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Originally posted by Sin22
I strongly suggest having a look in the yellow pages under machinists and u'll find some that will do it cheap.
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Hmmm, in the Yellow Pages in Australia you will typically find them listed under "Tool Makers", rather than "Machinists", and this may apply in your region too.
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Why dont you ask him how much one would cost, if he was to make only one block..
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To make a single Cascade as a prototype would cost around $1000 AUD from the machinists I use, and if you went somewhere more upmarket, you could be looking at nearer the $2000 AUD mark.
There is a LOT of programming and machining time in the Cascade (compared to most any other waterblock), and the size of the work being done involves doing the job slowly to avoid breaking things. The cutting and drilling tools used to make it are about as fine as your average "seamtress's sewing pin".
Basically you're looking at the costs of employing a professional CNC machinist for a full day of work (~$50/hr), plus machine time (~$100/hr), plus tools (~$200), plus materials. All prices in Aussie dollars. There's a little over one hour of machine and machinist's time spent on each Cascade block, but for a single protoype you could expect to triple that.
If you work it out, a Cascade should be costing me around $170 AUD each to get made, but I manage to get a moderate discount due to obtaining them in batches, and I sell them for what amounts to almost no profit.
When you think about it, ~180USD you were quoted is a total bargain for a one-off prototype.