Machining and secondary operations

Do you machine from bar stock, forging, casting or powder metal pre-forms?

Sources

1. Machining Pre-Forms: Hot Forging, Casting or Bar Stock?
   Machining Pre-Forms: Hot Forging, Cold Extrusion, Cold Heading, Casting or Bar Choose the pre-form before you machine: stamped blank, bar, tube, forging, extrusion, heading, casting or powder metallurgy - and which are outsourced. What is a machining pre-form?...
2. Machining Pre-Forms: Hot Forging, Casting or Bar Stock?
   Home › Blog › CNC Machining Services Machining · Pre-Forms · Hot Forging · Cold Extrusion Machining Pre-Forms: Hot Forging, Cold Extrusion, Cold Heading, Casting or Bar Published September 25, 2026 · Balford Technical Team What is a machining pre-form?...
3. Ironing in Deep Drawing: Hold Both ID and OD | Balford
   bore and usually the outside still need turning Drawn preform is ironed - the bore and the outside are set in the same pass, so one complete turning operation disappears Casting, then turning Every functional surface: bore, outside, faces. Castings also carry porosity risk Wrought material, no poros...
4. Verified company facts and boundaries
   outsourced_processes: ["bulk heat treatment (die + production parts)","slow-wire EDM","passivation","electropolishing","plating","phosphating","liquid painting","electrophoretic coating / e-coating (电泳)","hot forging 红冲 (machining pre-forms)","cold extrusion 冷挤压 (machining pre-forms)","cold heading ...
5. Sensor Hex Nuts & Threaded Fittings | Balford
   Bought out, not made here: the PTFE insulators and bushes on this page, together with bulk heat treatment, slow-wire EDM, passivation, electropolishing, plating, phosphating and liquid painting. Powder coating is split: large sheet-metal parts run in our own manual booth, small parts are coated by a...
6. Ironing Instead of Turning | Replace Machining | Balford
   as strip at close to finished thickness Cold extrusion + turning Extrude near-net from bar, then turn the bore and usually the outside One complete turning pass - the bore and the outside are set by the ironing punch and die Casting + turning Cast, then turn every functional surface, plus porosity r...

What an engineer still needs from you

• material and material condition (grade, temper)
• material thickness, plus the key diameter, height and wall thickness
• tolerances, burr direction and the visual acceptance standard
• annual volume - it decides whether tooling is single-hit, progressive or transfer
• surface finish, and any secondary machining, annealing or plating

This page is an engineering answer, not a quotation and not a dimensional acceptance. It is generated from Balford's published material and held to the verified company fact sheet.