cenix

did a search for this and nothing really came up. wondering if anyone has any experience or knowledge of any reputable shops that deal with cnc milling/machining of aluminum? thanks in advance!

S2Koupe

socal is a big place....

youre going to have to narrow things down.

what kind of quantity?

how precise?

how fast do you need it?

cenix

quantity will be small for now. i am primarily looking to prototype and improve a part. after an acceptable prototype is created i will probably do a small run of under 30 pieces. timing is not a major concern as this is a small project of mine and need a shop that is willing to sit down and work with me on it.

sin_loki

if your up near the Santa Barbara/ Goleta there is CnC
CnC machining
5940 Matthews
Goleta, Ca 93117
805-681-8857
They do good work for our company making medical parts, and there turn around time is pretty quick.
And as far as cost go, that really depends on your dimensional tolerances, (tighter the tolerance = the more money it costs.)

And there is Juell Machine Co.
I would avoid that place like the plague, right now the parts they make for us the are less 50% acceptance rate and they are somewhat difficult to deal with. They most likely will not be our vender any more if they don’t get their QC levels up.

S2Koupe

in any town theres a dozen places that will do any aluminum machining.

i know a few in the southbay from work. are you near southbay?

do you have drawings already? i hope youre not expecting the machinist to make the drawings...

cenix

@ sin loki: thanks for the response. i'll keep those in mind.

@ S2Koupe: i'm in los angeles, so yes i'm close to southbay. i'm looking into other places as well, but just picking the brain of locals to see if they've had any great experiences or know of any competent shops. the places that you're thinking about, have you done business with them?

177ark

This was quite some time ago, but I used the machine shop at Mt. SAC College to make a custom aluminum part once. Of course I was already a student and had taken some courses using the mill.

Lakersfan

If Canoga Park is not too far, you want to contact Hans Juker (pronounced u-ker) at Finn Tool & Instrument. He does a lot of prototyping for major aerospace companies and he is a machinist par excellance, trained in Europe the old fashioned way. Plus, he is a certified car nut - muscle cars, etc.

pierceman

call Nick Winters at BDL industries in Orange , he is a member here too. not sure if he can do small quantity but may know who can local

chairmnofthboard

Here's where you are going to run into a problem. Most shops are going to charge you to sit down and talk, plan, design your product.