Blog | LKprototype

All Articles

All Articles(368)3D Printing (14)CNC Design Guide (3)CNC Machining (153)Design Guide (20)Injection Molding (35)Manufacturing Costs (25)Manufacturing Materials (35)manufacturing process (15)Material Comparison Molding Techniques (40)Part prototyping (38)Sheet Metal Fabrication (4)Silicone Molds (25)Surface Finish (1)Urethane Casting (37)Vacuum Casting (85)

What Is Mill-Turn Machining and When Should You Use It?

A shaft arrives with four feature families on one drawing: two ground bearing journals, a pair of milled wrench flats, a radial cross-hole that must intersect the centerline at a controlled angle, and a threaded end. Turning produces the journals and the thread. The flats and the cross-hole need a rotating cutter. The procurement question is not whether both operations are possible — they clearly are — but whether they should happen on two machines or on one mill-turn platform. That choice changes more than the machine schedule. It determines how many times the part is clamped, which datums survive…

CNC Milling vs Turning: Which Process Fits Your Part?

Two parts can look equally simple on a drawing and still land on entirely different machines. One needs a lathe, one needs a machining center, and a third needs both. Picking the wrong one is usually not a machining failure — it's a routing failure that shows up later as extra setups, harder inspection, or a price you can't explain. This guide gives you the routing logic engineers actually use: look at the dominant geometry, isolate the feature that controls function, identify the datum it's measured from, and let the process follow. For each decision point it also tells you…

How to Verify a CNC Machining Supplier in China Before You Order

A supplier you can order from is one whose every claim arrives with a document you can check: a registration record that matches the contract, a certificate that names the site doing the work, a bank beneficiary that matches the seller. Skip those checks and the failure is quiet. You pay for a pilot that proves nothing because nobody defined what passing meant, or you find the ISO certificate belongs to a different address, or the money leaves for an account nobody can explain. This guide gives you ten checks you can run from your desk, with no factory visit.…

CNC Machining Sample Parts: What to Specify Before Ordering

An approved sample can stop being valid without anyone arguing about it. A drawing revision lands after approval, or a finish decision gets made on the shop floor and never written into the note, and the part in your hand no longer matches the part you signed off. The sample was fine. The record was not. This article sets out the sequence we use for ordering CNC machining sample parts: define, freeze, inspect, approve, release. Each step produces a document, and each document answers a question a later reviewer will ask. It is a buyer-side control process. It does not…

IS THERE A MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY FOR CNC MACHINING?

Is there a minimum order quantity for CNC machining? There is no industry-wide universal MOQ inherent to the process, but that's not the same as "no minimum." CNC machining doesn't need a dedicated production mold, so a shop can quote small quantities that molding would rule out. Project-specific constraints — stock availability, workholding, special tooling, outside processing, inspection requirements, and the supplier's own commercial policy — can still create practical minimums. What usually changes with quantity is the price, not whether the part can be made. That is why "what's your MOQ?" is a weaker question than it looks. The…

HOW MUCH DOES A CNC PROTOTYPE COST? A PRACTICAL COST BREAKDOWN

CNC prototype cost is a structure, not a single number. Two questions decide everything downstream: what must this prototype actually validate, and which cost group does each line item sit in. The same part can quote very differently across shops because each shop makes its own assumptions about setups, tolerances and inspection scope, and those assumptions, not the part's geometry alone, move the price. This guide gives you a reading frame you can apply to any CNC prototype quote: which costs are one-off, which recur per batch, which recur per part, and which requirements you can trim for a prototype…

How CNC Machining Price Per Part Is Calculated: Fixed Costs, Material, and Machine Time

There is no universal CNC price per part. Two parts of similar size can carry very different unit prices because the price reflects the manufacturing process, not only the material or the physical envelope. A part with a 0.4 mm wall in 7075 aluminium that needs two orientations is not priced like a solid block of the same mass cut in one pass. Price per part also changes with quantity, because some costs occur once per job while others repeat for every part. Cost-accounting literature draws the same line from the other direction: in job order costing, the individual job…

CNC MACHINING QUOTE COMPARISON: WHAT ENGINEERS SHOULD CHECK BEFORE ORDERING

Three CNC prices are not necessarily three prices for the same manufacturing scope. A CNC machining quote comparison only becomes meaningful once you can prove that every supplier priced the same drawing revision, the same material grade and temper, the same tolerance basis, the same surface finish, the same quantity, the same inspection scope, the same packaging and freight basis, and the same definition of when the lead-time clock starts. Those variables are why three quotations can arrive looking like three different projects. One supplier prices general tolerances; another prices the individually toleranced features. One includes a first article inspection,…

HOW TO AUDIT A CNC MACHINING MANUFACTURER: 12 QUESTIONS TO VERIFY QUALITY, CAPACITY, AND TRACEABILITY

INTRODUCTION Choosing a CNC machining supplier and auditing a CNC machining manufacturer are related decisions, but they are not the same decision. Supplier selection helps a buyer compare potential sources based on technical capability, commercial terms, lead time, communication, and overall sourcing fit. A manufacturer audit asks a narrower and more demanding question: Can this specific manufacturer demonstrate, with objective evidence, that it can manufacture this specific part under controlled conditions? That distinction matters because a professional audit should go beyond: website appearance machine photographs total machine count certification logos sample parts sales presentations quotation confidence The purpose is…

HOW TO CHOOSE A CNC MACHINING SUPPLIER FOR PROTOTYPE AND PRODUCTION PARTS

the delivered batch. Where a drawing or purchase order requires an EN 10204 Type 3.1 inspection certificate, that requirement is a specification item, not a courtesy. A usable certificate ties three things together: the specified alloy and condition, the heat or batch number, and the parts you received. If the alloy matches but the heat number cannot be connected to your lot, the certificate proves that the correct material exists somewhere, not that it is in your parts. Traceability becomes more complex when materials or processes pass through multiple hands. Heat treatment, plating, and passivation are commonly subcontracted, and each…

Prototype Manufacturing Process Selection: CNC, 3D Printing, Vacuum Casting, or Injection Molding?

Choosing the right prototype manufacturing methods is one of the most consequential early decisions a product team makes. Get it right and you answer the next engineering question quickly and cost-effectively. Get it wrong and you spend time and budget proving something you did not need to prove — or worse, validating a part that no longer resembles what will actually be manufactured. This guide walks through how to select CNC machining, industrial 3D printing, vacuum casting, or rapid injection molding for a given project, and it explains the prototype process selection logic behind each recommendation. It is not a…

SLA VS SLS FOR PROTOTYPES: ACCURACY, STRENGTH, SURFACE FINISH, AND COST COMPARED

When an engineering team needs a physical part to prove a design, the first fork in the road is almost always the same: SLA or SLS? Both are laser-based polymer 3D printing processes, yet they produce prototypes with meaningfully different properties. Choosing wrong can force a reprint, delay a milestone, or — worse — hand you test results that do not reflect your actual production intent. This guide compares SLA versus SLS for prototypes across dimensional accuracy, tolerance, strength, material behavior, surface finish, geometry freedom, cost, and lead time. The aim is to give engineering teams a grounded basis for…

1 2 … 31 >

LKprototype

What Is Mill-Turn Machining and When Should You Use It?

CNC Milling vs Turning: Which Process Fits Your Part?

How to Verify a CNC Machining Supplier in China Before You Order

CNC Machining Sample Parts: What to Specify Before Ordering

IS THERE A MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY FOR CNC MACHINING?

All Articles

What Is Mill-Turn Machining and When Should You Use It?

CNC Milling vs Turning: Which Process Fits Your Part?

How to Verify a CNC Machining Supplier in China Before You Order

CNC Machining Sample Parts: What to Specify Before Ordering

IS THERE A MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY FOR CNC MACHINING?

HOW MUCH DOES A CNC PROTOTYPE COST? A PRACTICAL COST BREAKDOWN

How CNC Machining Price Per Part Is Calculated: Fixed Costs, Material, and Machine Time

CNC MACHINING QUOTE COMPARISON: WHAT ENGINEERS SHOULD CHECK BEFORE ORDERING

HOW TO AUDIT A CNC MACHINING MANUFACTURER: 12 QUESTIONS TO VERIFY QUALITY, CAPACITY, AND TRACEABILITY

HOW TO CHOOSE A CNC MACHINING SUPPLIER FOR PROTOTYPE AND PRODUCTION PARTS

Prototype Manufacturing Process Selection: CNC, 3D Printing, Vacuum Casting, or Injection Molding?

SLA VS SLS FOR PROTOTYPES: ACCURACY, STRENGTH, SURFACE FINISH, AND COST COMPARED

Turning Ideas into Precision Prototypes & Parts

Dongguan LKprototype Model Co., Ltd.

SERVICE

INDUSTRIES

SOLUTIONS

ABOUT

Join our newsletter

What Is Mill-Turn Machining and When Should You Use It?

CNC Milling vs Turning: Which Process Fits Your Part?

How to Verify a CNC Machining Supplier in China Before You Order

CNC Machining Sample Parts: What to Specify Before Ordering

IS THERE A MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY FOR CNC MACHINING?

All Articles

Turning Ideas into Precision Prototypes & Parts

Dongguan LKprototype Model Co., Ltd.

SERVICE

INDUSTRIES

SOLUTIONS

ABOUT

Join our newsletter

You can get a project quoteBefore reading

You can get a project quote
Before reading