Intro Navigating the world of fabrication and manufacturing can be complex, with the choice of materials significantly impacting the performance and longevity of your parts. Among all of the options on the market, hot rolled and cold rolled steel are two of the most commonly…
Intro A lot of parts’ success depends on what material is used for the part. Making a car engine out of plastic? Not the best idea. Even within the world of metals, there are so many options to pick between. In this quick guide, we’ll…
Intro A lot of people strictly use metal or 3D-printed plastic for their prototypes, but they’re completely overlooking a very strong contender: Delrin. Delrin is one of the best plastics to make machined prototypes out of, and we’re going to tell you why. This beginner…
If you aren’t sure what the difference between 6061 and 7075 aluminum is, you came to the right place. Picking the wrong alloy out of these two might mean that your project can’t physically be machined. In this guide, we’ll explain why that’s the case…
Intro When you design a manufactured part, the priorities are often to make it long-lasting, strong, and prepared for outdoor use. This has led to a whole host of different finishing steps and material selections to achieve the perfect characteristics. One of the finishing options…
Intro If you’re in the market for a fabricated part that uses steel, there are a few things you need to understand. For starters, there are different types of steels, and they’re very different from one another. In this guide, we’ll explain the different types…
Intro The finish of your part can completely change its function, aesthetics, and feasibility. There are even OSHA and federal requirements that might force you to use a certain finish. In other cases, a finish can help your part be more durable and reduce your…
Intro As an engineer, you probably understand how important material selection is. Our team noticed that there’s a lot of confusion when it comes to aluminum alloys. In this guide, we’ll put together a quick cheat sheet to tell you all about aluminum — we’ll…
Intro There are a number of different manufacturing methods and steps that are used by any fabricator. As you’re designing a part, you want to make sure you get the most out of your design. For many, that means turning to anodization. If you’re not…
Intro After your precision machined part is fabricated, it can go through a “finishing” process. This adds certain functionality to your part. There are a lot of finishing options to pick from, but the following 9 are the most popular for machined parts. Follow along…
Intro There has been a lot of confusion when it comes to the durometer Shore hardness scale over the years. Some people think it’s a measure of how flexible a part is, and people don’t understand how important the topic is. To help answer your…
In our shop, we’ve put a chromate coating on too many parts to count, and shipped them to companies across industries and applications. This is one of the most common coatings you can apply to a part, but we realized that a lot of engineers…