Super stoked about these laser cut drops. First time using a laser cutting service, and I’m very pleased with the tolerances and costs. Who else is laser cutting their own parts?
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Looks great, thick dropouts (to me) are a sign of a well thought out single speed
Do you mind sharing who did the cutting? I assume send cut send but there are probably lots of other good options
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Yes sir! 6 mm steel plate seems like the place to be. Not send cut send, just a local laser cutting service in Romania.
If you’re in EU, I think they can ship the parts, not sure about outside EU. Might be worth leaving them an email
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I’ve gotten track dropouts done with send cut send before. We wound up post machining the surfaces where the axle slides. From what I understand about laser cutting the kirf gets slightly bigger the deeper the cut, so the edges are not perfectly square.
On the other hand, Im not sure how crucial the tolerances are for quick release horizontal drops.
Good call on that. I’m sure the laser creates some distortion in the piece even if not visible. I also have a water-jet cutting service in the area which I’ll use for a batch of fork drops.
Curious to see the differences between the cuts.
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i did some drop outs for my demountable 20” randonneuse ( Breakaway mini… - #4 by Johannes ):
Done by laser-on.de. No problems with distortion, but did not measure 
They fit fine. Same with the ones I got from Meerglas.
I have done front BMX style dropouts and am currently waiting on a batch of track ends modeled on vintage Zeus track ends with enough material to handle wide range of angles as well as embellishments for flair. I needed ends for rack struts so I added the dropouts and stainless faces that will be brazed on and polished. Here are some I did for a bike a few years ago. The new ones are a nicer shape IMO. :
Ready for polishing by Duane Draper, on Flickr
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These are very cool. They look similar to the classic Campagnolo track ends, for which I have a CAD replica.
I’m also tinkering a lot with FreeCad lately. Designing my own track drops and fork drops has been quite nice till now. Looking forward to give them to laser cutting
I get laser cut parts over machined parts most of the time
Dropouts, chainstays yoke, shock mounts…
Much cheaper for most application, easy to design ,easy to get locally /online, we don’t have 4130 plate in France but equivalent called Strenx
Depending on the application I use 4,5 or 6mm like the picture.
Tolerances are usually spot on , all I do is soak them in white vinegar for a bitto remove mill scale and a wire brush cleaning to get them ready
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I use water jet cut parts, because I have a connection in my town. The advantages are: that the cut edges are clean metal without discolouration or burnt places, there is no distortion because you have no heat, you can cut way thicker parts and they are really easy to design.
My latest Dropouts from S355, because you can’t get 4130:
I definetly have to try the white vinegar, because this time I precision ground them to get the Mill scale away, wich was way too much Work.
And here is a Photo of a yoke cut out from 20mm Plate:
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