Are there services that offer precision metal cutting?

Roughly 158ft of square tubing to be cut down to about 95 pieces, with varying angles & a few compound cuts.

What type of search would find a local option?
What would you expect on cost? Per cut + a nominal fee?

no idea on cost, but look for a Metal Fabrication company,

How big are the squares? Big delta in answers between some 2" square and 8" square.

Can you rent a chop saw?

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
How big are the squares? Big delta in answers between some 2" square and 8" square.

Can you rent a chop saw?

Almost all 1" square & a few (2 i think) 1"x2", longest piece is 1500mm (~5ft)

Didn't think about renting a tool.
Had thought about buying a Harbor Freight band saw, bit dont know that it would see much use after this project.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
How big are the squares? Big delta in answers between some 2" square and 8" square.

Can you rent a chop saw?

Almost all 1" square & a few (2 i think) 1"x2"

Didn't think about renting a tool.
Had thought about buying a Harbor Freight band saw, bit dont know that it would see much use after this project.

One time use is what Harbor Freight is all about.

^^^

If you go that route, measure twice!

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
https://www.metalgeneral.com

Thats actually only a few miles from my house. May have to stop in & get a quote.

Find a local machine shop or other metal user and see if they will do that.
The online metal suppliers are expensive and shipping is also expensive.
My local machine shop can cut within .005” and charges me .50 a cut but he’s a friend and just recovering his cost. His metal cost as regular customer of metal suppliers is much better than I can get anywhere and I mean a lot better. He also gets it delivered so that’s a big savings too.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
https://www.metalgeneral.com

Thats actually only a few miles from my house. May have to stop in & get a quote.

Don't forget to put a value on your time too.

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
https://www.metalgeneral.com

Thats actually only a few miles from my house. May have to stop in & get a quote.

Don't forget to put a value on your time too.

True, but I'm going into this expecting an extended time project, so less of a factor for me.

With what kind of precision and finish. If its nothing special you would be silly not to consider doing it yourself. If its modest precision a local metal shop will be fine. If its high precision you will need to search a bit afield.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
With what kind of precision and finish. If its nothing special you would be silly not to consider doing it yourself. If its modest precision a local metal shop will be fine. If its high precision you will need to search a bit afield.

It's building a chassis for a replica Lotus 7 / Caterham. So +/- maybe half a degree.

Guess I need to see the difference in cost of just the steel & steel + cut to spec.

Then is for a welded car frame. the level of precision required is actually very low. You would be silly not to do it yourself. But in any case any local metal fab shop could do it. And to make it easier you can also check on local race fabrication shops and they are also an easy source that should be willing to do this.

I imagine the tolerances are a bit tighter than a normal body on frame build.
Keeping it square is the main concern & getting it all lined up front to back.

Here's a sample of a mostly done frame.

There's a real art to just the welding part of that project so the parts draw together in the right order to keep things square and relatively stress free. That's after the cutting and fitting part is done. The original English space frames were nickel bronze welded with a gas flux'er.
Not a particularly easy or simple job and a chassis jig is essential. The photo above looks like a repair or restoration on a rotisserie.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Find a local machine shop or other metal user and see if they will do that.
The online metal suppliers are expensive and shipping is also expensive.
My local machine shop can cut within .005” and charges me .50 a cut but he’s a friend and just recovering his cost. His metal cost as regular customer of metal suppliers is much better than I can get anywhere and I mean a lot better. He also gets it delivered so that’s a big savings too.

Another course of action would be to see if the machine shop would order cut pieces from a distributor like Ryerson or EM Jorgensen for you. You get the parts you wanted at a tolerance you desire. It won't cost the shop much to buy for you, and you get all your pieces in one shot. Everyone wins. You get the parts you want at prices far lower than you could get just walking off the street. The shop does you a favor with little cost to them. You get what you want with minimal time or additional purchases on your part.

Hope this helps.

^ Thanks, will look into that as well.

Get your self a 6" or 4 1/2" angle grinder and some cutoff blades. 1/16" thick and make short work of cutting light gauge metal.

If you haven’t already purchased the metal you should be able to find a metal supply company that will sell you the material and cut it for you. If they screw up a cut it’s on them. They will do a much better job than you.

Search for “metal supply” or “metal supply near me”