Saw this on WIRED this morning.  Looks like it could be a big
help to people in need of custom bits and pieces who don't
have ready access to fabrication facilities:

http://www.emachineshop.com

You download their software and design your part, then they
manufacture it and send it to you via FedEx.  They can do molding,
milling, turnin, laser cutting, lots of different processes and they
can fabricate out of many different materials.

the faq page

http://www.emachineshop.com/faq/general.htm

is going to be able to explain it better than I can.

hope this helps somebody.

thanks,
-stjohn