karl

Yes, good advise all. Thanks guys. I will investigate the price of slitting steel in my area. I have to imagine there is a good price to be had in a large area like Los Angeles. How are these reels swapped out on the bending machines? Is there some kind of loading mechanism, do you use a fork lift or is it just brute force? On a side note, I actual don't need stainless, I just need regular cold rolled steel. I actually need stainable steel because we quite often rust our pieces to make them look old and weathered. Thanks again, I will update you all when I get pricing on the steel coil... k.

That is a good point, gvidas. We currently work with 4" strips that we have our metal supplier shear down to size for us. My thinking was that we would just supply the vendor these strips (4" x 120") or they can supply them themselves with a markup. Most of the machines I've looked at did seem to be able to handle flat stock. Is this a bad assumption on my part? k.

Hi, I am looking for a Los Angeles Channel Letter wholesaler that can bend 4" 20ga steel returns (without flanging or notching, just bends) from either .DXF, .AI, or any other file format. We are a home decor company the makes old vintage style marquee signs (you know, the old signs from the 20's and 30's with the globe lights bulbs) and we are currently bending returns by hand. We are already setup to cnc the backers and we have no need for faces or trim. We will have a constant flow of orders that seems like would be a good deal for a vendor because there is litter effort required other than running the job through the bender and shipping it. Great for ROI on the bender purchase. I have not had any luck finding anyone yet because it seems that people are not into doing steel. We would prefer 20ga steel but are open to as thin as 24ga and all the machines I've been able to find online say they can do 20ga steel no problem so I am not quite sure what the problem is. Anyway, anyone out there who might know of someone or someone who has a cnc bender that is interested, raise your hand... k.