Starting April 18, 2022, quoting and ordering will begin moving from Big Blue Saw to the Xometry website. You'll continue to be able to get fast service and instant quotes, in addition addition to a whole host of new materials and manufacturing processes!
Now through August 1, save at Big Blue Saw with FREE SHIPPING. Use our online ordering system to place your order. Use code FS2021 when checking out on your order of $125 or more and get free shipping!
Free shipping applies to online orders of waterjet, low-taper, or laser cut parts. Free shipping is available to the USA only on orders less than 149 pounds.
Upload your designs and get an instant quote now. Hurry, these savings won't last.
BattleBots is more popular than ever and Big Blue Saw is proud to be sponsoring 3 teams this year that hope to compete for the biggest prize in combat robotics: the Giant Nut!
First up is Whiplash, from Team Fast Electric Robots, captained Jeff Vasquez out of Thousand Oaks, California. This bot is looking to best its 2020 performance, when it made it all the way to the finals, finishing in 2nd place. Look for details on the AR500 custom parts that Big Blue Saw made for the 2021 version of this robot in the coming weeks and months.
Next up is Overhaul from Equals Zero Robotics. This team was out of the competition during the turbulent year 2020, but hopes to make a comeback in 2021. Charles Guan, creator of Overhaul and team captain, lives just around the corner from Big Blue Saw's world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We've written before about sprockets and other parts we created for Overhaul.
And finally, we have Gigabyte, from the Robotic Death Company. John Mladenik out of Oceanside, California captains this team. Gigabyte features a rotating metal shell which gave it 7 wins, all by knockout, in 2020. We're preparing a bunch of aluminum frame pieces, as well as AR500 weapon teeth for this dangerous robot.
Whether you're building with custom alloys for destructive high-tech machines, or need custom parts for a more pedestrian project, we've got you covered. Contact us!
This Thursday and Friday, June 10 and 11, save up to 30% off custom parts at Big Blue Saw with FREE SHIPPING. Use our online ordering system to place your order. Use code GO15 when checking out for 15% off of orders of any size!
And for orders above $299, you can save even more and get FREE SHIPPING. When you check out, use coupon code GO30 for 30% off of orders of $299 or more, and choose "Waterjet Free Shipping Special" to get free shipping to anywhere on waterjet cut parts in the USA for orders up to 149 pounds.
Free shipping applies only to online orders of waterjet cutting only, not laser or low-taper waterjet.
Upload your designs and get an instant quote now! Hurry, these savings won't last.
We've had tutorials on our website on how to use FreeCAD to create DXF files to create custom parts on our website. DXF files are supported by nearly every CAD software package. Recently, though, we began supporting STEP files for instant quotes as well. STEP files are supported by almost all CAD packages just like DXF files, but have the ability to store 3D part information as well. In this tutorial, we'll take a quick look at how to get an instant quote on a part designed in FreeCAD using STEP files.
To start off with, here's a 3D model of a custom gear created in FreeCAD.
To turn this into a STEP file, click the solid body in the model tree for the 3D item you're trying to export. The rendered object will be highlighed.
Next, from the File menu, pick Export...
Pick STEP from the Save as Type dropdown list. Choose a file name and location where you want to save the file and click the Save button.
Now the STEP file is ready to be uploaded to the Big Blue Saw website for instant online ordering. On the Big Blue Saw homepage, click the Get A Quote button.
On the quoting page, click the Browse button and select the STEP file you created with FreeCAD.
Click the Upload button to send your file to the Big Blue Saw website.
Since the file we created is a 3D file, the website will ask you which angle best represents the 2D profile that can be made into a real part using waterjet or laser cutting. From this page, we'll use the "Top" view by clicking on it.
Next, you'll need to choose your material and thickness.
Finally, you will be able to see an quote on the design. From here, pick Add to Cart to check out and get your custom part delivered.
Here's a video showing the whole process:
Still having trouble? Contact us!
In the past, we've shown how to use Fusion 360 with Big Blue Saw to turn your designs into real parts. Since then, Autodesk has changed the features offered with different versions of Fusion 360 and Big Blue Saw has added new features to make it even easier to order custom parts. Let's take a step-by-step look at a simple way to use Big Blue Saw with every version of Fusion 360.
For the impatient: save your design as a STEP file and upload it to the online quoting system. The rest of you can read on...
Here's a typical design for a bracket designed in Fusion 360.
We'll need to export this design as a 3D STEP file. From the file menu, pick Export...
On the Export dialog which appears, choose STEP Files as the file type.
Be sure to choose a memorable name for the file, remember what directory you saved it to, and click Export.
Now we've created a STEP file which we can use with Big Blue Saw's online quoting system. Go to the Big Blue Saw homepage and click Get A Quote.
Pick the STEP file you created in Fusion 360 and click Upload.
The Big Blue Saw website will crunch the design and try to process the design from along each of the primary axes. In this case, the "Front" and "Rear" views are the only ones which are useful for the part to be made by waterjet or laser cutting. We'll click the Rear view to get to the next step.
Next we need to choose a material and thickness. In this case, Aluminum 5052 in 0.125 inch thickness.
Finally, we can see our the quote for our part. From this screen, you can choose finishing and cutting options, add the part to the shopping cart and check out.
Need special materials or have other requests for your order? Our customer advocates are standing by to help you. Just email us at info@bigbluesaw.com, call 678-929-7294 (678-WAY-SAW4), or contact us through the website!
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