I am surprised US prototyping companies don’t have more regional facilities. It costs ~10x more to have an Oklahoma machine shop cut a sheet metal pattern than to get it shipped from California. The difference seems to just be letting the customer make mistakes rather than requiring manual design verification. I probably would not have purchased a CNC machine if they offered 2 day shipping for <10% of the part cost.
alt Hacker News
I am surprised US prototyping companies don’t have more regional facilities. It costs ~10x more to have an Oklahoma machine shop cut a sheet metal pattern than to get it shipped from California. The difference seems to just be letting the customer make mistakes rather than requiring manual design verification. I probably would not have purchased a CNC machine if they offered 2 day shipping for <10% of the part cost.