Extrusion Die Prices....

[kentsui]

Its only a little steep but it is mostly because it is a hollow die. In my neck of the woods thats about a 1200.00 die unless the tolerances are way tight. The industry standard tolerance would apply at the 11-1300.00 price for a die that size.
If I had that part run asap and could live with +-.007-8 tolerances I would expect to pay about 11-1300. for the die and about 2.00-2.20 a pound for material (which isn't any higher than I pay for billet and bar) and I would expect about 4-6 week delivery after about 2 weeks for print approval so about 6-8 weeks total.
You actual experiences may vary <g>,.
Good luck.

[machinbird]

I'll have to agree with Kentsui on the aluminum price and the die price. I buy a lot of extrusions (mostly 6063 T6). You have a hollow shape which means the die has to split the flow around a mandrel support and rejoin/reweld the flow of aluminum in order to make the hole. This support of the mandrel means the die is much more complicated than a solid shape.
If an extruder expects to get a lot of business from you, he might discount the die slightly to help get your business. As far as piece length goes, there is a minimum length that they can cut initially-normally around 8 feet. If you need shorter than that, it is a secondary operation with a cutting charge. Longer than the critical length does not drop the price. I'm seeing cutting charges of about 10 cents a cut presently. Extruders normally have customer dies and "standard shape" or house dies. If it is a custom shape, with the die paid for by a customer in accordance with the customer's design, then the extruder is really legally bound not to let anyone else use the die. The standard shapes are normally bars, squares, circles, rectangles, angles etc. If you can find a standard shape that meets your requirements, you can save yourself a die charge.
Do yourself a favor and get at least 3 quotes. Lead times, price per pound, tooling costs, and adherence to print tolerances are all over the place.
And if you can sell enough of it to do a second run, your die costs is behind you.

[Zumba]

What grade of aluminum are you dealing with? $2.30 a pound is a very interesting price, considering in northern CA, I pay over $4.00 a lb for 6061 solids.

[kentsui]

Zumba,
6000 series...6061T6, 6063, 6005T5, 6105,.
I've been paying around 2.00-2.20 here lately. Also, lead times on an existing die are down to an all time low of about 3 weeks. Pretty unusual for our neck of the woods. Usually 6-8 weeks.
4.00 is a lot for 6061.