The Accuracy Is on the Inside
A housing's outside can look like a simple box, but its job is internal: it positions bearings, gears or a shaft on a precise axis, seals against the environment, and bolts to its mating part. So the features that matter are the bores and their concentricity, the bolt pattern, and the sealing faces. Machined from solid billet — not cast — a CNC housing has no porosity and can be made as a single one-off without tooling.
Custom Housing Specifications
| Attribute | Capability |
|---|---|
| Materials | 6061 aluminium, steel, stainless |
| Bores | Bearing/shaft bores held concentric & parallel |
| Sealing | Flat faces, O-ring grooves, gasket lands |
| Bolt pattern | True position to the mating part |
| Tolerance | ±0.025 mm on critical features; bore fits to H7 |
| Finishes | Anodize, powder coat, bead blast, passivate |
Bearing Housing Types We Machine
- Pillow block (plummer block) — shaft parallel to the mounting surface
- Flange-mounted — 2-, 3- or 4-bolt flange, shaft perpendicular to the mount
- Split housings — bolt-apart for fitting without dismantling the shaft
- Take-up — slides for belt/chain tensioning
- Cartridge — bearing carried in a round insert
Plus enclosures and bodies: gearbox & pump housings (multi-bore, concentric, sealed), sensor & electronics enclosures (sealed, glands and lids), valve & instrument bodies (see our hydraulic valve body case), and motor & actuator housings with register spigots.
Bearing Seat & Line Boring
The feature that makes a bearing housing work is the bearing seat — its bore must hold the bearing's outer ring to the correct fit (commonly H7, or J7/K7 for a tighter fit) and be true to the shaft axis. Where two or more bores share an axis (a gearbox case, a multi-stage housing), we line-bore them in one setup so they're concentric and the shaft runs without preload or binding. We also machine the seal arrangement — lip-seal recesses, O-ring grooves, slingers — to keep contamination out and lubricant in. Bore size, roundness and concentricity are verified on inspection.
Material & Sealing
6061 aluminium is the usual choice — light, machinable, anodizable; steel (A36/1018) or stainless where load or environment demands, and we machine billet equivalents in place of cast iron or ductile iron so there's no casting tooling. For chemical or wet duty we also machine glass-filled nylon. We cut flat sealing faces and O-ring grooves so the housing seals, and verify bore concentricity and position on inspection.
Cracked or discontinued housing? Send the old one or photos with dimensions; we measure (and 3D-scan complex shapes), rebuild it, and machine a replacement from billet — stronger than the original casting. See reverse engineering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. We measure bores, bolt pattern, faces and envelope (CMM + 3D scanning), rebuild the geometry, and machine a new one. Cracked areas are reconstructed to nominal. No drawing needed.
Shared-axis bores are machined in one setup or from a common datum to stay concentric and parallel — essential for bearing and gearbox housings. Verified on inspection.
Yes — flat sealing faces, O-ring grooves, gasket lands and tapped holes for lids/glands. Aluminium can be anodized or powder-coated for the environment.
6061 aluminium for light housings, steel for loaded bearing/gearbox cases, stainless for corrosion/hygiene. Machined from billet — no casting tooling.
Quote a Custom Housing
Drawing, sample or photos — all accepted. Reply in 24h.