Design Guidelines: CNC Milling

Our basic guidelines for CNC milling include important design considerations to help improve part manufacturability, enhance cosmetic appearance, and reduce overall production time.

大小

Typically, Protolabs can maintain a machining tolerance of +/- 0.005 in. (0.13mm). Parts may be as thin as 0.020 in. (0.51mm) in regions as long as nominal part thickness is above 0.040 in. (1.02mm). Maximum depth that can be milled is 2 in. (50.8mm) from either side of part. For specific milling dimensions by material, seemaximum part extents for machining.

*These part sizes can only be milled from two sides, and in ABS, acetal, aluminum 6061 and 7075, and magnesium.

**This part size can only be milled from two sides, and in Aluminum 6061.

Advanced CNC Milling Capabilities

Production Parts

Reduce your CNC machining costs when you order higher quantities of machined parts. Our production capabilities for machining—powered by our New Hampshire-based facility, Rapid Manufacturing—allow up to 1,000+ machined parts along with first article inspection (FAI) reporting, material certifications, part assembly, and additional finishing options like anodizing and chromate plating.Learn more about your production options for machining.

5-Axis Milling

我们用五轴索引milling-in除了硬件milling and turning—to machine parts. Five-axis indexed milling (also referred to as 3+2 milling) allows for more complex geometries and non-orthogonal features like off-axis holes. Better finishes are also possible on non-orthogonal surfaces and because 5-axis milling increases machining efficiencies, more cost-efficient parts can be had.Read about designing complete features on machined parts.

材料

VIEW MATERIALS >

Surface Finishes

Typically, we break (debur) the edges on all machined parts. All machined plastic parts are left as-machined, which may leave visible tool marks. Some metal parts, on the other hand, allow more choice. Parts left with sharp edges should be handled with care.

Threaded Holes

We currently support UNC and UNF threads from #2 up to 0.5 in., and metric threads from M2 to M12. Avoid modeling internal threads on your part design.

VIEW THREADED HOLES GUIDELINES >

Radii

Sharp inside corners on a part will be radiused (rounded) as a natural result of the CNC machining process. Resulting radii will be identified on your quote.

Text

Recommended text considerations for CNC milling:

• Recessed text should have a minimum stroke width of 0.020 in. (0.508mm).
• The spacing between characters on raised text should be 0.020 in. (0.508mm) or greater.
• If design permits it, opt for raised text versus recessed.