Printing Aluminum

Damn straight. We were out scouting stock and ... even though we went to a salvage yard, it is still not cheap.

 

yep, even getting direct from the steel supplier, stainless is a wallet breaker. hard to machine, expensive to get. screw ups (set up pieces) are always a nightmare and expensive lol. sometimes the traditional way isn't the most effective Sometimes it is

 

Sounds like the same kinda $$$ milling Titanium.

I had a bike frame that needed 2 mm shaved off the bottom of the head tube. Only place I could find to do it was a NASCAR machine shop. Everyone else said it was too expensive, it dulled their tools, it overheated their tools, etc. Mind you it was a 1.25" OD 1" ID 6-4 Ti tube and all I needed was 2 mm off one end. Took that shop about 4 days (I wanted it cheap so I told them to do it in their spare time) and $150. Ti frame was only $500 to begin with. They took on the job as a challenge and cut me a break on the pricing.

I am sure SS is almost as nasty as Ti to machine.

I should also mention that the price I posted was like 10 years ago. I am sure the same job would be much more now.

 

Indeed. It is hard on tooling, the machine, the operator, checkbook lol. It just ....owch lol. Titanium is worse by far, but not by much IMO