Great experience with oshcut

[Yankeefarmer]

Last week I decided that I needed some custom anchors for the half-hood that’ll be going on my Model A RPU. I designed them in OnShape and then checked SendCutSend for a price. SendCutSend said I needed to use a larger bend radius, so I refined my model, then 3d printed a prototype to confirm the design on the car. After those refinements, I resubmitted the design to SendCutSend, only to get a message that the part was too small for their brake. In my searching, I found OshCut, so tried their site for a quote. They wanted a much tighter bend radius, so I again modified my model and resubmitted. I got a warning that there may be insufficient support in the bend area, but that I could submit my order anyway. I did. The parts arrived this morning, and are perfect!

This was the first time this 70 year old has used such a service, but it won’t be the last. I just love the ability to envision a design, 3d print a prototype to verify geometry/fit, and then just order the part(s) without having to secure material and do the layout/cutting/bending myself.

 

[gotham]

My experience has been that sendcutsend is generally a bit cheaper but not on every part. OshCut's web interface is much better but the visualization makes iterating on difficult parts much faster.

Let's see some pictures!

 

[Yankeefarmer]

@gotham here’s your pics.
The top photo shows the final 3D printed prototype (to the OshCut bend radius and other small geometryrefinements) as the anchors will be installed using the Model A hood holddown locations/bolt pattern. This was the 3D model I submitted to OshCut, not the model that is shown in the second photo with the final supplied pieces.
In the second photo, the bottom right is the first 3d printed prototype with the SendCutSend bend radius (hard to see in this photo because of the shadow), alongside the 4 pieces provided by OshCut.

 

[VR6ix]

Interesting that SendCutSend didn't have a tooling combo for those brackets and said they were too small... they don't look too small to me. The big slot is close to the bend line, general rule is you want 4x the material thickness of distance on each side of the bend line to any cutouts or features, because that area will be forced upon the tooling and any holes or slots may distort and flare. You can see the witness mark on the Oshcut brackets, they had tooling that just barely missed the bottom of the slot, but it left a mark because that tooling combo is meant for lighter-gauge material.

But yes, it sure is nice having fabrication services like this just a few mouse clicks away then they're in the mail heading your way!