twentyfour26

Hardware teams prototyping new designs move quickly until they need a machined part, at which point they hit the RFQ inbox, setup fees, long lead times, and repeated back-and-forth explaining the design. Traditional machine shops are built around repeat production runs, not the constant revisions hardware teams generate. Because every design iteration creates new quoting, programming, setup, and inspection work, small prototype orders end up expensive, slow, or simply turned away.

twentyfour26 has customers upload a STEP file, which its software reads to find holes, pockets, and profiles and check whether the part can be held and cut in their standardized CNC cell. If the part fits, the software selects stock, setup, and tools, simulates the cut, and generates a price; if it does not fit, it shows the specific feature causing trouble so the designer knows what to change. Accepted jobs run on the company's own CNC machine in San Francisco, with the team handling production and inspection themselves. The shop is deliberately narrow in scope: parts up to 300 x 150 x 90 mm, vise-held and machined from solid stock, with a minimum internal radius of R3.0 mm, standard tolerance of plus or minus 0.005 in (0.13 mm, tighter to plus or minus 0.001 in with drawing review), and 6061-T6 aluminum stocked on hand (acetal and mild steel available on request).