AltaerosME

I had some plates quoted by Maley at a reasonable price and one week lead time. Before kicking off the order, I added a plate to the order and they included it for no additional charge, which was awesome. However, a week after placing the order, I checked in and learned that nothing had been done, but they said that they'd get it done in about a week. I got the same story a few days later. At this point, I asked them to commit to a delivery date and they would not. I had to keep checking in every couple days, and while their expected completion date continued to slip a little, they did eventually ship, and the parts are fine. However, a 3.5 week lead time is unacceptable if you're quoted a 1 week. Equally as bad were the uncertainty and requirement for constant check ins.

Strengths: Flexibility in adding work

Needs to improve: As I mentioned above, their ability to deliver on time was terrible in my experience. Perhaps they'd be better if you weren't under any sort of time pressure.

I've used Kessler Machine Works on a number of occasions and I've generally received reasonably fast responses, quick part delivery, and good quality at low cost. One of my coworkers did have an issue with a welded and machined part that Kessler made that didn't meet the required tolerances, but Kessler reworked it once the issue was raised. I will continue to source from Kessler in the future.

Strengths: Kessler Machine Works is good for small quantities of machined and/or welded parts. Their pricing is usually very good.

Needs to improve: I've never used Kessler for quantities larger than 10, so I don't know how they handle larger quantities. If you need super-tolerances, they might not be the best shop, but I've gotten parts back with tolerances that were +/- 0.001 that fit just fine.