Update:
Parts were finally dropped off at the machine shop, and at first I was quoted 2 hours of work to get everything done when I went in a few weeks ago, but few days ago when I was there with EVERYTHING, ready to go, he quoted me "at least 4 hours of work".
Well, shop rates are $60/hr.
Then yesterday, I phone him up and tell him I needed one last thing done, and after discussing what I needed done via email, he said ok, can get it done.
Get an email from him yesterday afternoon, he said everything's done, and since it took him 7.8hrs to do the work, it's going to cost me $460 for the work.
I have no idea how it took them 7.8hrs to do all the stuff I wanted done, and I honestly hope he didn't include time spent on scratching their ass or drinking coffee or googling pr0n or whatever, because I ain't paying for them to be doing that shit.
I'm going to ask them for a break down on how long each item took to make, because I seriously can't see 7.8hrs spent to set up their machines to drill some holes and lathe some stuff down to spec.
Oh, BTW, I had to have them finish drilling out my front knuckles because the stepped drill that I bought from Harbor Freight was apparently undersized at the 3/4" size, since the 3/4" bolt won't go through it, and it was confirmed by measuring the hole, and since I don't own a drill press, I had them do it while I had other work for them to do. They also drilled the knuckles' tie rod end holes out to 5/8" for me, since I don't own any 5/8" drill bits, nor do I know anyone else that owned them, it was impossible to do that anywhere other than to again, let the machine shop tackle that job too.
On the one hand, I'm glad these guys have the "we do it 110% the right way the first time because we don't fuck around, since we're just gonna charge you the same shop rate for doing a butcher style hack job as it would as if we just did it right" attitude, but at the same time, they probably spent a shit load of time making this shit so it's accurate down to the 0.0001" tolerance.
*sigh*
Price of R&D and material 101 guys, now you know why dudes that come up with stuff sell them for more than companies that knock off the designs
