Well I really want to get some bc plates made but I have no idea how to do it myself. They seem to be way over priced so I have come to the idea that it would most likely be cheaper to have a machine shop of some kind make a pair for me, that way I can have them the same style and size I want and hopefully they will fit my budget (about 50-60 bucks canadian).
My questions are:
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Has anyone had any experience in asking machine shops and such to make plates for you?
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How low should the plates be?
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Any other advice?
Thanks for helping me be cheap.
It might not be cheap unless you have them make as many as five sets. The cost is in the initial setup, not in the actual time the machine is on.
Make drawings, and try to be friendly with the machinist. He will be grateful if you come in with good drawings, but if he’s nice, you may be able to buy him lunch and ask him if there were any changes you could make to the design or drawings that would make his life easier. At work my boss is always b*tching about the crappy drawings people give him, and after trying to read some of them, i can understand.
They shouldn’t be hard to make. If you will accept 1/4" steel plate, they can be made in as little as 15 min. I did mine with 1/4" steel plate in 15 min, including the drawings and setup. The reason it was so easy is steel plate is easily bent in what’s called an ironworker. If you choose tubes or aluminum, you will need extrusions or welds, so it will be more costly and harder to make, but of course they will be better plates.
You know there probably is a cheaper and faster alternitive to finding a machinist and talking them into making plates for you for a good price, go email Darren and get a set of his plates, he has already done all the hard work on design and makes some killer bc plates that you can buy without a wheel.