Who runs this site

The short version

HardSteel CNC is a sourcing desk, not a machine shop. We do not own machines, we do not cut metal, and nobody here is going to tell you about "our 5-axis centre". What we do is narrow: we take drawings for hardened and tool steel parts, route them to Vietnamese shops that genuinely do that work, and stay on the job until the parts ship.

The site is run by one person: Ryan, Independent sourcing agent, Ho Chi Minh City. Every RFQ that arrives here is read by a human, and that human is the same one who wrote the articles.

Why a desk instead of a factory site

No single shop is good at everything in this niche. Hard milling a 60 HRC cavity, jig grinding a bore to 0.002 mm, and wire EDM-ing a sharp corner in D2 are three different capabilities, and the shops that excel at one are often mediocre at another.

A factory site has to tell you it can do all three, because it only has one factory to sell. A desk can tell you the truth and send the job to whoever actually fits, including telling you that your part is a grinding job and we are the wrong people for it.

What we are not

• Not a factory. We have no machines, no shop floor, no production capacity of our own.
• Not certified. We hold no ISO 9001, no AS9100, no ISO 13485. Individual shops in the network may hold certifications; we will tell you which, per job, rather than putting a badge on this page.
• Not a marketplace. Your drawing does not get broadcast to a list. It goes to two or three shops, under NDA.
• Not a broker who disappears after the PO. We stay in the thread until delivery.

How we make money

Two ways, and both are worth knowing before you send anything:

• A referral fee from the shop on closed orders, agreed in writing with them before any RFQ is passed on.
• Nothing from you. Buyers pay the shop directly. There is no fee, no markup added on top of the shop's quote, and no subscription.

The obvious question that follows: if the shop pays us, are we working for you or for them? Fair. The answer is that a referral fee only exists on orders that actually close, and orders close when the buyer gets the right shop. Sending a hardened steel job to a shop that cannot hold the tolerance earns us nothing and costs us the relationship.

What we will not do

• Publish your drawings, part photos, company name or project details anywhere.
• Name our partner shops publicly. You get the shop's identity once a quote is accepted and an NDA is in place.
• Quote a capability we have not verified, or promise a tolerance a shop has not agreed to.
• Claim a certification, a machine or a track record that is not real.

Where we are

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Being in-country is most of the value: it means the shop can be visited, the parts can be looked at before they ship, and a problem gets a conversation rather than an email chain across eight time zones.

We work by email only, in English. There is no phone number on this site by design: a technical requirement that is not in writing tends to become a dispute later.

About the writing

The notes section exists because this niche is badly served by the usual supplier content. Most of it is grade lists copied between sites. These articles try to answer the questions that actually change what a part costs, and they say so when a different process (grinding, EDM, a different grade) is the better answer.

Nothing in them is gated, and there is no email capture on them. If an article is wrong, write to and it gets corrected with the change noted.