Originally Posted by
cindynvb
I guess I'm confused here, what will the part be made of?? Rubber or metal?
I have a friend who has a bunch of machines and he can make metal parts, but he takes a big piece of the proper metal then uses the machines to cut and shape the part. He's made parts for motorcycles, guns, odd screws and stuff like that. It takes a long time though...
Metal. The process you are describing is called machining. using mills, lathes, etc. Yes, makes perfect parts hard as original.
This is for soft metal parts like pewter.
For Medium metals like Brass, copper, bronze I use sand casting. (different thread different weekend...)
For steel I machine or forge by hand and/or heat. No mill here ,but I have one (and a lathe) at work we use to make screws and bolts and the like.