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Service

Reverse Engineering Legacy and Obsolete Parts

If the original drawing is gone, or never existed, we'll measure the part and remake it.

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CMM probe with red ruby tip inspecting a machined aluminum bracket on a granite inspection surface
Typical lead time
2–10 business days
Minimum order
1 piece
Shop location
Troy, MI
Files accepted
STEP · IGES · DWG · PDF

Reverse engineering is the service customers find us through when something on a 40-year-old machine has finally broken. The OEM is gone. Drawings were never digitized. There's a single sample part on the shop floor, and a maintenance manager who needs ten.

Our process is straightforward: receive the sample, measure it with a combination of CMM, calipers, and surface plate work, build a CAD model, confirm critical fits with the customer, and machine the run. STEP and DWG deliverables are available if you want the model as part of the work.

We're honest about what reverse engineering can and can't do. Heat-treated metallurgy, original surface finishes, and pre-stressed assemblies are sometimes not recoverable from a sample alone. We'll flag those before the work starts, not after.

Typical applications

  1. 01Replacement parts for obsolete industrial machinery
  2. 02Service parts for products with no surviving OEM
  3. 03Modernized versions of older parts with updated tolerances
  4. 04Custom legacy tooling for tool-and-die shops
  5. 05One-off replacements for collector and restoration projects
Materials

Materials we machine on this service

Aluminum 6061Aluminum 7075Stainless 304Stainless 316Carbon 4140Tool steel A2BrassCopperDelrin

Don't see what you need? Ask about custom stock.

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Quote-to-part in under a week on most jobs. Single-piece minimums, files reviewed by a machinist.
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Common Questions

Questions buyers and engineers actually ask.

Almost always, yes. A physical sample lets us capture critical dimensions and fits that drawings often omit. If only a broken part survives, send what you have. We can sometimes work from a damaged sample plus customer notes.
Yes, that's the majority of this work. Industrial equipment 30+ years old is routine. We'll discuss material substitutions if the original alloy is no longer commercially available.
Optionally, yes. STEP and DWG deliverables are quoted as a line item. Most maintenance customers skip the file and just take parts; OEMs reissuing service inventory usually want the model.