General Plastic Fabrication Questions

Do you produce any Derlin AF shaft bushings? 1 inch internal diameter 1.25 inch approximate length, preferably with a shoulder.

We can custom plastic machine to your plastic specifications. Delrin AF is a common material for us to run.

Our team is trying to bring a new consumer electronics device to market. Currently, we have working prototypes that need more sophisticated looking enclosures. I have a design for a prototype enclosure for our device and would like them machined from some type of black plastic such as delrin. I am looking at a small quantity of 10 sets.

Please send a print. Our Quick Turnaround Service will produce prototypes in 2 weeks or less.

Could you tell me the cost of having three words cut into a piece of polycarbonate plastic by a CNC router? There are 16 letters in all. I need a smooth and sleek cursive font used to form the letters in each word. The first letter of each word is capitalized. Caps letters need to be 2.5" high with lower case letters proportionally smaller. This piece will be utilized as a sign over a museum exhibit. Does your company do this type of work?

We do not fabricate on cnc routers. We focus on higher end medical parts using CNC plastic milling equipment.

Can your company help us machine this design? I'm open to suggestions in terms of what type of plastic to use. If your company cannot match the specs on this design, can you tell me how close you could get?

We have engineers on staff to offer support on plastic material selection. We can achieve the tolerances you are presenting. We are successful in achieving tolerances of +/- .0005 or better.

I have a 3D model of a plastic piece that I need machined. Can you produce this item from the 3D model? Can I send you the 3D object?

Our plastic prototype machining only works from #D models.

I am interested in your plastic turning services as an alternative to other methods of producing this item. Can you provide a quote?

Plastic turning is most effective at lower quantities and parts with complex configurations and close tolerance.

Can you please provide a quote for milling and optical-grade polishing of a single acrylic prototype part? I have attached a drawing.

Yes, we now do quick turn around prototype plastic machining. Your quote is attached.

We need to hold a 0.5" dia. S.Steel rod concentrically within a 1" bore SS tube. We drill through the rod 1/8" alternately at 90 degrees and insert a three piece PTFE spacer. I see you have PTFE items that could perhaps be used as 'pegs' to be inserted either side of the drilled hole. The hole diameter can be changed. Do you have a standard item we could use, or perhaps modify for there is no great requirement for this?

We custom plastic machine many items including pegs in Teflon. Please advise on your size requirements. It is most likely easiest to do a custom run for you.

It was suggested that I contact a plastics machining company to make custom plastic acrylic decorative items for my products relating to the fashion industry. I have a technical drawing of the items required, and would like to discuss my needs further.

Our target market is the medical/diagnostic industry. Try the POP display industry. They are setup for more display type acrylic work.

We need pre-machined blanks to make custom hub rings for automotive custom wheel applications. In 4 OD sizes with a bore in the middle.

We can provide pre-machined blanks. Also consider us for the complete machining as well. We can polish your acrylic components.

We need pre-machined blanks to make custom hub rings for automotive custom wheel applications. In 4 OD sizes with a bore in the middle.

We can provide pre-machined blanks. Also consider us for the complete machining as well. We can polish your acrylic components.

We are conducting a test on various potential replacement materials for a device that experiences a highly oxidative environment. We would like to evaluate 20 coupons of the 1 X 2 X 15 cm for each potential replacement materials. The materials we would like to try are: CTFE, FEP, PFA, PTFE and Tefzel.

We would be happy to fabricate those for you. What tolerance do you require on the dimensions? We can hold some of the tightest plastic machining tolerances in the industry.

We make a line of product for the water / wastewater industry in various plastics, mostly UHMW and various grades of nylon. What is your capacity for flat slab CNC work? Some of our components can be up to 30" square and 4" (or more) thick. We also need Worm gear sets, The worm is MDS filled nylon and the worm gear in a good grade, UV stabilized UHMW-PE.

We can plastic machine parts to 40” x 24”. Machining 30” typically requires a plastic router.

We have an application in which we are currently using a precision hardened, ground and lapped spacer. This spacer is approx 60mm ID and 75mm OD with a tolerance of +/- .005. The thickness is .0625 and .1250 +/- .0002. The current steel spacers are costly, delicate and prone to rust. Can these spacers be made in plastic? The thickness tolerance is crucial. Our application requires stacked precision tooling and accumulative tolerance errors need to be minimized.

Absolutely. Connecticut Plastics can hold the tightest plastic machining tolerances in the industry with +/- .0002 is within our capability.

I would like to get more information regarding your stress testing for molded components. We currently have a need to stress test our parts after molding. The stress test we are doing is a TNP solvent test. 3 parts Toluene to 1 part IPA. We currently test 74 - 200 units a month. Parts are very small .750" lg. x .450" width. Can your company stress test molded components?

We can stress test molded components. We have stress test protocols for Ultem, acrylic, polycarbonate and others. Target stress level testing is also a consideration.

I need to compare cost-effectiveness of CNC plastic fabrication and plastic injection molding for pre-prototyping of high a precision light concentrator.

Typically CNC plastic machining is best for close tolerance work and middle to low volume quantities. Thick cross sections and undercuts are also a good choice. Low or no tooling costs.

I'm looking for a peek manifold to screw on a 10ml glass vial with 7 or 8 line hookups in the top. One of your pictures of a round peek manifold looks like it would work with my design. Please let me know if this something you have in stock or would you have to machine it.

All our parts are custom plastic machined components. Please send a drawing of your plastic part design for consideration.

I would like to know if you are able to manufacture a simple transparent cone with a flange out of clear PVC?

Certainly, we precision machine clear plastic PVC on a regular basis.

We are looking to have several molding trays fabricated for producing flexible urethane or silicone rubber cavity molds for a bullion shaped bar end product based from paraffin wax. The design requires two assembled sets of mold trays along with two extra bars. Bar material is currently specified as cast acrylic, polished to a gloss finish. We are also looking to have our logo engraved in the center of the bar. Is your company interested in quoting this job?

We frequently plastic engrave for our customers including logos, art work and text. Do you need it colored or as machined.

I am working on a medical feasibility project for which I would like to know if your company can micro fabricate a plastic component that is part of the design. I have attached a drawing. If the dimensions are within your scope of business, I would like to know what would be the NRE and cost per part. Any suggestions are welcome.

This part is a good fit for us. We micro machine – micro fabricate many plastic components. What quantities are you looking for?

I am conducting preliminary research- pre-mass production. We are looking to plastic fabrication as a means to produce a custom plastic protective cover for an infrared LED illumination surrounding a specialized camera lens.

We produced many plastic windows for protective covers. Acrylic and polycarbonate windows are typical, and with vapor polishing, we can provide you an optically clear finish.

I was curious if you could custom machine an ABS plastic plate for the gauge cluster of my vehicle if I provide a template. I am replacing the gauges within the cluster and the diameter of the holes needs to be slightly smaller. The current holes are 65mm and they need to be 50mm. If your company can produce this, please let me know and I will get you an image with object dimensions so that you can quote me on this part.

We can, however our target market is medical plastic machining and other high performance applications.

We need to have a part micro machined. Please quote quantities of 25 and 50 pieces of this TEFLON part. Consider the following: how thin can the top surface that is 0.065" be machined to? Is 0.016 feasible?

Yes plastic machining of .016 is feasible. The Teflon plastic part may get a little porous. We have machined wall thicknesses below .001”.

I would like to explore the possibility of producing a plastic mandrel for an electro-forming project. I need to laser machine a 5inch long plastic part about a tight center supporting wire. The wire is held in a 'C' frame by crimped balls and able to rotate slowly. The final part must be concentric about the wire and have a conductive finish. Any help is truly appreciated.

Please send a sketch or drawing of your design and we would be glad to help.

I came across your site while searching on medical devices. I am considering having the plastic parts precision machined. What I need is an engineer to look over my idea. I would like comments on how I can manufacture this device more cost efficiently. Any changes or comments are welcome for discussion.

We are happy to help. Please call us to talk with our engineering department about material selection, machinability and tolerances.

Could you send us technical details and a quote for a bonded manifold we found on your website? We think it will suit our needs. We are looking for a 1 to 3 way plastic manifold connecting a 2 mm inside diameter tubing to 3 1mm inside tubes.

We certainly can. Please specify which manifold component is similar to yours and we can work up ball park pricing.

I'm exploring possibility of machining a small diameter optical diffuser. The diffuser is made in sheets of polycarbonate, 5mil thick, and will be AR coated on both sides. Can this material be precision machined to diameter of 3 to 4 mm with a clear aperture of 2 to 3mm? Can we go to a 2mm diameter with a 1mm clear aperture?

Yes, we can machine that small. You can view similar parts in our micromachining section. Please send us a drawing and we will be happy to provide you with a quote.

I'd like to have manufactured, plastic knobs and buttons in a variety of colors. Is this something you can do?

Certainly, Acrylic or PVC are both available in different colors as rod stock.

My inquiry looks to be low tech compared to your capabilities. I need a couple prototype pieces (4) of the attached CAD drawing, fabricated from polycarbonate. My current supplier simply machines these units out of polycarbonate sheet but their lead times are starting to be a barrier.

Quick lead-times for prototype work is a service we can provide.

Do you have the capability of machining valve bodies? Small ones, typically with ¼ or ½ threaded fittings, out of PTFE to SEMI F57-0301 standard.

We provide plastic machining services to customers for a wide range of valve bodies. Please send a print and we can discuss further.

We are interested finding a company that can grind, or possibly turn, PEEK rods for us. They should be produced slightly oversized and then ground to finished size from 8mm up to about 40mm, with a standard length of 4 feet. For grinding we would require you to use grinding fluid Master Chemical Company TRIM C275, this because we have extensive data on our rods that used C275 for grinding, and we do not want to have to generate data for a different unknown grinding fluid. Another option might be a turning operation where no fluid is used. Can your company provide this?

We do not have equipment for grinding operations and would recommend a centerless grinding company.

We are looking to produce a component for a medical device (direct patient contact but not an implant). It must withstand steam sterilization (125Â°C for 30 mins), long term storage in saline, and most importantly have a very low coefficient of friction. The component is small (20x20mm) and can either be injection molded or accurately machined. Is this a project that you might be able to help us with?

We would be happy to help with your plastic machining application. Please send a print for more specific consideration.

We're working on a new product which is an aluminum structure with plastic joints and we were wondering if you could mass produce something similar. We will need enough to build 1000 units this year that have 6 or more plastic parts each. The total frame will need to support 300 lbs.

We generally are not involved with consumer goods but focus on the industrial marketplace. In particular, medical plastic machining.

This part must transmit parallel light with zero diffusion through the 1/2" x 5" sides so that a Schlieren image can be taken through both pieces. I have had trouble with diffusion in similar pieces but I have read that annealing the pieces fixes the problem. Is this accurate?

It is possible that annealing can alter the plastic properties. We would be happy to test a sample for you.

I am looking for a manufacturer that can create permanent PEEK to PEEK bonds. The device in question requires a top plate and bottom plate, each with mating fluid relief channels (machined across the bond plane), to be bonded to create a monolithic construct. This is for a class 2 medical device, so adhesive solutions will have to demonstrate biocompatibility. Is this work that your company can do?

Yes we plastic bond many different types of materials. And we can help with your selection of adhesives, or you can go to loctite.com for adhesive specifications.

I am looking for 1/2"x1/2" by ~3mm thick transparent plastic blanks. The sidewalls do not have to be polished. The blanks should be in each of the following materials: COC, COP, Polycarbonate, PMMI, Polysulfone Clear. I would like the water clear version of all these materials.

This is relatively easy to make, Do you have quantities?

We are currently investigating a source for a custom manifold solution for our existing products to reduce the amount of tubing required, and reduce assembly labor times. Does your company fabricate custom manifolds?

Yes we make regular drilled plastic manifolds as well as bonded plastic manifolds. Bonded manifolds are a great way to reduce the amount of tubing and connection points in a fluidic system.

Do you do prototypes at your facility? I have a wooden prototype but am looking to make my product out of plastic. What is your pricing, time frames, etc. I also would like to know how much it costs to order various quantities of the item.

Yes we machine plastic prototypes. Please send additional information and we will provide a plastic machining quote.

Can you machine on plastic an array (12) of 150 um x 150 um parallel trenches at a pitch of 250 um? The surfaces of the trenches have to be very smooth (50 nm surface roughness).

We can though I need more information on material choice and layout details.

I am interested in receiving design assistance for a product that I have created. I would like a drawing CAD file, or product production and design with cnc machining or rapid prototyping. I would like to work with an engineer to help determine what type of plastic would best suit my product. Do you have a minimum production number? Can you give me more information regarding the above?

We can help with the design but would look to you for an initial sketch or concept. We can run any quantity including one piece for prototype work.

Does your company ship to Europe? Looking for an initial batch of 50 lenses. Surface Finish is critical for optical transmission. At present attached PDF states 0.2micron (~8 Micro inches). I would welcome any advice based on your experience?

We do ship to Europe. We can produce parts that are good for see through applications but not true optical transmission. In that case, a lens manufacturer would be a better choice.

We can make a single piece if you would like. We can assist with the design. Please send a sketch or a print for further discussion.

Can you machine on plastic an array (12) of 150 um x 150 um parallel trenches at a pitch of 250 um? The surfaces of the trenches have to be very smooth (50 nm surface roughness)?

Yes we can, please send a print to further clarify the design.

Do you do prototypes at your facility? I have a wooden prototype but am looking to make my product out of plastic (a low price point item). What is your pricing, time frames, etc.? I also would like to know how much it costs to order various quantities of the item. Thank you very much.

Yes we do prototype work. We will need a print and quantities to put together a quote.

We are currently investigating a source for a custom manifold solution for our existing products to reduce the amount of tubing required, and reduce assembly labor times.

I am happy to help. We can design a manifold directly from your schematics. I will need the valve and pump models with a target size envelope.

We are currently looking for quotation on the attached part for plastic fabrication. It is constructed from black ABS (sheet). We have a small quantity need, as this is prototype, but our customer requires fine finishing. We are hopeful that you can provide us with cost-effective quality improvements. These parts take us considerable time to manufacture at our facility.

No problem, please send us a print and we would be happy to quote.

I am looking to have 2000 custom 1/4-20 square nuts made. The dimensions are 5/8" x 5/8" x 3/8" with a custom base flange. This will be for an outdoor application, so it should resist extreme temperatures (approximately -50ºF to 200ºF, think of a North Dakota winter and an Arizona summer), UV, rain, sleet, snow, salt, ozone, etc. My research has me leaning toward CPVC, as of this moment. Is this a suitable material, or would you recommend another?

CPVC is a good choice. Your application is fairly aggressive for a plastic material.

I am looking to replace a brass manifold with a plastic manifold as I am having problems with stress corrosion. The application is a cooling system, max ID for fluid line is 1.5" OAL 12" tapped either end with NPT thread, also 4 3/4" NPT threaded holes in side of manifold. Typical pressure is less than 100 PSI with 35 Gal per minute flow. Can you recommend a material that would meet this criteria?

I would recommend Delrin as a good material choice. It is easy to machine and will tolerate the large NPT threads well from a stress cracking perspective.

We are currently looking for a quotation on the attached part for plastic fabrication. It is constructed from black ABS (sheet). We only need a small quantity, as this is a prototype. Our customer requires fine finishing, and these parts take us considerable time to manufacture at our facility with current capabilities. We are hopeful that you can provide us with cost-effective quality improvements.

We are happy to help. Please submit a print and required quantities.

Our current CNC shop, attempted to fabricate this plate out of Delrin but could not provide the V-groove features we require. Is fabricating this part out of Delrin feasible?

We machine plastics everyday and frequently can produce features others cannot. We would be happy to help.

I am working on the design of an acrylic viewport for use in a submersible robot and would like to submit a drawing for quote. I would also like to discuss the manufacturability of the design and any recommendations you might have to improve the design.

Please send the print, clear acrylic windows are a common product for us.

We are looking for a quote for a fairly complex plastic assembly for a medical product. The assembly was designed using SolidWorks. Can you generate a quote based on a SolidWorks assembly file? Or do you need a drawing file in some neutral format (such as pdf)?

We can except prints in nearly every format. Solidworks is a good choice for providing prints in their native format.

While we are mainly a metal working facility, we occasionally machine various plastics. I have noticed a complete failure of coolant on a machine within two weeks after a plastic run. Do you have these same issues? Any discussion on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Some plastics can cause coolant problems. Also depending on the machining approach, the type of chips formed can have a detrimental affect on the coolant.

Can you tell me if there is a router bit that can be fitted into a hand held variable speed router to polish a cut edge of an 18mm high gloss acrylic door after the cut has been cleaned up with a two flute cutter?

Not that I am aware, considering trying carbide

I would like to know if you would consider turning plastic or acrylic duck call barrels for me?

We can do a great job on duck calls. With special tooling the parts can come off the machine completely polished.

I am looking for someone to produce 6 propellers from PTFE as per the attached drawing.

We can provide full 4 axis plastic machining for your product. Please forward CAD drawings so we can discuss further.

I am in need of some custom machined Teflon bushings that will be required to maintain a vacuum seal, where the vacuum side may see pressures below 10e-8 Torr. Is this something you can do?

Telfon machining is a standard for us. Depending on seal size, Teflon porosity may pose a challenge.

We are in the prototype stage of a catheter design, and cannot find the type of hub that we need. Crucial to this design are the dimensions we would be looking for in a micro-machined hub. It is our desire to insert a tube on the small end, with no lip between the IDs. Please review the attached files and let us know the feasibility of the design.

Your design is sound, micro machining will give you the dimensions you are hoping for. Plastic micro-machining is one of our specialties.

We are looking for someone with the capability to anneal some polypropylene family injection molded parts in a constrained state.

We have annealing ovens that are available for stress relieving of plastics parts in both the unconstrained and constrained state.

We are trying to find a solution to replace a ceramic part with plastic. The most important parameters for the application are: dimensional stability, low water absorption, low out gassing, good dielectric strength. Do you have any suggestions? Is it something you can do?

We can certainly help. I would recommend PPS or techtron for your application. We can also help you with the fabrication of this part.

Can you provide a table on the Feeds and speeds to machine 30% glass filed Peek?

Sorry we don't give out our machining data.

Are you able to CNC machine from a Polycarbonate, something like Makrolon 2458, then vapor polish for a clear lens, optical application?

Yes, we can. Polycarbonate vapor polishes to a very high degree of clarity and would work well for your application.

You folks have been recommended by a colleague of mine as a facility that can help us with the design of an optical mixing and measurement chamber.I am interested in learning more about your design capabilities and manufacturing facilities.

We would be happy to help. Material selection and design help is always free of charge.

Can I get a plastic of surface roughness of 20nm and can we add glass via anodic bonding or by some other process?

Sorry we do not bond glass.

Can the customer supply material?
Certainly. However Connecticut Plastics has many sources for plastic sheet and rod. We can usually purchase these materials at a better price through volume discounts.

Can you make my plastic parts?
Connecticut Plastics has specialized in plastic machining for over 20 years. We have fabricated thousands of parts in virtually every material. We frequently produce components that are considered among the most difficult to machine. A number of our customers have been buying plastic components for 10 years--without a single rejection. We know plastic machining. If your work is not appropriate for us, we'll tell you and will suggest an alternate source.

How fast can you produce parts?
Typically, on most orders, we deliver parts in 3 to 4 weeks. Rush orders or specials can be produced in as little as one week.

How flat can milled components be held?
The answer depends on the component and material selected. For high flatness requirements with a symmetrical component and stable material, flatness can reach 0.002" over a 4" x 4" piece. Some components though, with a lot of machining only on one side and a softer material, can severely curl. Alternating cuts with heat treatment may reduce the problem.

I am a young Colombian Chemical Engineer who is pursuing graduate studies at Los Andes University in Bogota. I am conducting some research studies about polymeric materials and I would like to know whether it would be feasible to purchase some samples of the materials you produce. I really appreciate your attention and I look forward to your reply.
Sorry we cannot help you on this. We only machine plastics and do not produce the plastic material ourselves

I am interested in getting a quote for a 1\" diameter 5 1/2\" acryilic rod machined to a depth of 3 3/4\" with 5/16 bit. Fixed end radiused with a 1/4 bevel at a depth of 1/8 one inch from the radiused end, whilst the last 1/2 inch is tapered to 1/2 diameter at the open end.
While we can produce mostly any type of plastic part, we are best suited for more difficult to produce components. One piece runs of simpler components can be best purchased at a local shop.

I am interested in getting approximately 500 copies of 2 rear tailight covers (left and right) for a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle made in translucent orange (i.e. the color of a typical blinker). I have attached a picture to give you a better idea of what I am referring to. I would like to know if you undertake projects like this, and if so do you have any estimates of the cost?
Thanks for inquiry. However these parts are typically molded and do not lend themselves well to plastic machining. Understandably, the cost of these is high from the factory but a custom machined plastic component would be more. Our focus is medical, electronic and semiconductor plastic machining.

I am looking for a 10"-12" half sphere, made of clear plexiglass, lexan, or whatever is appropriate. I am using this as an enclosure for 2 small outdoor cameras. The surface would have to be visually clear with no magnification abnormalities. It would also need to be very resiliant so I would like to know what thicknesses are available. One other item would it be possible to get said sphere with a lip around its edge.
Unfortunately while your project is interesting it is not a fit for our production capability. We focus on production plastic machining for the industrial, medical and electronic use typically in the 25+ pc quantities.

I am looking to get a custom Lite-Brite pegboard made for an art project. Basically I need a sheet of plastic, maybe 1/4" by about 27" x 40" with holes all through it (probably talking about 10,000 holes). Before I have an autocad drawing done up I was just wondering if you could suggest the cheapest/easiest manufacturing process for doing this. I know there are a lot of options. Any information would be helpful. Would it be cheaper to do a smaller piece (maybe 6" square) and just have a bunch of that piece made up and then fit them together afterwards?

The best way to produce large flat pieces (non precision) is with a router. The display industry uses a lot of these and they are very cost competitive. The accuracy is not what you would get from our equipment however in your case it would probably be appropriate. I would locate someone who specializes in acrylic fabrications.

I cracked the windshield on my boat and was needing to

Connecticut Plastics Services