Intro Material selection is often the most important part of making the best 3D printed parts. As you look around, you’ll notice a ton of different materials that offer different results. A popular lane of materials is thermoplastics. The two major types of 3D printing…
Intro Working with sheet metal is common in most machine shops. If you want a sheet metal piece to be fabricated, there are a few methods to choose from. The following sections will outline 7 of the most common fabrication methods for sheet metal along…
Intro Material selection is a huge consideration to make for every design. Even with the importance of this decision, many designers hold onto myths that could waste time and money. To dispel some myths, we put together a list of 6 myths that pertain to…
Intro Whenever an engineer puts together a technical drawing package for an outside machine shop, there’s a risk of overengineering. Something that looks perfectly reasonable on the drafting table can destroy your budget when it comes to CNC machining a part. Not sure where to…
Intro Urethane casting might be the perfect solution to your company’s problem. When it comes to affordable, fast, customizable products made in medium quantities, many people choose urethane casting. In this piece, we’ll explain what urethane casting is. We’ll include the process of making a…
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…
CNC machining is an accurate and streamlined way to traditionally machine complicated parts. Did you know that some CNC machines are even more accurate and can handle more complex parts than others? It all boils down to how many axes they have. In this piece,…
As an ambitious teenager in 1970s England, Terry Leary purchased and sold the car of his dreams - a 1936 Morgan Super Sport. A few decades, careers, and countries later, Terry has reunited with his dream car and painstakingly restored it with the help of…
Product development and prototypes are commonly handled in three different ways. Subtractive manufacturing - a person or CNC machine continuously cuts material away from a solid piece, such as metal. Injection molding - heated material is injected into a mold and can produce products in…
CNC Machining is a common process to produce complex parts. Whether you’re a manufacturing, mechanical or design engineer, you’ll often rely on CNC Machining to develop and manufacture a part. This guide is meant to help you understand the process and how you can benefit…
Metal fabrication is defined as the process of creating and building metal structures from raw metal materials. It involves cutting, shaping, bending, and molding metallic material into the desired final product. Metal-fabrication processes include everything from heavy machinery and equipment to simple hand railings. Specific…