CAD Cost

You're talking about preparing the drawing, rather than cutting/forming the box, I presume. On a first-go project, a retail drafting concern might want a day minimum, which might run around $500-$700 [?].

I would be more inclined to talk directly with a fab shop. Their machines might need to be programmed in ways that don't necessarily communicate directly with your particular CAD program.

that sounds reasonable, at least to get to a rough start.

This guy seems cheap enough....I would just make a rough drawing with critical measurements and email it to him....

https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/users/_~01492a8a5ff65a6a04/

I wold suggest stopping by your local HVAC shops that builds duct work and have them give you an estimate. Making holes in sheet metal and bending it up is what they do.

After that take about half of what they estimated the job to be and use it to buy your own sheet metal working tools like a hand-operated press break, sheers, and hole punch sets.

Tcmtec you are a man of my heart. Why farm it out when you can buy the tools and do it yourself. For way less then someone else will, and still have the tools for the next brilliant idea that comes down the pike.

Several times I have been caught by this. (dilemma) and two scenarios come to mind.

1. I would advise not to part with money to "hope and poke" r's. Many require serious
"upfront" money, which is fair enough, but then cannot deliver. To combat this I would
recommend if you employ anyone, you discuss the project thoroughly with them first,
to assess their capabilities, and even then, part with no more than 10% of the money
upfront - no matter what they say. And:

2. I would strongly advise you make a prototype yourself first. It can be in wood, card
board, even match sticks, whatever. For 2 reasons: a) you will most likely (inevitably)
need to make some changes to the first few designs. And: b) Doing this will save you
considerable expense in having the "wrong" item(s) made costly and professionally.

I have personally fallen into both these traps making my next "sliced bread." While it
is nice to dream "this is it!" and pass the "work" side of it over to someone else, there
will be a cost for you. If money is no object, it's no big deal, but if any economy is
required, please consider my advice. My best wishes to your success. (whatever it is.)

jt.

Quote:
"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 6 hours.. sharpening my axe!"

Check out emachineshop,has an enclosure sheet metal bending design section.

free and handy. you can export the design without using their vendors.

http://www.emachineshop.com/machine-shop/Free-CAD-Design-Software/page100.html

thanks

'I love the idea of doing work once then having the instructions for unlimited copies.'

Thats something I like too, but that's not what you are asking. You are asking how much to get someone to do a drawing of something you think you might want unlimited copies of.

It is good to subcontract and not try to do it all yourself, but I agree with jt, if you dont make it first, it won't be right, and all you will have are instructions on how to make unlimited mistakes.

Make one, alter it, make another, alter it, when you have made a few all the same that work, you can take that to a manufacturer, and they can say how much and what format they need the info in, or they may say, it's going to take us 30 minutes to program the machine to do that, no drawings required.

Cnc jim

Hey Fred, seriously, I can help you with that at very cheap price. I open for offers.

Go on your local Craigslist, enter CAD in the search bar and you'll get a slew of freelancers and professionals offering their services.