Design Study: Rail Inline With Ball Screw

[cropwell]

I am sure regional differences apply, and not just between countries. Where I live and work, there are over 800 CNC machine shops within a 50 mile radius of where I live. I also have colleagues elsewhere in the country that have to travel 500 miles in order to reach fewer shops. I am sure there are hot spots in the UK for manufacturing.

Every little job that I have deemed would benefit from machining (generally milling or surface grinding) I have received exorbitant quotes for (I believe they are known as 'F**K OFF' quotes). The main reason given that setting up is the bulk of the work (£200 ish min) and so a one-off job is not economically viable.

If I wanted 1000+ machining, then I would guess the set-up would be amortized quite magically.

Basically, finding a small machine shop in UK that is struggling for work and prepared to talk sensible pricing for small jobs, seems to be difficult.