Ok, so I have an odd question for you all. I have an Ibanez S2170FW electric guitar. This particular guitar is equipped with a ZR tremolo system which kicks everloving arse. Bar one problem. The arm holder is made of low quality metal and as such, is prone to breaking, as happened to me last night. (exactly the same as that picture, but mine broke on the other side of the base plate) I've already ordered a replacement for every part in this image from Rich at ibanezrules.com But since the fault may occur again should the new parts prove as hard wearing as the old ones, I want to look into the possibility of replacing the entire arm holding assembly with something of better quality. I've seen people who have either machined new bolts themselves or tapped things but thats FAR beyond my level of skill to do, so I'd need to have replacement parts fabricated (Obviously the part numbered 9 is the most important and perhaps the only one that REALLY needs changing.) So I ask you bit-techers, do you know of any machine shops who would do one off parts or very small batches of something like this, or would it be vastly more expensive than is worth it?
Your best bet for a one-off like that is to try a local fabrication company - look on Yell under "Engineering Machine Shops; Mechanical Engineers; Precision Engineers" Give a couple a ring and see how you get on - at least with a local company you can take the guitar and offending parts in person to them and explain exactly what you want doing - something which may not be so easy trying to do over the interwebs.
you have to do all the design work, but this place/ will make anything you want. just download their free software & it will show the cost. so do you know anyone who can draw that bolt up?