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Our shop & machines

Walk into our shop and you’ll see where all the manufacturing magic happens. You’ll find CNC lathes, mills, presses, waterjet, injection molding and heat-treating machines. Even if you need only one part, we can build it for you.

Our manufacturing process at Rare Parts includes the design, engineering and testing of all parts. This is extremely important to us, because the safety of our customers is paramount in everything we do. Steering and suspension parts are not the parts to skimp on, either for materials or for testing!

  • OKUMA LB3000EXMY HORIZONTAL CNC LATHE

    This lathe can do everything our old LB15 could do - and then some. It is equipped with live tools and a Y axis for more complicated parts. This newer lathe has allowed us to complete parts in one single operation where it may have taken 2 or 3 machines in the past to complete. This results in lower part cost and faster cycle times. An example is a cotter pin hole in a ball stud. Prior to this machine these were all drilled and chamfered by hand in a drill press. Or this aluminum retaining nut for or Jeep JK upper ball joint, it is completely bored, internally threaded and hex flats are milled in this one machine.

  • Okuma GENOS L300-M

    Our newest addition to the shop in 2015 replaced our old LB15. This Okuma L300M lathe is capable of not only turning parts but also milling a drilling. This live tooling feature allows us to complete parts in one single operation speeding up production and increasing part accuracy.

  • OMAX 5555 WATER JET MACHINE

    This machine really does it all. We can cut plastic to titanium, rubber to glass. It has a cutting capacity of 55"x55" and up to 6" thick steel. Yes, all with water (and abrasive). The table size of 60"x 72". We cut all kinds of parts on this machine. Spring shackle plates, steering damper brackets, to rubber sway bar bushings. One being the most impressive is pitman arms including the tapered spline! Need a pitman arm for a Toyota power steering box on an old Chevy C-10? We can do it.

  • AFC POWDER COAT BOOTH

    This is a three stage filter booth used when applying powder coating powder to our parts. The booth is 7.5 feet wide by 8 feet deep. Plenty of room to handle most chassis parts.

    To compliment the booth,we have a FABSHOP powder coat curing oven. At 4x6x6 feet, the oven is a perfect compliment for multiple parts, or larger volume.

  • DILLON POWDER COAT CURING OVEN

    Our smaller oven for curing powder coated parts. Measures 3x3x4 feet.

  • BRIDGEPORT CONQUEST V-1000 CNC VERTICAL MILL

    With a massive 24x48 table we can fixture multiple jobs at one time with minimal tear down and setup. Also, with an X axis travel of 40",Y axis of 24" and a Z axis of 24" we can machine large and long parts. It has a 30 station tool turret for just about any tool we may need to run a part. We machine everything from tie rod ends to control arm shafts in this. All parts are fixtured for minimum set up and maximum efficiency.

  • COSEN C-260NC AUTOMATIC BAND SAW

    10" round and 10"x12" bar capacity. Fully programmable we can cut 20 foot bar into multiple length completely unmanned. It also has a bundle option so we can hold multiple bars at one time and automatically feed them to length. This greatly speeds up production. Example is this bundle of 4130 tubing being cut to make tie rod and drag link adjusting sleeves for our Fab Series Jeep JK steering kits.

  • SCOTCHMAN IRON WORKER 60 TON

    This press has been converted into our tie rod end and ball joint closing machine. All tie rod ends and ball joints manufactured here at Rare Parts go through this machine. We use our own proprietary closing tools also manufactured by us in-house. By using this closing process verses the "spin process" we are able to control preload and vertical movement (end play) in our parts. We hold the tightest tolerances in the industry as low as .005 ball stud vertical movement in the housing.

  • ENERPAC 65 TON H-FRAME PRESS

    This press is used for general pressing and forming. This press is also where we make custom coil springs. We use a digital load cell to measure load height and spring rate.

  • EUROMAC DIGIBEND HORIZONTAL 45 TON PRESS

    This is a hydraulic press turned on its side. The configuration allows us to form very long parts that may not fit in a conventional H-frame or C-frame press. It is also programmable with up to 100 bends so we get consistent repetitive bends every time. Example is spring shackle plates being formed after being cut out in the water jet process.

  • DENISON 1 TON PRESS

    General pressing forming operations

  • LANDIS DUAL HEAD THREADING MACHINE

    If it has a thread on it, it was most likely done here. This machine is set up with both a Right hand head and a Left hand head. It gives us the ability to produce either thread with minimal set up. It is driven by a servo lead screw so thread pitch can be selected at the flip of a dial. We thread tie rod end forgings from 1/2"-20 to 1-1/2-12 on this machine

  • 30 JONES AND LAMSON OPTICAL COMPARATOR

    This magnifies hard to measure parts 10 or 100 times its normal size. We are able to verify angles of pitman arm sector teeth and ball stud taper angles.

  • FARO MEASURING AND INSPECTION ARM

    Used in our design and inspection process, this arm measures critical dimension on our parts, like spherical radius and ball center of rotation needed for proper suspension geometry.

  • MAGNAFLUX MAGNETIC PARTICLE INSPECTION MACHINE

    This machine checks for cracks in forgings that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Cores that are need for our remanufacturing process get Magnafluxed prior to being machined. This insures all cores reused are safe.

  • MITUTOYO HEIGHT GAGE

    General inspection and design tool used to measure vertical dimensions

  • BST PLASTIC PROTOTYPING MACHINE

    During the design phase we may decide to increase a parts size or shape for strength reasons. This can cause clearance issues on a vehicle so when fit is a concern this machine is used. We are able to generate a 3-D model of the new part we are designing, and then physically install and fit the part on a vehicle. Example is this GMC motor home bell crank. Or our Extreme series Idler and Pitman arms for the Chevy trucks. Both of these parts required much larger forgings. But larger might mean clearance issues, so we checked the fit and clearance prior to the forging tooling being produced. We are able to build models up to 8"x8"x8" out of ABS plastic with this machine.

  • WILLIAMS AND WHITE 200 TON H-FRAME PRESS

    This is our largest press at 200 tons, capable of smashing just about anything. Which is what we use it for. We cold form (smash) solid steel bars to form tie rod end bosses or custom center links like this Chevy HD center link we make for one of our customers. Solid 1.5 diameter bar is cold formed to create the flat pads for the pitman arm, idler arm, and inner tie rods to mount to

  • PIRANHA 65 TON C-FRAME PRESS

    We use this press to bend and form multiple types of Chassis parts - from pitman arms to tie rod ends. We also use this press to rivet ball joints into control arms like the concourse ready Mustang control arms.

  • TIE ROD END CYCLE TEST MACHINE

    This machine is used to life cycle tie rod ends during the design and development phase. We can apply different loads in both compression and tension and articulate the ball stud at multiple angles. This simulates actual loads and articulation seen during normal and extreme driving conditions. Parts are cycled for hundreds of thousand of cycles and periodically checked for wear of the ball studs and mating components.

  • BALL JOINT CYCLE TEST MACHINE

    Similar to the job of our tie rod end cycle tester this machine life cycles ball joints. This machine will simulate side loads, vertical loads, compression loads and rotational loads all seen on a vehicle. When new material and components are used in designs we use this machine to verify function and durability of the design. A good example of a new design never tried before is the upper ball joint from our Dual Load Carrying Ball Joints for Jeep JK. Different bearings and material were cycled in this machine until wear and durability results were to our satisfaction.

  • TINIUS OLSEN TENSILE AND COMPRESSION MACHINE

    This machine is used to verify material strengths in both pull out and push out for different steering and suspension parts. Example would be the ball stud pull out strength of our Chevy HD tie rod assembly verses the OE part. Or the pull out strength of our forged T-bird ball joint verses the OE stamped design.

  • BALL STUD IMPACT MACHINE

    All ball studs manufactured by Rare Part go through this test. Similar to a Charpy Impact test, a large steel weight is raised and dropped on a fixture ball stud. This test confirms material strength and proper heat treatment. A ball stud not heat treated will bend excessively and a ball stud heat treated incorrectly ( too hard) will break. All of our ball studs depending on size must meet a 8,000 to 25,000 pound minimum impact without breaking.

  • ROCKWELL SUPERFICIAL HARDNESS TESTER

    Used to measure surface hardness of different chassis parts, mainly case hardened bearings and ball studs.