Frank Li

Starting as an apprentice at 17, Frank has mastered every station of the fabrication process—from laser cutting and bending to precision welding. He founded ShincoFab to give global clients direct access to an ISO9001-certified factory, eliminating trading company markups. On this blog, Frank shares expert insights on manufacturing optimization, cost reduction, and quality control for your custom metal projects.

Frank
New wall-mounted industrial electrical box with cables
Frank

How to Choose Electrical Enclosure Materials: A Fabricator’s Guide

At our ShincoFab sheet metal facility, our laser cutters and press brakes run all day shaping metal enclosures. Over the years, I have had desperate engineers walk onto our shop floor carrying completely disintegrated, rusted-out boxes they bought just a year prior. Real-world failure: A customer brought this standard carbon steel enclosure to our ShincoFab

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Rows of metal electrical enclosures on factory floor
Frank

NEMA 3R vs. NEMA 4X Enclosures: How to Make the Right Choice

As someone who oversees the sheet metal fabrication floor at ShincoFab, I’ve watched raw sheets of steel turn into these exact enclosures every day. Over the years, I have seen people waste thousands of dollars by picking the wrong box or misunderstanding how they are built. You do not want to fail an inspection or

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Stamped sheet metal part with stiffening ribs and cutouts
Frank

How to Reduce Sheet Metal Part Weight (A Factory Floor Guide)

After 15 years of running press brakes and analyzing scrap bins here at ShincoFab, I have seen the same expensive mistake over and over. When a part fails a load test, engineers instinctively spec a thicker gauge of metal. But adding weight kills your profit margins, increases freight fees, and slows down your assembly line.

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Loading large sheet metal parts onto a freight truck
Frank

Factory Guide: How to Reduce Sheet Metal Shipping Costs

Running the floor at ShincoFab, I’ve overseen the fabrication and logistics of thousands of custom sheet metal orders. Freight bills consume profit margins when shipping 11-gauge steel enclosures. Every extra pound and wasted inch of truck space costs money. In this guide, I will share the exact strategies we use at our sheet metal facility

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Three threading taps and three dies cleanly arranged
Frank

A Practical Factory Guide on How to Thread Metal

I have spent over a decade on the production floor at ShincoFab, our sheet metal fabrication facility, breaking taps, stripping holes, and fixing ruined parts. When you process thousands of metal components a week, you learn what works and what will destroy a client’s project. If you want to understand how to thread metal without

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A laser head cutting metal parts with intense sparks
Frank

Ultimate Sheet Metal Tolerances Guide From the Shop Floor

If you have ever received a batch of parts that refused to bolt together, you know how expensive bad sheet metal tolerances can be. At ShincoFab, we process tons of raw steel and aluminum every month. I have spent years working on the factory floor, standing between our laser cutters and press brakes, fixing broken

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galvanized vs galvannealed
Frank

Galvanized vs. Galvannealed: How to Choose, Weld, and Paint

Choosing the wrong sheet metal will ruin your project. At our ShincoFab facility, we process thousands of pounds of sheet metal every month. Over the years, I’ve seen clients waste thousands of dollars dealing with peeling paint, sputtering welds, and rusted parts simply because they checked the wrong box on their CAD drawings. I know

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Professional welder fabricating a sheet metal enclosure with sparks
Frank

How to Prevent Metal Warpage During Welding (A 7-Step Guide)

Metal warpage is a common frustration when welding. At ShincoFab, we process and weld thousands of sheet metal parts every month. After building custom frames, precision doors, and tight-tolerance sheet metal enclosures for industrial clients, our fabricators learned how to prevent heat distortion at a production scale. In this guide, I will show you exactly

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Worker performing cross-hatch tape test on painted metal part
Frank

Why Is Your Powder Coating Peeling? (6 Causes & How to Fix It)

At ShincoFab, our sheet metal fabrication factory processes thousands of steel and aluminum parts every month. I manage the powder coating line on our production floor. I see every mistake in the book. I diagnose and fix thousands of peeling parts, from DIY garage disasters to heavy-duty industrial enclosures. If your coating is flaking off,

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Frank

The Ultimate Guide to Sheet Metal Design Mistakes

As the lead engineering team at ShincoFab, we review hundreds of CAD files every week. Day in and day out, we see the exact same sheet metal design mistakes. They look perfect on your SolidWorks or AutoCAD screen, but they cause massive headaches when they actually hit our press brakes and laser cutters. For you,

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