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Machinist chat: I feel semi-qualified to comment since I order parts from both US and China. In my experience, it would be super weird for any shop to be making things on a manual mill. Everywhere in both countries expects to be doing CNC work and starting from CAD files, not prints. The only place who's ever wanted a print is a little shop in SF that had a waterjet that took some bizarre input format that was easier for them to make from a drawing instead of a CAD file, but it was still computer controlled when it ran. Based on turnaround times and design restrictions, I'm pretty sure the US prototyping shop we usually use is set up for lights-out manufacturing and a machinist is just checking a mostly automated toolpath, then running it unattended overnight. The Chinese one has people running the machines. US: - Faster - Closer tolerances China: - Takes at least 5 days to get stuff - Stuff you don't bug them about can be wrong (i.e. if you don't make a point of asking, you can get surfaces that aren't as square as speced) - Half/quarter of the price, less if you feel like haggling (pretty sure they're still ripping us off compared to what they would charge domestically) - You can get weird custom things that the US workflow isn't set up for. For example, we wanted a fine diamond polish on the inside of an injection mold and the US company couldn't do it. I think the Chinese one just had a guy spend a day polishing.
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Dec 8, 2016 06:07
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 10:03 |
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