I’ve been looking into making a rat bike with lots of customisation. Most of it is about stripping stuff off but I’d like to add a few custom parts and am now looking to manufacture them. E.g. 2 mm steel seat and pans. Both parts need cutting and bending. I’ll take care of the finishing myself 😉 Does anyone have experience with online cutting sites like fractory or pomoko? I like the idea of getting my stuff without having to speak to anybody but not sure about the quality. Use or avoid?

You’d be better off making friends with a local place and cut out the middle man. Small parts will often just be using up areas that might otherwise be scrap, especially if you are willing to wait a few days for when they next have that thickness sheet on the machine.

Quality on thinner stuff will be good everywhere (no issues with feed rate and draft angle that you get with thick material) as they are just replicating your dxf file. Do tiny quality details even matter for a ratbike?

Where are you based?

I’m in Manchester. Making friends with a place is exactly what I don’t want to waste my time on, as I can’t see too much work like this coming up any time soon. I’d rather pay a little more. But yeah, you are probably right about the quality here 😀
Can’t mess it up bad enough to not be suitable for a rat bike. Still, if you have some suggestions, let me know

Is Wigan near enough to Manchester for you? If you occasionally make things, arranging contacts with suppliers, powder coaters etc really isn’t “wasted time”….

philATmadeprofilesDOTcom

Sort your 2d CAD file. DXF format. Send a nice email with the CAD and a basic image / overall dimensions (so mm and m don’t get confused). Say what thickness material you’d like and ask if they could cut whenever next convenient around other work. Then just arrange to visit with cash to collect.

Yes, Wigan is absolutely fine. I’ll check it out and try to do my best with the CAD files. Thanks for the tip, good stranger!

Message me if you struggle with the CAD, but lots of the free online stuff will do it easily.

The main thing is sending them all the info ready prepared in one email which avoids little jobs being a pain in the bum. Phil is a cyclist so always friendly and interested in 2 wheel projects.

In all the typing time could probably have just made it old school with the cardboard template : pen : grinder / jigsaw method by now 🙂