Hi, would anyone be interested in cutting some test pieces out of brass or aluminum?
I want to see if the Nomad 3 can do the work.
2×0.52×0.66cm
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One out of aluminum, and one out of brass? That’s probably about a $600.00 job.
Of course it can do it, that Machine has been machining metal for the last almost 8 years. There are thousands of posts of people making parts out of all types of metal including titanium which I don’t recommend. S
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It can be done pretty easily — it’ll be at least two, more likely 3 setups (assuming you want the flat bottom).
One of my early jobs on my Nomad was in brass:
I get this part made from stainless steel powder using laser sintering from JLCPCB ($8/each) and PCBway ($6.50/each).
Curious how much work it would be to make from brass or aluminum. Aliexpress sells flat metal bars of aluminum and brass very cheap.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256806197934835.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256805842701755.html
it comes down to if you’re willing to learn how to make them. The machine absolutely can, but there is a learning curve, you may break some bits along the way. But no one here is likely to make them for you for 15$ a pair.
But that’s not the same thing. They are printing out multiple parts at a time, your parts along with other customers parts.
Asking someone to cut a couple of samples requires them to manufacture a fixture for the two sided machining required,along with generating and testing toolpaths. And then there’s the tooling.
If you’re going to make several of these, that time can be divided up among the number of parts you’ll be making.
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How long do you think it would take a normal user to setup the machine to cut that part? (For a batch of several)
How long to actually cut? It does have to be flipped upside to machine both the top and bottom.
I can calculate time and machine cost and see how long it would take to turn a profit.
setup time could be relatively quick (10-15 minutes per side) if you have a well designed fixture.
Not knowing tolerances, and tooling, machining time could be 10-25 minutes per part.
What is this part? are the serrations for friction, gripping something? Are there any tight tolerances, where this part needs to fit/contact another part?
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It’s a knife opener (thumb bar) for a Leatherman P2/P4 multi-tool.
Ah, so the back side fits in the existing slot in the blade.
So there is some tolerance there. The rest just has a max size so it doesn’t interfere, and the serrations are just for grip with your thumb. So you can take some subtle liberties with the machining. i.e. the angle of the serrated part doesn’t need to be exact, and the bottoms of those grooves don’t need to be perfectly flat. So if you climb up them with a tapered tool, the bottoms will actually be elliptical, but you won’t need a separate setup to do the grooves.
You could use the holes to fasten the parts to a simple fixture using screws. Or you could make a clamping fixture that would be a little more complex, but much quicker to change out parts. Depends on how many of these at a time you would need to make.
I’m not here to advertise, but this is what I’m currently making from stainless steel: Leatherman FREE P2 P4 Thumb Bar, Stainless 316L, easy open one-handed (25+ sold) | eBay
The free, public makerspace for bergen county NJ has a nomad 866 gathering dust in a corner. The guy who used to run it said it just barely could cut metal like brass and aluminum.
In my experience, w/ appropriate tooling and feeds and speeds and toolpaths, the Nomad cuts aluminum and brass fine.
Probably the most ambitious part which anyone has yet done:
Is the software the same for the 833 as it is the 3? Maybe I can test out cutting the piece at the makerspace if the software will be the same.
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