Aluminium Fabrication and Machining

We machine and fabricate aluminium for brackets, housings, panels, prototypes, jigs and boat fit-out work. It is our fastest material to turn around — if your part does not need the strength of steel, aluminium usually gets to you sooner and cheaper.

Where aluminium makes sense

• Weight matters — anything going on a boat, a trailer, a drone, a moving arm or something a person has to lift
• Corrosion resistance without stainless prices — protected by its own oxide layer, and better again anodised
• Prototypes — cheap enough to machine, test and change your mind about
• Jigs and fixtures — light to handle, quick to cut, easy to modify
• Heat — aluminium sheds heat well, which is why heat sinks and electronics housings are made from it

Where it does not

We will tell you when aluminium is the wrong call. It galls in sliding contact without a bush or an insert. Threads tapped directly into it strip if they get repeatedly done up — better to fit a threaded insert. It fatigues under repeated flexing in a way steel does not. And it work-softens near a weld, so a welded aluminium bracket is weaker right where the heat went in.

Those are all solvable in design. They are not solvable by pretending they are not there.

What we make

• Brackets, mounts and plates — machined, folded or both
• Housings and enclosures — electronics housings, control boxes, covers
• Boat fit-out parts — rod holders, mounts, hatch hardware, custom fittings
• Spacers, bushes, pulleys and light mechanical parts
• Jigs, fixtures and templates — for your shop or ours
• Panels and trays — cut and folded, with machined features where needed
• Router-cut aluminium parts — plates, signage and templates on the CNC router

Alloys: 6061 for machined parts and structural bar, 5083 and 5052 for marine plate and anything welded that lives in salt water, 5005 for sheet and folded work. If your job needs 7075 or something less common, we can get it — say so when you send the drawing.

Machining aluminium

Aluminium cuts fast and finishes beautifully when the tooling and speeds are right — and tears, smears and builds up on the tool when they are not. A part that comes out with a smeared, dragged finish was cut with the wrong tool at the wrong speed.

We run sharp, polished tooling and high spindle speeds for aluminium, which is why a machined aluminium part from here looks finished rather than chewed.

Anodising and finishing

Bare aluminium marks and greys off. Anodising hardens the surface, keeps it clean and lets you have it in a colour.

Yes. We arrange anodising through the same anodiser we deal with every week for other work — clear, black and the standard colours. Tell us the finish when you send the drawing and we will price the job anodised and give you one date for the lot.

Sheet, fabrication and welding

Aluminium sheet is designed and detailed here, then cut and folded through our partner facility. Aluminium welding is a genuine skill of its own — different again to steel — and it goes to the welders we work with. See welding and sheet metal fabrication.

Prototype it in plastic first

For anything where fit is critical, we will often print the part on the 3D printer first, check it goes where it is meant to go, then cut the aluminium. Costs almost nothing and saves a billet.