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A five-axis trunnion mid-cut: an end mill engaged in the spindle cutting a clamped aluminum billet, coolant spraying across the work, the part held down on toe clamps inside the machine enclosure.

PROTOTYPE & R&D · 5-AXIS CNC

5-axis machining built for geometry that matters.

DMG MORI DMU 70 EVO LINEAR · HAAS MILLS · CNC TURNING · FINISHING · FABRICATION · GRAND RAPIDS MI

Send the DrawingCall the Shop · (616) 990-1333
A bladed wheel on a round rotary table under the spindle, coolant spraying from the nozzles around the tool.◆ FIVE-AXIS — SINGLE SETUP

FIVE-AXIS WORK

The tool reaches what three axes can’t.

DMG MORI DMU 70 evo linear — five-axis simultaneous

MULTI-AXIS ACCESS

The tool reaches intricate features in a single setup. 5-axis simultaneous access eliminates re-fixturing; geometry that other platforms require 3–4 setups for comes out in one.

SETUP DISCIPLINE

Fixturing built to protect dimensional intent, not fight it. Part geometry informs the fixture strategy, not the other way around. And when the design itself fights the machining, that is raised before the quote: design for machinability is work the shop takes on, not only cutting a finished print.

FINISHING PATHS

Toolpaths built around the real tolerances, not the nominal. Deflection accounted for in the removal sequence; thin walls and profile hold through the final pass.

SECONDARY PLATFORM

3-axis work, mold base precision, and the repeat run when the part is proven. When the geometry is cartesian, the efficiency is too.

What five axes change, and where they are the wrong machineInconel 718, milled and turned: why it is hard

02 · PROCESS

Every step is a decision, not a default.

Three machined aluminum parts on an inspection mat with a digital caliper, a gauge-block set, and inspection paperwork on the bench.
  1. 01

    INTAKE

    Feasibility read on your print

  2. 02

    PLAN

    Geometry-first sequencing

  3. 03

    ROUGH

    Controlled removal, stress managed

  4. 04

    FINISH

    The surfaces that matter, held

  5. 05

    VERIFY

    Inspected and approved

Inspected and approved — before it ships.

A stepped shaft being turned in the CNC lathe, the insert in the cut and a chip curling away above it.◆ IN THE CUT / GEOMETRY-MATCHED

03 · HELD TOLERANCES

Deflection is beaten before the cut.

Geometry-aware planning, removal sequencing, and finishing strategy aligned to tolerance intent — so thin walls stay where we put them and the profile holds through the last pass.

The plan does the heavy lifting.

04 · PRECISION FINISHING

Finished in the building it was cut in.

HONING

Bore finishing on a dedicated honing machine — cross-hatch, roundness and straightness held, size to print. Hydraulic sealing surfaces, precision journals, concentricity held to intent.

SHOT PEENING

The surface worked evenly under controlled media — conditioned for parts that live under load. Functional finishing, not shine.

VAPOR BLASTING

Gentle surface refinement: burr removal, edge-safe cleaning, surface prep for bonding or coating. No rounding. Nothing you would measure lost.

GRINDING & SURFACE WORK

Profile finishing, stress relief prep, dimensional correction — and hand surfacing after machining, the final tuning a machine can't do. Held to spec before the part ships.

  • A gloved hand blasting a machined flange plate on the cabinet grate, the media plume mid-pass.

    BLAST CABINET · IN USE

  • A honed bore seen down its axis in a flanged aluminum housing, a fine even cross-hatch running the full circumference.

    HONED BORE

  • The same machined housing shown twice under one light: bright cut faces off the machine at left, an even satin after vapor blasting at right.

    AS MACHINED → BLASTED

  • The vapor-blast cabinet in use, media wetting the work surface under the cabinet light.

    THE CABINET

Cylinder and bore honing, on its own pageWet or dry blasting, decided by what comes next

05 · WELDING & FABRICATION

When the part is more than just machined.

THE CALL IS MADE AT INTAKE

Some parts are assemblies, not solids — a frame, a manifold, a tube run. Which one a job is gets read off the print at the start, not discovered halfway through it.

IT NEVER LEAVES THE BUILDING

Nothing is handed to a stranger at the weld stage. The part crosses the floor, not the street — and the people joining it are the people who watched it come off the machine.

ONE SEQUENCE, NOT TWO

Machined features and welded joints are sequenced together — fixturing, fit-up, and what gets cut before what gets joined, decided once by the shop that has to make both of them hold.

  • A stainless tube joint TIG-welded in steel fixture blocks, the ripple bead even around the junction with a narrow straw-to-blue heat-tint ring tight against it on both sides, the torch set down beside it.

    TIG BEAD · HEAT TINT

  • Two stainless primaries bent and TIG-welded into a two-into-one header on the bench, a heat-tint ring at every joint, ending in a machined four-bolt flange, a third run with a red anodized clamp passing behind.

    TIG · MERGED HEADER

  • A machined bracket TIG-welded to a steel tube in a fixture: the bead is evenly stacked with clean tie-in at both toes and straw-to-blue heat tint fanning out, the air completely clear.

    TIG · STRUCTURAL JOINT

  • A rotary-draw-bent tube showing a clean radius with no wrinkling on the inner wall.

    ROTARY DRAW BEND

TIG welding and tube fabrication, on its own page

06 · MATERIALS HANDLING

Tool life is planned before the first cut.

INCONEL 718

Feeds and speeds locked in. Tool deflection accounted for. Spindle load optimized for thermal stability.

TITANIUM

Cold-work behavior understood. Cutting edges protected. Surface finish maintained throughout the run.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Aluminum, alloy steel, stainless steel, magnesium, carbon fiber — each metal gets the removal strategy it needs, not the one the machine defaults to.

Every material, and the decision it forces

07 · ON THE FLOOR

Every part gets the platform it actually needs.

Five-axis simultaneous for the geometry that can’t be flipped. A dedicated mold-and-die platform for cavity work. Two compact vertical mills for small, tight-tolerance parts. Turning for everything cylindrical. And a manual mill for the one-off that a program would only slow down.

  • 01

    FIVE-AXIS SIMULTANEOUS

    5-axis machining centre

    The geometry that can’t be flipped. One setup, one datum, every face.

  • 02

    MOLD & DIE PLATFORM

    3-axis mould & die platform

    A dedicated platform for cavity and core work, sized for the whole base.

  • 03

    SMALL-PART MILLING

    2 × compact vertical mills

    Two of them. One runs while the next is set — small parts, held tight.

  • 04

    TURNING

    CNC lathe

    Everything cylindrical: shafts, sleeves, threaded features. Any metal the job calls for.

  • 05

    MANUAL MILL

    manual knee mill

    No program, no queue. Hands, when hands are faster than a toolpath.

  • 06

    TOOL DISCIPLINE

    heat-shrink holders · optical pre-setter

    Heat-shrink holders and an optical pre-setter. Every tool is measured before it ever touches material. Green means go.

Running a tool room? What gets sent here

08 · FROM YOUR CAD

One file, from your model to the spindle.

STEP is the working format — native CAD by email or a PDF print works too. Design in SolidWorks, programmed in Hypermill, cut on the five-axis. Nothing is re-drawn on the way in, so no surface gets quietly approximated between your model and the tool.

INTAKE

  • 01STEPWORKING FORMAT
  • 02IGES
  • 03DXF
  • 04NATIVE CAD
  • 05PDF PRINT

ASKED BEFORE THE JOB IS SENT

Two questions, answered straight.

01

Can you machine geometry that needs more than three axes?

Yes. Five-axis simultaneous work exists to end the second setup: one setup, one datum, every face, so nothing shifts between operations.

02

Is the whole process under one roof?

Machining, finishing, fabrication and inspection all happen in this building. A part that needs three of them does not travel between three companies, and the print stays with the same people from the first cut to the last measurement. That includes the smaller operations a part picks up on the way: boring, tapping, saw cutting and external splines. Anodizing, when a part needs it, is arranged by the shop, so you still deal with one.

Most parts need more than one of these.

Milled, turned, honed and vapor-blasted is one job here, not four vendors and four handoffs. Send the drawing and the shop routes the sequence.

Send the Drawing