One setup, five faces
Holes, pockets and contours on multiple faces keep their position relative to each other, because the datum never moves.
CNC Milling Services: 3-Axis and 5-Axis
Prismatic parts with deep pockets, thin walls, angled faces and dense hole patterns — machined in aluminum, steel, titanium and plastics, then inspected on a CMM before shipment.
What 5-axis buys you
On a 3-axis machine, every new face is a new setup — and every setup adds error and time. Five-axis work holds the part once and machines five sides of it.
Undercuts and complex contours
Impellers, turbine-style blades, organic housings and angled ports that a 3-axis spindle simply cannot reach.
Shorter cycle, fewer scrap parts
Fewer re-clamps means less handling damage on soft aluminum and thinner walls — a real cost saving on 200+ piece runs.
Parts we mill most often
Enclosures and housings
Electronics enclosures, sensor bodies and control boxes with sealed faces, connector cut-outs and heat-sink fins — usually 6061-T6 with a Type II anodized finish.
Brackets and structural plates
Mounting brackets, gussets, base plates and fixture plates where flatness and hole position matter more than cosmetic finish.
Manifolds and fluid blocks
Cross-drilled aluminum and stainless blocks with NPT or metric ports, O-ring grooves and pressure-tested cavities on request.
Prototype and bridge tooling
Machined mold inserts, check fixtures and assembly jigs used while production tooling is still being cut.
Design rules that cut milling cost
Send the drawing and we will tell you which of these applies to your part. Applying them before quoting typically removes 10–30% of the price.
| Rule | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Corner radii ≥ 1/3 of pocket depth | Larger radii let a bigger cutter run faster and avoid long, fragile tools. |
| Pocket depth ≤ 4× cutter diameter | Deeper pockets force small tools, slow passes and more risk of chatter. |
| Wall thickness ≥ 0.8 mm | Thin walls deflect under cutting force; holding tolerance becomes luck rather than process. |
| Standard drill sizes | Non-standard diameters mean a special tool purchase baked into the unit price. |
| One datum scheme | Multiple datum references across a drawing usually need extra setups and inspection time. |
Send a drawing, get a costed quote
2D PDF, STEP or IGES. We reply with price, lead time and DFM notes — usually within one business day.