Tolerance is a menu here, not a negotiation.
Optical sub-plates, mount bodies, stage and carriage plates, detector housings, chamber and feedthrough plates, spacer stacks — the hardware where the drawing's tolerance block is the entire conversation.
Three classes, published and priced. A print with mixed callouts is re-quoted per feature class, mechanically, instead of turning into a phone call about what you really meant.
- Tolerance classes
- Standard ±0.005″ · Precision ±0.002″ · Tight ±0.0005 – 0.001″ (flagged)
- Flatness
- 0.005″/in on Standard · 0.002″/in on Precision · called per feature on Tight
- Surface
- As-machined 125 µin default, 63 µin premium. That is roughness, not flatness — they are priced separately because they are different things
- GD&T
- Accepted. Position and profile callouts beyond Precision class auto-flag for engineer disposition
Three classes. Published.
Tolerances are priced, not argued. That is only possible because the classes are finite and the routing rules behind them are fixed: a Tight callout is not a harder version of Precision, it is a different set of shops, a different inspection cadence, and a different release path.
Mixing classes on one print is normal and expected. Each feature is quoted against the class it actually needs, which usually costs less than raising the whole part to the tightest callout on the drawing.
| Class | Linear | Holes | Flatness | Lane |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | ±0.005″ | ±0.003″ | 0.005″/in | CatalogThe default. Instant price |
| Precision | ±0.002″ | ±0.001″ | 0.002″/in | CatalogInstant price, at a premium |
| Tight | ±0.0005 – 0.001″ | to ±0.0005″ | per feature | Catalog · flaggedEngineer disposition inside 4 business hours; CMM-verified shop tier only |
Geometric callouts
GD&T is accepted, not tolerated. True position and profile callouts inside Precision class price instantly; beyond it, they auto-flag and an engineer dispositions them within four business hours. The flag exists because a profile callout on a datum structure we have not verified is exactly the kind of thing that should not price itself in four seconds.
Bench and chamber hardware, sorted by lane.
Read the rule at the left of each row. A solid object line prices instantly. A dash-dot phantom line is inside the envelope but pauses for an engineer, inside four business hours. A dashed hidden line is real work on the Sourcing lane — human-quoted inside two business days, with a committed date.
- Optical sub-plates and breadboard adapter platesCatalogPrismatic plate work inside 12″ × 8″ × 4″, flatness called per tolerance class. A full breadboard is oversize
- Mount bodies, post blocks, and optic retainersCatalog6061-T6 or 303, two setups at most
- Motion-stage carriage plates and risersCatalogDowel and bolt patterns at Precision class, ±0.002″
- Detector, camera, and sensor housings, prismaticCatalogInside 12″ × 8″ × 4″, with min wall at or above 0.030″
- Chamber and feedthrough mounting platesCatalog304 or 6061; bolt circles and O-ring grooves inside the feature limits, and the plate inside 12″ × 8″ × 4″
- Sub-panels, bulkhead plates, and connector plates for rack instrumentsCatalogAnodize Type II clear or black from the fixed menu — provided the plate fits inside 12″ × 8″ × 4″. A full-width 19″ EIA-310 panel does not
- Spacer stacks, shims, and precision packersCatalogAbove the 0.125″ minimum thickness; Precision class where the stack demands it
- Kinematic seats and reference faces at ±0.0005″Catalog · flaggedTight class: in the envelope, routed only to a CMM-verified shop tier
- Flatness called tighter than 0.002″ per inchCatalog · flaggedTighter than the Precision class default makes it a Tight-class, per-feature callout — engineer disposition inside 4 business hours
- Position or profile callouts beyond Precision classCatalog · flaggedGD&T is accepted; these auto-flag for engineer disposition
- As-machined at 63 µin instead of the 125 µin defaultCatalogOn the finish menu as a premium. It is a roughness spec, not a flatness spec
- Lapped, polished, or optical-grade surfacesSourcingMaterial removal we do not run in v1, alongside grinding and EDM — human-quoted inside two business days
- Diamond-turned optical surfacesSourcingNeither the process nor the equipment is in the v1 envelope — brokered, with a committed date
- Vacuum flanges, fittings, and turned adaptersSourcingNo turning in v1 — human-quoted inside two business days
- UHV cleaning, bakeout, and vacuum-certified handlingCatalog · flaggedPartner-routed like any treatment off the fixed menu, with the added days stated. We will not certify a cleanliness process we do not control
- Ground or hardened-and-ground reference surfacesSourcingNo grinding in v1
- Invar, Zerodur, ceramics, and glassSourcingNot in the fixed library — brokered through vetted shops, human-quoted inside two business days
What a mill can't do, said out loud.
This is the vertical where a vendor is most tempted to nod along. Four places we won't.
Roughness is not flatness
As-machined at 125 µin, or 63 µin as a premium, describes surface roughness. Flatness is a separate callout with a separate limit per tolerance class, and a separate cost. A drawing that asks for 32 µin because it actually needs 0.0005″ of flatness is asking for the wrong thing, and we would rather say so at quote time than deliver a shiny part that does not sit flat.
We do not lap and we do not polish
Lapping and polishing remove material, and they sit outside the v1 envelope for the same reason grinding and EDM do: we do not run them. So they are Sourcing work — human-quoted inside two business days, brokered through vetted shops, with the added days stated before you order rather than discovered at week four. That is a different lane from a treatment off the finish menu, which stays in the Catalog and merely flags.
We do not certify vacuum cleanliness
We can machine a chamber plate, and we can have it cleaned and baked out by a partner with the added days stated up front — that is the flag on the row above. What we will not do is put our name on the certificate. UHV cleaning is a controlled process we do not own, and a cleanliness claim we cannot audit is worth nothing to you while costing us the only thing this site is trying to build.
Tight class is slow on purpose
A Tight callout pauses the automated quote and waits for an engineer — inside four business hours — and then routes only to shops that hold a CMM on site with gauge R&R evidence behind it. If you wanted a ±0.0005″ bore priced in four seconds by software that had never seen your datum structure, that offer exists elsewhere.
How a number on your print becomes a number on a report.
Quality on this model is designed into the job rather than audited in afterward. The packet cannot be released until every guarantee-critical dimension has either an in-machine probe check or a feature in the inspection plan. Nothing critical is left uninspected, and no dimension is ever signed off on the strength of “the operator checked it.”
Probing capability is an entry requirement for the network, not an upgrade. A shop without it either adds it or does not route.
- 01
In-machine probing, during the cut
Work-coordinate pickup, in-process gates, and final critical dimensions run from probe macros that ship inside the packet. An out-of-tolerance result halts the job to a first-piece hold automatically — it is a gate, not an alert somebody may read.
- 02
Shop inspection, post-op
Instruments, features, and sample plan per the packet's inspection plan, reported on a template pre-filled with your nominals and tolerances. Instruments referenced by any plan carry current calibration, verified at onboarding and attested annually.
- 03
Central verification
First article on the first run of every packet revision at every shop, all Tight-class work, skip-lot audits, and source inspection where your incoming procedure requires it. Central QC holds final disposition authority.
- 04
Network correlation
Master gauges circulate quarterly for correlation checks across shops — cheap insurance against one shop's drifting micrometer quietly moving everybody's numbers.
Run a shop with a spindle probe, a CMM, and calibration stickers you are proud of?
Apply as a ShopTell us what you wish were instant.
Every Sourcing job is logged with the feature class that put it there — the turned flange, the lapped face, the material we do not stock. That log is the envelope-expansion roadmap and the only input that moves it.
A class graduates into the Catalog when it exceeds five percent of inbound demand for two consecutive quarters and the verification method for it exists. Both conditions, never one — which is precisely why the guaranteed date means something on the parts already inside.