How can one machine, or cut and shape small (pen ink) sizes of metal cheaply?
You could look for a company that does laser cuttingI just had some quite intricate panels cut from 2mm aluminiumIncluding laser etching markings on them they were ?20 ($30) each and they look beautufulYou will have to do the design work, because that's what costsThey will need a drawing of all the parts to work from, ideally in Autocad format (dwg or dxf) but they will probably be able to convert from pdf, gif, etcAnd don't forget to tell them the scale! For solid parts like the fingertips look at materials called Polymorph, a plastic which is mouldable in hot water, and Sugru, which is an air curing silicone puttyThe hand in the link looks like it has some sort of system to amplify the small movement of the finger stumps into a large movement of the tips, and looking at the thinness of the parts they are probably titanium or something, so it doesn't surprise me that it's expensive.
