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by shagie·9y ago·view on hn ↗
The "I wish I had that" recently was for some custom one off parts for a recumbent tandem trike. The part did exist as a standard manufactured part... in Germany. There is also an online bike shop with no inventory that probably does what you describe... and at that time had a backlog of two weeks.

This was for one part - a custom gear. Yes, a professional machine can do that in no time flat for less than the cost of the Wazer. No, the professional machine can't do that in the same time it takes to make the part and it was actually faster to order from Germany in this case than to try to find time on a professional machine shop somewhere.

Sure, if you're going to make hundreds or thousands of the parts - thats great. But if you want one or two... not so much. Especially if that has the timeframe of "today" on it to fix that gear to go out cycling this afternoon.

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Our rush service typically gets parts delivered to the customer within 3 days. Regular orders ship in 7-10 days.

As far as finding a shop that can take your order quickly, try a search for something like "waterjet cutting online ordering".

The Wazer's speed makes it difficult to get a part done in a single afternoon. As I mentioned elsewhere, you'd probably be better off with a small CNC milling machine. But do you really want to own either for only occasional use?

The related question would be "what is your minimum order?' That's where a personal water cutter may work better for some. The occasional use is indeed a question - and how much additional things may be done or prototyped. How many jury-rigged parts are on the trike that could be done better with the proper custom part. And if it's worth doing a one off order for a gear or bracket that is 2"x4".
Minimum is around $90 for material and cutting, unless we're having a sale, in which case it drops to around $10.

If you order 1 part, wouldn't you at least want to order 1 spare, 1 for your friend, and 1 experimental variation? This helps drop the per-part cost.

A typical order is around $200. I estimate that this would buy you cutting time equivalent to 20-30 hours on the Wazer.

That minimum order is significantly higher than the price of the part from Germany... even with shipping. And with the gear, one spare isn't that useful... and the parts for the trike ( http://www.terratrike.com/tandem.php ) tend to be a bit specialized - I don't know anyone else who has one (mine is similar though has different parts and such because its a folding http://www.terratrike.com/traveler.php ). In the past, my father has gone to the machine shop where he used to work for custom parts - but the people who he had favors with to get some time for non-academic projects have nearly all retired.

Yes, it is certainly cheaper to have an industrial cutter if you know what you're making and making them in lots that cost a few hundred dollars. If you are after making a part rather than a half dozen... that minimum order and turn around time (do it on Saturday, have it on Sunday?) make it less interesting for some applications.