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Does this mean I can build new Merlins? N/T

Posted by Tony on Wed Jan 23, 2002 03:25:32 PM

In reply top Re: What you could do... posted by Andy on Wed Jan 23, 2002 03:11:00 PM

: A few thoughts from a Draffie with 20ys experience (14 of
: them in the CAD world)
:
: CNC produced parts can get very economical to produce as t
: he component quantities involved increase significantly. T
: he up front design hours, material, machine set-up costs e
: tc are diluted amongst the eventual batch numbers produced
: .
:
: Producing Solid CAD models can be an expensive business if
: you have to foot the bill, budget on ~?22-28 per hour for
: a 3d design draffie?s time, let alone the engineering man
: hours (?????). Having said that if you are just copying a
: good paper drawing of a component, a good draffie can achi
: eve a lot in an hour.
:
: I don?t think it would necessarily be any cheaper to produ
: ce one off's or very limited run components via a CNC lath
: e, mill etc. Really depends on the complexity of the part.
: Unless you know a poor man with an under utilised CNC sho
: p and you can supply him with a nice ACIS CAD model which
: his CNC software can readily interpret tool paths for from
: your files.
:
: Reproducing drawings in CAD format if the old ones are kna
: ckered can be economical for example if there are quite a
: few similar component drawings where one file can be copie
: d multiple times and modified readily. CAD is a fantastic
: tool for sorting out geometry problems quickly and accurat
: ely. A four hour manual drawing board, slide rule/calculat
: or backed up geometry calc, from days gone by may take sec
: ?s to solve by simply drawing a few lines in a CAD program
: .
:
: On the whole lots of swings and roundabouts, though CAD/CA
: M is the king of quantity, quality and repeatability. Havi
: ng said all this, there may be some parts, which in the ab
: sence of the original weird one off old machines used, may
: be prohibitively expensive or impossible to reproduce man
: ually.

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