Frequently Asked Questions
Capabilities at a Glance
Quick answers to the most common questions we get from customers,
prospects, and engineers who want to know if we’re the right shop for the job.
About The Shop
What does General Machine do?
We’re a full-service contract fabrication and machining shop based in Freeburg, Illinois — about 20 miles southeast of St. Louis. We build components that take a beating: wear parts, structural weldments, large machined shafts, frames, drums, housings, and custom assemblies for companies in mining, crushing, construction, and material handling.
We’re also a certified Hardox® Wear Parts partner and distributor, which means we’re one of a select few shops qualified to work with SSAB’s premium wear-resistant steel grades.
How big is your facility?
17,000 square feet under roof, plus outdoor storage and lay-down area for oversized components. We have a 30 ft. × 40 ft. heated paint building on-site as well.
The shop is set up for heavy work. We regularly handle parts and assemblies that most job shops can’t physically move.
What's your crane capacity and hook height?
Two (2) 10-ton overhead bridge cranes in the same bay — capable of tandem lifts up to 20 tons. Hook height is 14 feet.
The tandem lift capability is something a lot of shops can’t offer. If you’re wondering whether we can move your part, the answer is probably yes.
Who do you work with?
Our customers include OEMs and end users in several industries: size reduction and shredding, aggregate crushing, mining, construction equipment, and bulk material handling. We work with companies that need tight tolerances on complex parts, heavy weld assemblies that require downstream machining, or Hardox/AR wear components that need to be fabricated right to perform as designed.
We’re a good fit for customers who need quality work on a deadline — and who may have been burned by shops that couldn’t deliver on both at the same time.
Where are you located? Can you ship or do I need to bring parts to you?
We’re in Freeburg, IL, with easy access to I-255 and I-64 — essentially in the St. Louis metro. We work with customers across the country and can coordinate freight on both ends when needed. If you’re trucking large equipment or assemblies, we have the outdoor lay-down space to receive them.
Machining
How large a part can you machine?
Turning: Up to 36″ diameter × 240″ long (manual) or 19.5″ diameter × 157″ long (CNC)
Vertical Lathe: Up to 72″ diameter × 54″ tall
Milling/Boring: Up to 218″ long × 72″ tall × 42″ deep
For full specifications on each machine, see our Equipment & Specifications page.
Do you do CNC work or mostly manual machining?
Both. We run CNC lathes, CNC vertical mills, a CNC horizontal mill with programmable rotary axis, and a CNC horizontal boring mill. We also have a full complement of manual lathes and a manual horizontal boring mill for single-piece work, repairs, and jobs where manual is simply the better tool.
A lot of our work involves weldments that need precise CNC machining after fabrication — we handle both sides of that without shipping parts to another shop.
Can you machine large weldments — not just raw bar stock?
Yes — that’s one of our core strengths. We fabricate and weld large assemblies in-house, then machine them to final tolerance on our boring mills and lathes without moving them to a second vendor. This is exactly the kind of work where our crane capacity, facility size, and machine envelope matter.
Do you have a CMM or advanced inspection equipment?
We use standard precision measurement tools — bore gauges, micrometers, calipers, height gauges, indicators, and surface plates — for in-process and final inspection. We don’t have a CMM in-house, but we can coordinate outside metrology or third-party inspection for applications that require it.
We review and maintain material certifications on request.
Fabrication
What fabrication services do you offer?
Heavy weld fabrication is our core. We handle structural and weld assemblies in MIG, flux-core, and stick processes, including multi-pass welding on heavy plate with preheat when required. Beyond welding, we have plasma and flame cutting, press brake forming up to 1″ thick plate, plate rolling, shearing, and Blanchard grinding.
We coordinate heat treating, hard chrome and other plating, powder coat, thermal spray, and outside cutting (waterjet, laser, heavy burning) through qualified outside vendors — so we can manage more of the supply chain for you.
How thick of plate can you cut and form?
Cutting: Our CNC plasma/burn table handles up to 1.5″ thick with plasma, 3″ thick with flame, on a table up to 8 ft. × 24 ft. For heavier or larger plate, we coordinate outside.
Forming: Our 400-ton press brake handles plate up to 1″ thick (at 5.5 ft. length) or up to 3/8″ thick at 12 ft. long.
Rolling: Up to 1/2″ thick at 84″ wide, or 1″ thick at 24″ wide.
Do you do sandblasting and painting?
Yes. We have an outdoor sandblasting area for surface prep and a 30 ft. × 40 ft. dedicated heated paint building for priming, topcoating, industrial epoxy, and customer-specified coatings. Climate-controlled finishing matters — especially on large weld assemblies where adhesion and cure quality count.
What kinds of parts and assemblies do you typically build?
The range is wide. Some examples of what we regularly produce:
Wear parts: Crusher liners, jaw plates, hammers and grates for hammermills, shredder wear parts, bucket lips and cutting edges, chutes, hoppers, and conveyor wear components — primarily in Hardox and AR-grade steels.
Machined components: Large-diameter shafts, rolls, drums, gearbox housings, bearing bores, flanges, ring gears, and complex weldments requiring tight-tolerance machining.
Fabricated assemblies: Structural frames, shredder boxes, equipment components for mining and construction OEMs, conveyor structures, and material handling equipment.
Material
What materials do you work with?
Our bread and butter: mild steel, AR/Hardox wear-resistant plate, stainless steel, aluminum, and cast iron. We also work with alloy steels (4140, 4340) for shaft and machined component work.
Our Hardox Wearparts certification means we’re specifically trained and validated to maintain the material integrity of Hardox and Strenx grades — which matters when you’re counting on those grades to deliver their rated wear life in the field.
What is Hardox and why does your certification matter?
Hardox is a premium abrasion-resistant steel made by SSAB. It’s used extensively in wear parts for crushing, shredding, mining, and bulk material handling because it outlasts regular AR plate — sometimes by a significant margin — and maintains structural strength under impact.
The Hardox Wearparts certification isn’t automatic. It means SSAB has validated our fabrication practices to ensure we’re cutting, welding, and forming Hardox correctly — preserving the heat-affected zones, using the right consumables, and following procedures that protect the material’s properties.
When you buy Hardox wear parts from a certified shop, you’re getting parts built to perform — not just built to look like the print.
Can you weld dissimilar materials?
Yes. We have experience with dissimilar material welding — for example, joining alloy steel shafts to wear-resistant disc assemblies, or attaching Hardox components to mild steel structural members. These applications require the right procedure, consumables, and preheat — all of which are part of our standard practice on critical work.
Process & Turnaround
How fast can you turn a job around?
It depends on complexity, material availability, and current shop load — but quick turnaround is one of the things we’re known for. We run a tight shop and we don’t use lead time as a cushion.
For urgent needs, we offer an expedite option for an upcharge. If you’re down and need a part fast, call us directly — don’t just submit a form. We’d rather have a conversation.
What do you need to quote a job?
Ideally: a print (PDF or CAD), material spec, quantity, and any tolerance or inspection requirements. A 3D model (STEP or IGES) is a plus for complex machined parts.
If you’re still in the feasibility stage, that’s fine too — send what you have and we’ll tell you if it’s in our wheelhouse and give you a ballpark. We don’t require a fully baked RFQ to start a conversation.
Do you handle one-off parts or do you require production quantities?
Both. A significant part of our work is single-piece or low-quantity — repairs, replacements, prototypes, and custom components. We’re also set up for repeat production runs, particularly on wear parts and machined components where customers want a reliable source that already knows the part.
Can you handle the full scope — fabrication, machining, finishing — or do I need to manage multiple vendors?
We can handle a wide scope in-house — weld fabrication, CNC machining, surface prep, and painting are all under our roof. For services we don’t run ourselves (heat treating, plating, advanced coatings, third-party inspection), we coordinate with a network of qualified outside vendors.
The practical result: you can hand us a print and get back a finished part without managing three or four suppliers yourself. That’s not always the right model for every job, but for customers who want a single point of accountability, we can be that.
Still have questions?
Send us your print or just pick up the phone. We're direct people — you'll get a straight answer.