There are a thousand reasons why you might want to add text to a part. For an item of self-assembly furniture, text may be needed to explain how one part slots into another. For an electronic part, text can provide crucial safety instructions that are required by law. Other components simply display...

Whether you’re making sheet metal, injection molded, or CNC machined parts, threads are a simple way to facilitate assembly of multiple components. Over many decades of manufacturing, threads have become standardized, so components made by different manufacturers can still be joined together with s...

Living hinges are a simple and cost-effective way of incorporating flexure bearings into plastic objects like containers and food packaging. While most hinges typically require at least two separate components, a living hinge is made from the same material as the two sections it connects. This artic...

When creating a part or a product, the first step is often the hardest. Even if you are a highly skilled CAD expert, a professional engineer or a handy machinist, it can sometimes be difficult to step back and ask: How should this part be? What specific shape and arrangement would best serve its pur...

Several things can affect the cost of CNC Machining parts, including materials, design, finishes, quantity, and turnaround time. Typically, the most important is how much time it takes to machine your parts. This can influence cost even more than the cost of materials, setup time, or finishing type....

Like any other manufacturing process, CNC milling requires the careful application of design for manufacturing (DfM) principles. Although CNC mills — and 5-axis machining centers to an even greater extent — can produce a wide range of parts in a variety of metals and plastics, there are certain de...