DareBee said:
If you want to order 10,000 pcs minimum then we can talk about $50/assy. Your other options for prototyping are to pay what it costs or spend 70,000 on your own equipment, software and tooling.
I am not trying to be a dick, but working for free puts me out of business.
Hi, I just joined this forum and this is my first post... My company is TouchStone 3D Services and we specialize in helping inventors, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs get their product ideas turned into reality in the most cost effective / high quality way possible. We can do one-off prototypes as well as low volume production of parts, assemblies, or complete products.
After looking at this thread, I must agree with DarBee. The $50 - $70 price that you are seeing for water blocks is based on established high volume production for commercial off the self water blocks.
As a professional custom computer enclosure maker, I am sure you can appreciate the higher costs of doing low volume custom work and you pass these costs along to your customers. The same is true for us...
If something custom is needed AND there will not be significant "follow-on" work to amortize the costs of CAD work, g-code development, tooling/fixturing, and setup, then those costs must be absorbed in the 3 parts that you need. The time to do the up front work before machining the first part can run into several hours. Time IS money. This is why you will see higher quotes around $700 for the 3 pieces.
However, I think you have a couple of other options if you only need 3 parts to start with...
1) Why can't you custom tailor your system to accomodate one of the commercially available water blocks? Is there some reason you need a custom design?
2) If you can't do Option #1, then do you think you would be able to use your same custom design many times in the future? If so, then it may be best for you to pay an up front one time charge for design, g-code development, and fixturing. You may be able to negotiate a lower piece part price for the 1st three parts and get the same lower price on any future parts you may order as well. I would be willing to discuss this option if you are interested. It may be possible to get the price per part for your design down to the $50-$70 range if you are willing to invest some money in the up front work to get there.
I will need more information from you before I can quote the up front work. I am happy to discuss this with you via private email if you want to email me...
info@touchstone3D.com
I always approach these types of projects with the customer's best interests in mind. If there is a lower cost way to do it, we will find it together! We take pride in one on one customer relationships.
BTW, if I understand your drawing and what you are trying to do correctly, I would like to suggest something.... It seems like as series of parallel gooves/channels in the copper would be more efficient at removing the heat than the holes that you showed in your drawing. I think the water in the holes may tend to form eddies and not take away the heat too effectively. But I may be wrong.
