CNC Machining
CNC machining is a subtractive process where material is precisely cut away to produce parts. We offer 3 and 5 axis machining (new arrival!) in a wide range of materials. We also offer machining services as a finishing step for cast and 3D printed parts!
We work with a wide range of metals, plastics, wood, and even composites. If we don’t have a material listed, reach out and we can discuss machining it for you!
Metal
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Aluminum alloys are an optimal choice for components that need to be lightweight, strong, and stiff. Since Aluminum is 1/3 the density of steel, you can make parts 3x thicker for the same weight which massively increases bending resistance over steel parts. Aluminum is also non magnetic, very thermally conductive, does not oxidize, and can be anodized (we offer this as a post processing option for some alloys)! If you need a metal part that balances weight, surface finish, stiffness, strength, and more; Aluminum may be the right choice for you.
Some of our common applications of aluminum alloys are; Soft jaws, welding fixtures, machine components, UAV’s, robot parts, injection molds, urethane molds, and foam molds, -
Mild steels are low cost materials that offer good strength, toughness, impact resistance, and temperature resistance. These steels will corrode in certain environments, so they must be painted or coated in a high humidity location to prevent rust (we offer painting and powder coating as an additional post processing service).
Mild steel is a good option for automotive parts, manufacturing equipment, farming equipment, and various other applications. -
We work with copper alloys (including brass and bronze) to produce parts that need greater electrical or thermal conductivity, specific colors, wear resistance, or increased density. Some of our more common applications for copper alloys are; electrical bus bars, heat spreaders, artistic parts, bushings, nozzles, and flywheels.
Many copper alloys can be heat treated to achieve specific material properties or be restored to an annealed state. We offer heat treating services for some of these alloys to produce more desirable performance in parts. If you are in need of heat treating, please let us know in your quote request. -
Chromoly steels are steels alloyed with Chromium and Molybdenum. This produces steels that have greater corrosion resistance, strength, toughness, and moderate hardness when heat treated.
We machine these steels in an annealed state, but can heat treat parts to achieve harder and tougher parts after machining. We heat treat parts with a ceramic coating that reduces oxidization during treatment to keep your parts as clean as possible. We also offer finishing services after heat treatment to strip parts of any residual oxide for a clean finish. -
Tool steels are specialty alloys that are intended to provide high impact resistance, surface hardness, and temperature resistance for demanding manufacturing conditions. These alloys are machined in an annealed state and heat treated after machining to achieve the desired hardness.
Tool steels are fantastic for use in injection molds, forging dies, cutting blades, punches, and more! -
Grade 5 Titanium is a lightweight, hard, and strong alloy that has extremely low thermal conductivity and high temperature resistance. This balance of properties makes it excel in locations where heat needs to be isolated, and where strength and hardness are needed with lower density than what can be achieved with steel.
Titanium is useful for aerospace, automotive/motorsports, plastic processing, and is often used in combat robotics.
Plastic
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POM is an extremely popular plastic in the manufacturing industry for its strength, low friction, dimensional stability, and machineability. You often find POM in various assembly lines and packaging machines as white blocks for components to slide along as a bearing surface. POM is also fantastic for gears, plastic sprockets, pulleys, and other mechanical parts that have to survive in high wear environments.
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ABS is a very common plastic in many industries, and balances decent stiffness, toughness, impact resistance, and temperature resistance into one material. It is very low cost and machines quite well, making it a great material choice for plastic parts that need to be cheap and decently stiff. It is fantastic for electronics mounts, automotive parts, soft jaws, fixtures, and more.
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HDPE is an extremely tough plastic that excels at impact resistance. It is also very low friction, so it works well in locations where it may slide along other components. One of our most popular applications for HDPE is machined enclosure panels for equipment, as it is quite affordable in large sheets and can be quickly machined with a good surface finish.
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Polycarbonate is a hard and tough plastic that is excellent for components that need high dimensional stability or need to be clear. We use Polycarbonate often for robot components, as it is able to take a lot of abuse before failure and produces stunning clear parts. Polycarbonate does react with several common solvents though, so it is best to keep loctite, WD40, and cutting fluids away from these parts!
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PEEK is a so called ultra-polymer as it has a tensile strength and temperature resistance that is off the charts. It is also extremely low outgassing, making it ideal for use in an extreme vacuum. PEEK is often used in the aerospace industry for components that need to endure the abuse of space without degrading. This mateiral is ideal for use in sputtering magnetrons, UHV (ultra high vacuum) equipment, and for small civilian cubeats in orbit!
More
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While it may seem simple, wood is a fantastic material for many applications. One of our most popular uses for wood is artistic work, as our CNC machines can create excellent signage and other art pieces with various styles and designs. Wood is also fantastic for prototyping, certain kinds of packaging, and for making furniture and household goods. We can machine nearly any variety of wood that you can find.
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G10 composite is a material that we love to use for thin panels that need to be incredibly stiff and strong. It is fantastic for use in aerospace, 3D printer beds, electronics enclosures, and more!
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Carbon fiber is a composite material with an insanely high strength and stiffness to weight ratio, making it an incredible choice if you need parts to be as light as physically possible. Carbon fiber parts are ideal for UAV’s, high powered rockets, robots, high speed 3D printers, and more.
Carbon fiber is traditionally very difficult to machine as it releases dust that is a significant inhalation risk and may damage machines. We machine our carbon fiber in a water bath on our gantry mill to trap all of the dust out of the air and avoid these issues altogether.
FAQ’s
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Our largest machine at the moment is our gantry mill, which is capable of cutting parts 4×8 feet with a Z travel of 10”. This machine has a configurable table system as well, which allows us to machine the top surfaces of parts above 10” tall, opening up options for machining some very large parts.
Our 5 axis machine and 3 axis VMC are both smaller at 12×12×12” and 36×16×16” respectively. -
It depends, but small parts will start at a few dollars each in a moderate quantity 3 axis order.
We use fixturing methods that allow us to nest several parts onto a machine at once (for the VMC), reducing the cost of multiple smaller parts. On our gantry mill, we are also able to cut dozens to hundreds of components at once out of metal, wood, or plastic sheets, making machined sheet components fairly inexpensive to have produced in larger quantities. -
Our pricing is calculated by a few factors.
Material cost, plate; round stock, square stock, and billets are expensive; and any material cut away as chips cannot be reused for other parts and contributes to the material cost.
Engineering time. Parts must be machinable, meaning that someone from our team needs to analyze them and often help customers revise their files to be possible to machine. Additionally, we must program the code for the CNC’s using our CAM software and occasionally manual G-code programming which takes time.
Machine time, which covers the cost of maintaining and repairing our equipment, along with the cost of consumable tooling and fixtures.
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Of course! We understand that most of our customers are not well acquainted with all of the various materials available for CNC machining, so we are happy to provide advice and help select the best material for your use case.
Our goal is to fit you with the right material for the job, so we make a point to not upsell you on a material you don’t need and will point you in a more cost effective direction whenever possible. -
Yes, to a limited extent. We are able to source alloys and materials outside of our normal inventory for customers upon request, and we can even work with customer supplied materials.
We can also machine existing parts that you provide. Be it castings, 3D prints, sheet metal components, or anything else that needs finishing work or additional features, we can take those parts and run them in our machines to add modifications.
The caveat to this is ensuring that our machines can handle the cutting forces, environmental hazards, and any other complications with a given material. We prefer to not work with certain materials (magnesium, beryllium, nickel, etc) due to environmental risks for our machines and employees that are not acceptable given the equipment that we currently have. -
Yes! We can anodize Titanium and some alloys of aluminum after machining. We offer brushed, bead blasted, and polished finishes before anodizing to ensure that your parts will look good with color. We also do type III hard anodizing on aluminum, which does not take color well but produces a much thicker coating of oxide that protects the aluminum against much rougher conditions than standard anodizing.