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Every order customers source via Xometry is made by real people, in a real workshop — and this is theirs. In a little over three years as Xometry partners, they have completed 245 orders and missed a deadline only once.
Xometry’s Partner Network Manager, Damien Stefanovski, spent a day with the brothers to see what that actually looks like.
Thirty Years, Two Brothers, One Workshop
CNC Tehnika Plus began in 1992, when the brothers’ father founded the company with manual lathes and mills — machines that Dejan and Dragoljub grew up around, the sound of them running practically background noise to their childhood. High demand for CNC parts pushed the family to invest in their first CNC machine in 2005, and they started out machining plastic and aluminium parts for local customers.
In 2022, they invested heavily again — bringing in two new HURCO CNC mills and growing the team. Today, the workshop runs on five mechanical engineers, trained the same way the brothers were, through Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, together with one quality engineer.
The shop itself is small and packed tight with equipment, and it grows a little every year as new machines come online.
How They Became a Xometry Partner
Dejan and Dragoljub first came across Xometry online, but weren’t convinced right away — the platform was a completely different way of working than what they were used to. What changed their minds was a webinar with Damien himself, who would later become the person they credit with getting them started on the platform in the first place.
They started slowly, testing the platform with a small part of their business. As trust grew, so did the share of Xometry work in their production. Today, their machines run daily on Xometry jobs, spanning high-precision aluminum enclosures, custom stainless steel brackets, and complex POM/Delrin manifolds. In fact, a few local CNC shops have already started asking them, half-joking, half-serious, whether it’s really worth it.
A Day Split by the Heat
In summer, the workshop itself becomes part of the problem. By midmorning, heat shimmers off the roof and the machines seem to feel it too; by afternoon, it’s hard for anyone to concentrate on tolerances measured in microns. So the shop works split hours: mornings, then a long break through the worst of the heat, then back on the machines once it cools down.
The Xometry Job Board — where new orders are posted for partners to pick up — is the first thing that gets checked, laptop open, coffee in hand.
The Job in Front of Them: Stainless Steel 316L
The day Damien visited, the machines were running Stainless Steel 316L. This alloy is famous for its high corrosion resistance, but it leaves zero room for error with feeds and speeds, and the order needed to ship soon.
By mid-morning the shop smells like cutting fluid, chips curl off the tool and catch the light like confetti, and gauges get checked every few parts to make sure nothing has drifted. Most days here are precision, small-batch work: prototypes and batches of up to 2,000 pieces, nothing forgiving about the margins.
245 Orders, One Missed Deadline
Ask Dejan and Dragoljub what they’re proudest of, and it isn’t the machines.
Quality control is built into their daily routine, not left until the parts are packed. While their quality engineer is on maternity leave, the founders are personally overseeing quality checks. As veteran engineers, they run in-process inspections directly at the machines, cross-checking critical features with freshly calibrated micrometers, bore gauges, and thread plug gauges to ensure every tolerance hits spec before the final wash.
Lunch: “Pizza with Everything”
Even a precision workshop stops for lunch — and Dejan and Dragoljub didn’t just take a break themselves, they took Damien with them. Macedonia has its own classics — hearty tavče gravče (baked beans) and smoky ajvar are staples on any local table. But for Damien’s visit, it was something else entirely: “pizza with everything,” piled high with prosciutto, mushrooms, and mozzarella, still warm enough to fog the box lid on the walk back. Traditional or not — just the best pizza in the world, they joked — it disappeared fast.
The Part That’s Easy to Forget: Packaging and Pickup
Material and packaging are among the shop’s biggest daily challenges — most parts made for Xometry travel across borders, passing through dozens of hands before they reach the customer, and they need to arrive exactly as they left the workshop.
The process is fully structured through the Xometry platform: before a shipment goes out, the team uploads photos for quality and packaging control, along with exact box dimensions and weights. Once approved, Xometry automatically handles the logistics and schedules the collection.
Damien can confirm the courier relationship is a good one:
By the end of the day, the machines are switched off, the workspace is locked up, and the finished parts are already on their way — boxed, labeled, and handed to DHL at the door.
Beyond the Machines
Ask what’s hardest about a normal week, and it’s not the cutting.
After Hours: Tennis, Weather Permitting
When the machines stop, Dejan and Dragoljub head to the tennis court near the workshop — their way of unwinding after a day of chasing microns, the courts lit up just as the evening cools. Turns out precision matters there too, just with a bit more sweat involved. It only works out when they’re not too tired and the weather isn’t too hot. That day, both conditions got in the way, so the court had to wait.
What’s Next
The CNC Tehnika Plus team is already thinking about the next step: bigger premises for the workshop, and more growth alongside Xometry.
They also had a few words for the wider Xometry team:
This is the first in a series of “A Day in the Life” stories, where we visit the real workshops and the real people behind your Xometry orders.
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