- Materials
- Aluminum, steel, stainless
- From
- Print, sketch or sample
- Hours
- Open 24 hours
- Where
- In shop or on site
This is the custom fabrication that fills the floor in Piketon: a part, a frame, a rack or a guard in steel, aluminum or stainless, made to your drawing or worked back from the broken one.
A job shop exists for the parts that cannot be bought. Something is obsolete, or it was custom to begin with, or the original supplier has stopped making it, or the standard part almost fits and almost is not good enough. That is the work.
We fabricate in aluminum, steel and stainless. If you have a drawing, we build to the drawing. If you have the broken part and no drawing, send a photo of it and we can usually work back from there. If you are still deciding what the part should be, we can model it in CAD first and print a fixture or a check piece before any steel gets cut, which is cheaper than finding out on the material.
Bring us a photograph and a dimension and we can usually start the conversation. The job form takes file uploads, and for this kind of work a photo of the part on the floor is worth more than a paragraph describing it.
One thing worth saying about scope. General job shop work is a wide description and it is meant to be. If it is an awning, a handrail, a bumper, a truck, a trailer or something in a plant, the size of the job is not the question and a half day of work is still work we want. What we are not is a home improvement contractor, so decks, remodels and general handyman jobs are not for us. Handrails, gates and fences are the exception we will build for anyone.
What we are good for is the part that does not exist any more, the part that was always custom, and the part that has failed twice and will fail again in the same place unless somebody redesigns it.
| Starting point | What we need from you | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| You have a drawing | The drawing and the material spec | Built to the print |
| You have the broken part | The part, or a photo with a scale reference | Worked back from the original, usually with more material where it failed |
| You have a photo only | Something in frame for scale and two or three dimensions | Geometry derived, then confirmed with you before cutting |
| You have an idea | A description of what the part has to do | Modeled in CAD first, often with a printed check piece |
How a part gets made here
The same sequence every time, so you know what you are buying.
From your print
Built to the drawing you already have.
From the broken part
Reverse engineered from the failed component when no drawing exists.
Aluminum, steel and stainless
Material chosen for what the part has to survive, not for what happens to be in the rack.
Model first when it helps
3D CAD and a printed check piece before cutting, on parts where a mistake in material is expensive.
Send a photograph of the broken part. That is usually enough to start.
Most of this work arrives as a phone photo of something that failed, and that is a perfectly good starting point.
Questions about custom fabrication
What materials do you work in?
Aluminum, steel and stainless.
I do not have a drawing. Can you still make it?
Usually yes. Send a photo of the part, ideally with a tape measure or a known object in the frame for scale, and we will tell you what else we need.
Can you make one part, or is there a minimum?
This is a job shop, so one-off work is normal and a small part is perfectly normal work.
Do you do the finishing too?
We do light industrial sandblasting for surface preparation ahead of coating or repair. Tell us what the part has to stand up to and we will tell you what we can do here.
What to send instead of a drawing
Everything you leave out becomes an assumption, and assumptions are what make an invoice differ from a quote. None of this has to be formal.
A tape measure or a ruler in the same plane as the part.
Load, environment and whether anything hits it. This decides the material.
A sentence is enough to start. Precision comes later.
At your facility, or can it come to the shop.
Including any shutdown or outage window, and whether the date is fixed.
For anything that already exists, a photo does more than several paragraphs.
Send us a part to make
Send the print if you have one. If you do not, send the broken part and a tape measure in the frame.
Commercial, industrial and fleet work, plus awnings, handrails, gates and fences for anyone. We do not take farm work or home improvement jobs.
Where fabricated parts end up
The trades that most often turn up on the same job.
Precision tapping and machining
Threading and machined features held to the print, on new parts and on parts that have already been damaged.
3D CAD modeling and 3D printing
Model the part first, print a check piece, then cut steel once. The cheapest place to find a mistake is on a screen.
Light industrial sandblasting
Surface preparation ahead of coating or repair, so what goes on the metal actually stays on the metal.