CNC Machining in Port Stephens

CNC machining is what Port Stephens Machining is built around. Two processes cover most of it — turning for round parts, milling for everything else — and between them we can make the great majority of what walks through the door.

We machine single parts, small batches and ongoing production runs. Same machines, same standard, whether it is one bush for a bloke’s boat trailer or a hundred crimping dies for an electrical wholesaler.

Turning and milling

CNC turning handles anything round: shafts, bushes, spacers, adaptors, pins, threaded components, die blanks. The part spins, the tool cuts. Good for concentric features, accurate bores and clean threads.

CNC milling handles flat and prismatic work: plates, housings, bearing carriers, brackets, fixtures, keyways, slots, bolt patterns and pockets. The tool spins, the part stays put.

Plenty of parts need both. A shaft turned to size then milled for a keyway and a cross-hole is a normal job here.

Materials we machine routinely

• 4140 heat-treated — the workhorse for shafts, pins, high-stress components and anything that has to take load without wearing out
• Tool steels — for dies, punches, forming tooling and wear parts
• 316 stainless — marine hardware, food and washdown environments, anything that lives near salt water
• Aluminium — light brackets, housings, prototypes, jigs and fixtures

We also machine brass, bronze and copper, cast iron, and engineering plastics — acetal, nylon, UHMWPE, PTFE and HDPE. There is no material on the list we will not touch.

Tolerances and finish

We routinely hold ±0.01mm on turned diameters and milled features where the drawing calls for it. Anything tighter than that, or a ground finish, we arrange through a grinding shop and manage it as part of the job — you still get one quote and one date.

What we will say now: if a feature on your drawing needs a tolerance you are not sure about, ring us before you commit it to paper. Tight tolerances on features that do not need them are the most common way a part gets expensive for no reason.

Machines

• CNC lathe — 250mm swing, 300mm turning length in the chuck, 50mm bar capacity through the spindle. Long shafts up to 3 metres are fed through the spindle and run on a steady rest.
• Manual lathe — 400mm swing, 1.5 metres between centres.
• CNC machining centre (large) — 1000 × 500 × 500mm travels.
• CNC machining centre (small) — 400 × 300 × 300mm travels.
• Manual mill — 1000 × 500 × 400mm travels.
• CNC router — 1200 × 800mm bed for timber, plastics and aluminium sheet.
• 3D printer — 220 × 220 × 300mm, for prototypes and fit checks.
• Forklift — 3 tonne, so heavy parts are not a problem to unload.

Sheet metal is cut on a guillotine and folded on a CNC press brake at a partner facility we have full use of.

Alongside the CNC gear we run a CNC router (Onefinity Journeyman X-50) for timber, plastics and aluminium — signage, carved panels, jigs and templates — and a 3D printer (Ender 5 Pro) for prototypes, jigs and fixtures. Handy for proving a part fits before we cut it in steel.

Running overnight

Our machines run unattended after hours. Jobs are set up and proved during the day, then left to run lights-out overnight.

For you, that means two things: the cost of long-running batch work comes down, and the delivery date we give you has slack built into it. We are not relying on someone standing at a machine for the job to progress.

More on this on the production machining page.

From drawing, or from nothing

Send a drawing and we will work to it. Send a photo, a sketch or the broken part and we will do the drawing ourselves — Todd models it in Fusion 360, and you get a proper CAD file out of it that we keep on record for next time.

That is the part most shops charge you extra to organise. See industrial design and CAD.

Who we machine for

Marine and boating trades around Port Stephens. Farms and earthmoving contractors. Factory and plant maintenance crews who need a machine back running today. Electrical manufacturers and wholesalers ordering repeat production batches. Other fabricators and trades who need a machined component to finish their own job.