If you just have a few pieces of steel to do, send the work out. You've been given good suggestions thus far.
However, if you have a local steel supplier, and do intend to do a ton of fabrication work, a plasma cutter is your best friend. Took me two years to get this into my head, and purchase a Miller 375. It cuts 1/2" steel and thinner, no problem. I use it mostly for automotive projects, as it's easy to cut very straight lines on complexly curved fenders and such, then do the same for the patch panel that you're putting in there. It cuts just about everything. Because the heat is very localized, you can cut around cardboard, mdf or aluminum templates if you want with no problems either. For oddly shaped things like a homemade alternator bracket I'll draw it in "Visio", print it to the laser printer, tape the pages over a piece of cardboard, then cut with an x-acto knife, then plasma cut around the edges.
And if you get bored, you can sign your name in a piece of 1/4" steel. ;-)
Anyway, if you are going to be doing lots of cutting in the future, doing itself is less costly. Especially in your 'waiting". I find around here in NJ most shops will take any kind of work I need done, but they put it way at the end of their priority lists because there are enough 'quick buck' jobs passing through first.