to so.

iagorubio · Answer

Hi Dustin, I don't get what the project really is as I have not saw the film and don't get it out of the pictures. I do have a 3 axis bridge CNC machine myself and I use to cut aluminium sheet. Usually I do my work in 2D dxf on librecad and use dxf2gcode to convert it to gcode, but It will work mostly is what you want is just cutting and pockets, as it's easy to extrude from 2D dxf but not that easy if you want complicated 3D parts. Anyway, until you have sorted what kind of material you want cut and you know what machine - spindle speed, feed rate, etc ... - is pointless to even try to produce gcode as those parameters depend on both the material to cut and the machine. If you want to play with dxf2gcode, you can try also openscam . that despite the name is a very nice package and not an scam ;-) - to simulate the cut of your piece. Is easy to spot problems from the generated gcode when you can see how the spindle will move through the piece. So what I use to do is librecad to draw 2D dxf - if you want an square pocket just draw and square, and if you want a hole just draw a circle with its width - , dxf2gcode where i "extrude" the piece - I put the height to convert the 2D in 3D - and set what depth each path gets - openscam to simulate and if everything is ok, I load the gcode into the CNC and cut the piece. Take into account that to talk to the machinist before to set the work is a must. He will tell you feeds and speeds and what drill bit he is going to use. All those parameters must be set in gcode - feeds and speed - or are important to the tool path - drill size. Both dxf2gcode and openscam are not easy to find packaged so I use to "build" - dxf2gcode is a python app - them myself, but it's kind of straightforward to get that sorted.