What This Site Is, and What It Is Not
A matching service for people buying machined aluminum parts. No machines, no shop floor, no commission on your order.
The short version
You send one request with a drawing. We read it, work out which machine shops can actually hold what you have drawn, and pass it to at most 3 of them. They quote you directly. You order from whichever you prefer, and the order never passes through us.
We are not a machine shop. We do not own equipment, we do not subcontract your part under our own name, and we do not mark up a shop's price. If you want a factory, this is the wrong site and we would rather say so on the first page than three emails in.
How we are paid
Shops pay us for requests we match to them. Buyers pay nothing, ever, and there is no version of this where a buyer is charged.
That arrangement has an obvious risk and it is worth naming: a service paid by suppliers could be tempted to push every request to as many shops as possible. That is why the limit of 3 exists and why we send fewer when only one or two shops genuinely suit a part. A shop that keeps receiving requests it cannot win stops paying, so padding the list would end the business inside a year.
What we actually do with a request
Reading an RFQ properly is most of the work. Before anything is matched we check that the alloy and temper make sense for what the part does, that the tolerances are achievable and are on the features that matter, that the finish will not close a fit, and that the quantity suits the shops we would send it to.
When something is missing or contradictory we come back to you before we send it anywhere. A request that goes out incomplete produces quotes that are not comparable, which wastes your time and the shops' time.
What we do not do
- We do not publish shop names, and we do not tell a shop who the other quoting shops are.
- We do not take a percentage of your order, and we do not ask to see the price you agreed.
- We do not add buyers to a mailing list or resell contact details.
- We do not claim certifications. The only certifications on this site are the ones a shop ticks about itself when it registers.
- We do not quote a lead time we have not confirmed with a shop.
Why the guides exist
Most requests arrive with something that will cost the buyer money for no benefit: a tolerance applied to every dimension instead of three, a thickness that forces the next plate size up, a coating specified without saying whether it should be masked. The guides exist so that the request you send here, or anywhere else, is a better request.
They are not gated, there is no form in front of them, and they link to the standards behind the figures so you can check the numbers rather than take our word for them. How they are written and checked is set out in editorial standards.
Who writes them
Written and maintained by The Alu CNC Parts editorial desk. If a figure here is wrong, say so and it gets corrected with the date of the change recorded on the page.
Corrections, disagreements and "your table is wrong about 7075" emails are genuinely welcome at .
At a glance
- What we areA matching service between buyers and machine shops.
- Cost to buyersNothing. Shops pay for matched requests.
- Shops per request3 at most, fewer when only one or two fit.
- Reply timewithin 24 business hours.
- Your drawingShared only with matched shops. NDA on request before anything moves.
- Commission on your orderNone. You buy direct from the shop.
Running a shop instead? The commercial terms for suppliers are written out in full on the partner page, including what a lead costs and what happens when one is wrong.