Seven part families, each with its own failure mode. An enclosure fails on wall thickness, a heat sink on fin aspect ratio, a flange on sealing face flatness. These pages cover the design decisions that actually move the price for each one.
| The part has to… | Read this page | What decides the price |
|---|---|---|
| Box with a lid, electronics inside | Aluminum Enclosures | Walls, pockets, sealing groove in one machined part |
| Flat visible face with cutouts and labels | Front Panels | Thin plate, many features, anodize and print |
| Remove heat from a device | Heat Sinks | Fin aspect ratio decides cost more than size |
| Locate or mount something | Brackets | Hole position relative to datums decides fit |
| Seal a fluid connection | Flanges & Fittings | Sealing face flatness decides whether it leaks |
| Transmit rotation | Shafts | Runout and concentricity between bearing seats |
| Hold and seal battery cells | Battery Trays | Large-area flatness plus leak-tight sealing |
The most common CNC part we make, and the one where the gap between a good design and a cheap design is widest. Wall thickness, pocket depth, sealing grooves and anodize allowance decide most of the price before anyone quotes it..
A front panel is a thin part with a lot of features and a visible surface — the worst combination for machining, because thin plates deflect and every mark shows. The engineering problem is fixturing: hold the plate flat without clamping it out of flatness, and the machining is straightforward..
A heat sink is a thermal part before it is a machined part. What governs performance is fin surface area and the thermal path into the base — and what governs cost is how thin and how tall you ask the fins to be.
A bracket looks like a simple part and is usually quoted as one — until it has to locate something. The machining is straightforward; what decides whether the assembly works is where the holes are relative to each other and to the mounting face, and that is a datum question rather than a tolerance question..
A flange is a sealing part. Strength is rarely the problem — leaks are.
A shaft is a rotating part, so everything about it is measured from an axis. Diameter tolerance is the easy part; what decides whether a shaft runs quietly is runout, concentricity between bearing seats, and straightness over its length — and those are set by how the part is held, not by how carefully the last pass is cut..
Yes. These seven families cover most of the work that comes through, but the shop machines anything that fits on a 3-, 4- or 5-axis machine within our size envelope. If your part does not match one of these pages, send the drawing — the quote does not depend on having a matching page.
A STEP file, a 2D drawing with tolerances, the material and grade, the quantity, and any surface finish requirement. If the part seals, fits, or carries a load, say which features matter — that determines where the tight tolerances belong and keeps the price down elsewhere.
Yes, and the same part can move between them without changing supplier. Prototypes run from one piece up, and production runs go to 10,000 pieces with dedicated tooling, SPC monitoring and batch traceability. See the production volume pages for price bands and lead times at each quantity.
By volume and geometry. Machining wins below a few hundred pieces, for parts with features on multiple faces, and whenever the design may still change. Extrusion, casting or sheet metal win at higher volume for simpler geometry. Each part page explains where that crossover sits for that family, and the quote will say so if a different process would be cheaper.
Twelve grades with cutting parameters, properties and cost indexing — choose the material before the part geometry is final.
Browse materials →Price bands from 1 to 10,000 pieces, with lead times and quality control for each volume.
See volume pricing →3-axis to 5-axis milling, CNC turning and Swiss machining — process capability and equipment.
View services →STEP file, 2D drawing with tolerances, material and grade, quantity. We quote the quantity you need and flag anything in the design that is raising the cost.