Average cost to have a machine shop make thin metal templates

[Clarence Martinn]

Not sure if this should be posted hear, or on the Woodturning section.

Any guess as to what the average price would be, to have a machine shop make metal templates of woodturnings ; so that I can make multiple copies of the same turned piece ??

[Richard Coers]

I'd suggest you go to a cabinet shop with a CNC router and have the templates made from UHMW plastic. No idea what an average price would be since a CAD drawing will also be needed.

[David Buchhauser]

Not sure if this should be posted hear, or on the Woodturning section.

Any guess as to what the average price would be, to have a machine shop make metal templates of woodturnings ; so that I can make multiple copies of the same turned piece ??


Hi Clarence,
I have a machine shop, so I have a pretty good idea what the market rates are. It all depends on the job. You can either post your requirements here on the forum, or send me an email with some sketches of what you are after and I will be able to give you a better idea of what you could expect to pay your local machine shop for the work. Email: dbuch@cox.net
David

PS. You might consider becoming a contributor so you can receive PMs (personal messages). I think the donation is around $6 or $7 a year to help support this forum. It's well worth it - in my opinion.

[Bill Dufour]

Classic method is to file and sand them in masonite or thin plywood. Why do they need to be metal. You will have to generate the profile either by CAD or by hand. Then it can be converted to digital that the machine can use for CAM. Remember that sharp internal profiles will raise the price since they will have to use smaller endmills to get in there. Smaller tools cut slower and/or changing to bigger tools takes time.
You might glue up a blank with thin plywood or Masonite in the middle and turn it to shape. Then cut or split the glue lines to get the shape you want. I suppose they can scan a piece after it is split in half the long way. I have no ideas about the limits of 3d digital scanning to generate coordinates from a solid.
Bil lD

[Don Stephan]

It is not clear to me if you are wanting scraping blades to remove wood (reverse of a router or shaper, in that the lathe would be spinning the wood and the metal would slowly be brought into the wood usig some sort of automation), or a negative pattern to hold up against a turning, when the lathe is stopped, to see how close the turning is to the pattern.

[Clarence Martinn]

The old duplicator that I have, was made by Penn State Industries back in the 1990's, If I recall right. PSI does not make that anymore. They only make the duplicators for the small, mini lathes. What that duplicator does, is it has the cutting blade on top, and the lower blade is just used to trace along the template. It has a V shaped blade.

[Peter Kelly]

If you’ve got your pattern drawn up as vectors you can have Ponoko laser cut it for you from mild steel or aluminium. Sizes up to 31.1" x 15.1".

https://www.ponoko.com/materials/category/metal?maxSize=P3

[Larry Frank]

An option I you can also draw it up and 3D printed. This would be cheap and quick.