Part Type
Custom Machined Brackets
The part every machine has and nobody stocks.
Every machine, fixture, and build has at least one bracket that exists nowhere in a catalog: the wrong hole pattern, the wrong angle, the wrong thickness. Those get machined from solid in aluminum, steel, or stainless to your print, from one piece to production batches, with no minimum order. Send a STEP and PDF through the quote form and a quote comes back in 24-48 hours.
Updated June 2026
Machined from billet, or bent from sheet?
A machined bracket starts as solid plate or bar and ends as exactly the geometry on the print: flat datum faces, hole positions held to thousandths, thick bosses where the load is, and pockets where it isn’t. Bent sheet metal can’t match that. Springback varies part to part, holes near bends wander, and stiffness depends on the bend rather than the section.
Sheet metal still wins on price for simple, high-volume, tolerance-forgiving brackets, and there’s no sense pretending otherwise. The practical rule: if the bracket locates something, carries real load, or needs features like counterbores and tapped bosses, it should be milled. If it’s a cosmetic shroud mount, sheet may be the smarter buy, and the quote will say so rather than force the expensive version.
Picking the material
6061 aluminum is the default and covers most of the work: strong enough for typical mounting duty, light, affordable, and happy to be anodized. 7075 steps in when the loads get serious, in motorsport, robotics, and anywhere a 6061 bracket has already bent. Stainless handles washdown, outdoor, and food-adjacent duty. Steel earns its place in welded frames and wherever raw stiffness per dollar wins. And Delrin is the quiet pick for brackets that must not scratch, conduct, or rattle against what they hold.
What to put on the print
The details that make a bracket right the first time: datum faces and a hole-pattern callout (a position tolerance beats a grid of ±0.005 dimensions), tapped versus clearance for every hole, slots where adjustment is wanted, and a note about which surfaces mate against other parts. Inside corners of pockets carry a radius from the tool; spec a radius your design can accept rather than drawing sharp corners that can’t exist.
Load notes help more than they look like they should. “This carries a 40 lb motor with chain tension” tells the team what matters, catches undersized sections before material is bought, and makes the quote land right the first time.
Finishes
Anodize Type II in clear or black is the standard call for aluminum brackets: corrosion and scratch resistance with a clean look, cheap next to the machining. Powder coat covers steel and any bracket that needs durable color. Stainless brackets usually ship passivated, and bare metal is perfectly fine for indoor fixtures and prototypes that nobody will see again.
Questions
Before you send a job.
01 What files are needed to quote a bracket?
A STEP file for the geometry and a PDF print for tolerances, threads, and finish is the ideal package, and quotes come back in 24-48 hours from those. A clean dimensioned drawing alone works too. No CAD at all? A sketch with dimensions, or the old bracket itself, is enough to start; reverse engineering an existing part into a proper model is a normal request.
02 Should my bracket be machined or bent sheet metal?
Machined when it locates components, carries load, or needs features sheet can’t hold: tight hole-to-hole positions, flat mounting faces, counterbores, tapped bosses, variable thickness. Bent sheet when it’s a simple, forgiving shape needed in volume. If the files suggest the part suits sheet metal better, the quote will flag it instead of pricing the wrong process.
03 What tolerances are realistic on a machined bracket?
±0.005 in on general dimensions is routine, with hole positions and critical bores held to ±0.001 in where the print calls for it. The cost lever is how much of the bracket gets the tight numbers: tolerance the holes that locate things, let the outline breathe, and the price stays sensible.
04 Can I order just one bracket?
One is a normal order; there is no minimum. Single replacement brackets for down machines and one-off prototypes are everyday work. Per-piece pricing does drop as quantity rises, since setup is spread across the batch, so if a few spares would help, the quote can show both numbers.
05 Which material should a bracket be?
6061 aluminum unless something argues otherwise; it’s strong enough for most mounting duty and the cheapest to buy and to cut. Step to 7075 when the load numbers are serious, stainless for wet or washdown environments, steel for welded frames and maximum stiffness per dollar, and Delrin when the bracket must not mar or conduct. Describing what the bracket holds settles it quickly.
Get Started
Send us your files.
We’ll take it from there.
A quote in 24-48 hours, no minimums. Like the quote, and we’ll make your parts and ship them to you.
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