Cheaper material option for manufacturing jigs?

[var10]

Hi All,

I have some jigs for powder coating to be manufactured. I tried acetal and supplier has come back with huge deformations. So thinking of switching to Al. Wondering are there any cheaper options than AL where tight tolerances can also be achieved?

Acetal was chosen in the first place for its cost. Now that enough time has been wasted, I am not considering anymore plastics.

Probably not too heavier than Aluminium would be ideal. (Found Nickel alloys but its almost 10 times expensive, So I guess Al would be the cheapest option but thought it is good to have some opinions from few experts )

Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,

V.

 

[var10]

Any opinions on 2011 aluminium alloy. Found out it can be easily machined.

 

[MintJulep]

Steel is cheap.

 

[var10]

But also hast be about the same weight. Not critical but definitely not 3 times the weight of AL.

 

[Compositepro]

Steel is by far the most common material. Tubing is cheap and light. One of the biggest benefits is that it can be cleaned by burn-off, which can save a lot of labor.