Looking to have a small run of custom hubs made (typical hub with a flange to hold a rotor, five holes for the studs, a snout on each end to hold the bearing races). I have talked to Limited Productions in Bellevue and while the quality of their work is great, their price for the hubs seems a bit high to me. I do realize that machining a hub from a solid chunk of steel is time consuming and won't necessarily be cheap, $175 per piece for a run of 12 seems a bit high to me. $175 is the leveling off cap no matter how many more I have made in the same run. Maybe I'm wrong and that is a fair price? I have never had any machine shop do this level of work before, so I am definitely willing to listen and learn from others who have been through this.
It doesn't take long to run up 175 bucks worth of time in a machine shop. Labor costs might be a bit more friendly on the east side of the Cascades though if you can find a shop in Moses Lake, Yakima or the Tri Cities that would take it on. There used to be a small shop down in the Red Mountain area of West Richland that did some work for me years ago but I don't know if he is still in business or if he set up for small runs rather than doing one off jobs as he did for me.
At a conservative shop rate of $100/hour, you're talking 21 hours for all 12 pieces. That's 1.75 hours per hub. If you start with a 6" diameter blank x 4" long, that alone weighs 32 lbs and that adds to the cost. And the 2 bearing bores have close tolerances. I'd give it 4 lathe operations and 1 milling operation plus some fixturing will be required along the way. Bob
Considering programing-tooling-setup-material-limited run, its a fair price and if they can get it done quickly (not months) all the better. Just had to do some floater hubs (2) for a customer because the OEM was out and 4 months behind and his broke at a race. Took 14 hrs of machine time and $140 in material (alu). Started at 1pm Sat and finnished 5am Sun
Does the $175 each include material? IF so, that is a good deal. Look up the blank on McMaster to compare.....McMaster is usually on the high priced side for material but they are good for estimating purposes.
Can't imagine getting them a whole lot cheaper anywhere else. Wilwood gets about 130-150 for AL. hubs and those are probably done hundreds at a time on the latest whizz-bang CNC equip.
Sorry guys, I made a mistake here. I misread the quote. The quote reads: Hubs - 2 @ $750 4 add $225 each 8 add $190 each 12 add $175 each The quote is little confusing to me, but I think that it is saying that the total would end up being be either $208.33ea or $237.50ea, depending on how you read the quote. I'll call to have them clarify. Either way, thanks for the input. I appreciate you taking the time. I knew this project was never going to cheap (and I don't expect it to be), but it's good to have people with experience in this area give their input to help guys like me judge the situation more clearly.
Still cheap. Good machine shops are dropping like flies where I am, and the rest are running-up prices in an attempt to survive.
I could really break it down for you, but the quote from what you say looks a tad fishy. I guess the shop isn't hurting for work. Do you supply them the drawing? Just curious. The material alone can vary from $15 to $30 per hub depending how they buy it. I'd be thinking of a SAE 1045 or 1060 rod. Bob
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