17D, a leading precision subcontractor specialising in the machining of rolling stock replacement and spare parts for the rail industry, has significantly increased its in-house turning capabilities with the acquisition of a new, compact DN Solutions’ Lynx 2600M lathe from Mills CNC.
The new investment has helped take pressure off 17D’s two older CNC lathes that, although still performing satisfactorily, could not cope with the increase in demand, from a growing number of Main Line, Heritage and Miniature and Narrow Gauge rail customers, for small, high-precision and quick turnaround machined rolling stock replacement and spare parts.
Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of DN Solutions and Zayer machine tools in the UK and Ireland, has recently supplied 17D Ltd., a leading, family-owned precision subcontractor specialising in the machining and supply of high-quality replacement and spare parts to the rail industry, with a new 10” chuck Lynx lathe.
The machine, a 3-axis Lynx 2600M, equipped with a C-axis and driven tooling capabilities, was installed at the company’s 2,500 sq. ft. machine shop facility in Matlock, Derbyshire, in February 2026, and joins two DN Solutions DNM 4500 vertical machining centres, previously acquired by 17D from Mills CNC in 2020 and 2024, respectively, as well as two used Doosan lathes (a Lynx 220M and a Puma 2600SY) and a range of manual machines that were acquired by the company a few years earlier.
“Since Covid, we have experienced strong growth year-on-year. Our sales turnover increased 35% in 2025 from what it was in 2024, and we have doubled our headcount in just a couple of years too.
“This can be explained, in large part, by massive growth experienced with our ‘Main Line’ rail customers, which now accounts for 80% of our annual turnover, as opposed to 20% in 2020, and is at an all-time high.
“Whilst this is great news for us, such a rapid increase in demand from customers for high-quality, quick-turnaround replacement and spare parts was invariably putting pressure on our existing turning operation.”
Tristan Dengate, Owner and Managing Director at 17D
An in-house audit undertaken by the company revealed that its two older lathes, which up to this point were 17D’s primary CNC turning resource, were creating production bottlenecks that, if not addressed quickly, would begin to affect production throughput and output, and have a negative impact on customer lead time fulfilment.
“As a rail maintenance and repair specialist, our business and strong reputation in the market have been built on our ability to machine and supply high-quality replacement and spare rolling stock parts to customers in double-quick time.
“Whether this is achieved by us working in partnership and supporting customers, via long-term service contracts, as part of their planned preventive maintenance, overhaul and repair operations, or by us being able to ‘step into the breach’, sometimes at a minute’s notice, when critical-performance parts unexpectedly fail, break or are damaged, we always need to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to our customers’ challenges.
“As a consequence, it was clear that we needed to increase and improve our in-house turning capacity and capabilities by investing in a new, high-performance lathe.”
Tristan Dengate, Owner and Managing Director at 17D
The Lynx 2600M investment
Being no stranger to DN Solutions (previously Doosan) machine tool technologies and having first-hand experience of Mills CNC’s pre- and after-sales services, 17D made Mills its first ‘port of call’.
However, prior to approaching Mills, 17D did its homework, researched the market and created an extensive ‘new machine checklist’ that encapsulated the company’s new lathe requirements.
Owing to floorspace constraints and the size of components being machined (i.e., small turned parts (typically) up to 350mm in diameter and 550mm in length), 17D had initially narrowed down its choice to a compact Fanuc-controlled 6” or 8” chuck (DN Solutions) Lynx 2100M lathe from Mills.
“A new Lynx 2100M seemed to fit the bill, but when we contacted Mills and were informed that they had a larger Fanuc i Plus-controlled 10” chuck Lynx 2600M in stock and available for immediate delivery, we did a quick recalculation and decided to place the order for this larger, more powerful machine.”
Tristan Dengate, Owner and Managing Director at 17D
The Lynx 2600M – a closer look
Lynx lathes are popular and proven, and have an excellent reputation in the market for fast and efficient small part processing.
The Lynx 2600M is no exception and is equipped with a powerful, high-torque spindle (18.5kW/3500rpm/403N-m), roller-type LM guideways, a 12/24-position servo-driven turret, a fully-programmable tailstock and driven tooling capabilities (6000rpm).
Although having similar technical specifications to the Lynx 2100M, the Lynx 2600M is built for heavy-duty turning operations and has a 460mm maximum turning diameter and 658mm maximum turning length, and its BMT 55P turret delivers improved milling, tapping and drilling capabilities.
The Lynx 2600M delivered to 17D was also supplied with a MH5500 swarf conveyor system, an auto tool setter and a FilterMist extraction unit.
The Lynx 2600M in action
Since being installed, the new Lynx 2600M has been put through its paces machining a range of wear and replacement parts for its Main Line, Heritage and Miniature rail customers.
These parts are typically machined in low volumes and small batches (i.e., one-offs through to 200-off), and are made from a diverse range of materials that include mild steel, pre-hardened tool steel, cast iron, stainless steels, aluminium, carbon steel etc.
Specific replacement parts, to date, machined on 17D’s Lynx 2600M include – shafts, housings, cylinders, couplings, connectors, pins and bushings etc. These parts, often essential parts that go into larger sub and final wheel, axle, bogie, chassis, brake, gear and suspension system assemblies, are machined to tight tied-up tolerances (i.e., down to 0.025mm) and exacting surface finishes (i.e., down to Ra 0.8um).
The versatility of the Lynx 2600M was also demonstrated with a recent job where it was used to machine to completion, a small batch of components that had originally been ear-marked to be processed on one of the company’s DN Solutions’ machining centres.
“Our new Lynx 2600M is a powerful, accurate and flexible machine.
“Opting for the Lynx 2600M with driven tooling enables us to machine larger parts in a single set up, and the investment has (already) helped us significantly improve our productivity and process efficiencies and, more importantly, meet our production schedules and hit customer lead times.”
Tristan Dengate, Owner and Managing Director at 17D
The last word
According to the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), as of 31st March 2025, there were over 15,000 passenger railway vehicles registered in operation in Great Britain. And this number does not include operational freight rolling stock which is estimated to be much higher.
17D, with its advanced, quick turnaround machining capabilities combined with its knowledge and experience of the rail industry, plus a range of additional and integrated specialisms and skills (i.e., reverse engineering, tooling design and manufacture, light fabrication, turnkey solutions etc.), is ideally placed to grow its market share and cement its position as a leading supplier of high-quality, quick turnaround machined replacement and spare rolling stock parts to the rail industry.