I have been going to Jan and Deily for the past year and a half, for various company projects, as…read morewell as my side-projects for my house and cars.
So it has been due time for me to write a review for him. Before I do, I have to say it is funny to read other reviews on Yelp, like the one about pressing car bushings (which truly not even specialized car shops would do). I have to go back to Jan for that, because I did not know he did such things. I had given up on replacing bushings on my car, after being turned down by so many local auto shops and mechanics.
Now for that reviewer that rated them badly for a four week lead time... what sort of expectation was that? A poorly-run machine shop has downtime to let anyone cut in. By all means go to those shops instead or pay an arm and a leg, if that is the expectation... however, Optima Precision operates like all properly run, established machine shops do... schedule your work into their operation or work an expedite out with Jan and Deily... We are even lucky they are open to our side-projects. Bottom line, talk it out with them. They are very open to making things happen!
Anyways, just to give a little background, I formerly worked as a design engineer for Zodiac Aerospace's oxygen system division, that made a lot of pneumatic components such as valves and manifolds. I can certainly attest that Jan and Optima Precision has the expertise and capabilities to machine top-notch quality parts. Whether you are dealing with extruded, cold-pressed, tempered aluminum, steel or etc., or softer brittle plastics like plexiglass or acrylic, up to something like 6 feet by 4 feet (double check with him), he and his crew can take care of that.
I originally went to Optima Precision because Jan and Deily were the more responsive, local machine shop. They are very approachable and easy to communicate with (their English is solid). Most importantly, their pricing and lead times were very competitive, compared to the other shops in the area.
Easiest way to describe them is that they are flexible and understanding like the old machinists but they operate with the newer CNC mills (even though they have Bridgeports off to the side). In other words, they are not like other new machinists that refuse small orders and cannot think other than what their CNC machine tells them they can or cannot do. What do I mean by an old machinist? Jan did not just go off my engineering drawings, but he verified my design intent to make sure my parts would fit and functioned well in my application. He was more concerned with what I wanted my part to turn out as, rather than what his machines could or could not do. To affirm other reviews, Jan and Deily are truly open to make small quantities (even one or two pieces like other reviews stated) and, of course, scaling to large production quantities. If you have worked with machine shops enough, you would understand that Optima Precision is a no brainer to have your parts, at least, quoted there each time.
Long review, but hope that helps you all when considering!
