Why one bracket costs $1,272 and a hundred cost $76 each
Machined parts sell per piece at a quantity, and the quantity decides the price more than anything else. Programming, setup, soft jaws, the first-piece check and the anodizer's minimum batch are paid once whether you ship 1 part or 100. Stock, cycle time, deburr and packing repeat on every part.
Here is the sample bracket at the four quantities the Quote tab prices at once:
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quantity | Order price | Price each |
| 2 | 1 | $1,272.71 | $1,272.71 |
| 3 | 10 | $1,851.17 | $185.12 |
| 4 | 25 | $2,815.25 | $112.61 |
| 5 | 100 | $7,635.69 | $76.36 |
The same thing happens on a simple one-off part with no finish at all. Say stock and cycle time on a small aluminum bracket come to $20. Add two and a half hours of drawing, programming and setup at $85 an hour, another $212.50, and the one part is now worth about $232, because every one of those hours lands on it.
Quote price breaks on every RFQ, so the buyer sees why 10 beats 1 and your setup is never spread over parts nobody ordered.
Stock, spindle hours and the anodizer: what a machined part's price is built from
A CNC quote is stock plus machine time per operation plus outside finishing, all at a rate that already carries your overhead. Profit then goes on top as a number you pick before you quote. Here is how to work out each piece.
Stock, not the finished part. Price the piece of stock you will actually cut from, not the finished size. A 4 x 4 inch part usually starts as a 5 x 5 inch piece, so price that piece. To get weight, aluminum runs about 0.0975 pounds per cubic inch; multiply the piece's volume by that and by your price per pound.
Time on each machine. Setup once, run time per piece, on every operation: saw, first op, second op, inserts. An hour on a CNC mill costs more to own than an hour at the bench, so the sheet adds each machine's running cost to the labour rate. How that hour is set is on machine shop rates.
Outside finishing. Anodizers, platers and heat treaters charge a lot minimum plus a price per piece. On a small order the minimum is most of the bill, so price it as a lot charge, not a per-part number. Some shops also mark the vendor's bill up, by 15% to 20% in the examples we found, to pay for ordering, tracking and the risk of a bad batch.
Overhead inside the rate. The sample shop's yearly overhead totals $61,700: rent, power, insurance, CAD/CAM seats, inserts and coolant. Folded into a break-even of $71.72 per billable hour, it rides along on every spindle hour instead of needing its own line. The long version is in overhead and profit.
Worked example: 25 motor mount brackets in 6061 with clear anodize
The sample job prices at $2,815.25 for 25 brackets, or $112.61 each, and keeps $678.53 after every cost including the owner's wage. The part is a 6061 aluminum motor mount with threaded inserts and a type II clear anodize, cut to the customer's drawing in a saw op, two CNC ops and an insert op.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Line | Amount |
| 2 | Stock, machine time, inserts and anodize | $1,407.13 |
| 3 | Programming, inspection, deburr and the other desk and bench work | $729.59 |
| 4 | Full cost | $2,136.72 |
| 5 | Markups, 5% cushion and 20% profit | $678.53 |
| 6 | Price for 25 | $2,815.25 |
The whole job takes about 18.5 hours once the work around the spindle is counted. After stock, anodize and cash costs come out, those hours earn about $115.59 each against the $71.72 break-even. The $678.53 is 24.1% of the price, and because the owner's wage is already inside full cost, that is close to net profit. For why a 31.8% markup only keeps 24.1%, see markup vs margin.
Look at the second line. A third of the full cost never touches a spindle. A shop that quotes stock and cycle time only would send this job out hundreds of dollars low.
Why per-part prices swing so much between shops
Quantity, finish and tolerance move a part's price far more than the shop rate does, so two honest quotes for similar parts can be ten times apart. These are examples from owners' quoting demos, not market averages.
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part and quantity | What moved the price | Price heard |
| 2 | One-off aluminum bracket, no finish | All setup and programming on one piece | About $220 |
| 3 | Tight-tolerance anodized part, 1 piece | Setup, programming, inspection and the anodize minimum | About $1,200 |
| 4 | Same part at 150 pieces | One-time costs spread over the run | $116 each |
| 5 | Sample 6061 bracket with anodize, 25 pieces | One-time costs spread over 25 | $112.61 each |
One habit worth copying: write a fast number first (setup plus run time at your rate plus the extras), then compare it with the long quote. After a few rounds the fast number gets close to the full one, and you can answer more RFQs in a day without guessing.
The work around the spindle that CNC quotes leave out
The lines that sink machine shop quotes are the ones done at a desk, at the deburr bench or at the shipping table, because nobody writes them on the traveler. The Quote tab asks each of these as Yes, No or N/A before the price is final.
- CAD/CAM programming. Drawing the part from a PDF, then writing and proving toolpaths. A part with more features takes more programming, so build it up from the feature count rather than guessing one number for every part.
- First-piece check and inspection. Gauges, the first part against the drawing, then the rest. Tolerance does not show in cycle time but it shows at the bench, where a tight part can need several minutes of checking each.
- Deburr, wash and blast. The step most often left off. A job quoted with no time for deburring, grinding or blasting still has to be deburred, and that time is unpaid.
- Soft jaws or other workholding. Barely visible on a thousand-part run. On three parts that need four sets of jaws, it can be most of the job.
- Worn tooling, and cutters bought for one job. Inserts and end mills are consumables even when nothing breaks. A form cutter or long-reach tool you will never use again belongs in the quote for the job that needs it.
- A spare piece of stock. One extra piece of stock so a scrapped first part does not stop the job for a reorder.
- Ordering, and reordering what you forgot. A missed end mill or chamfer tool means another order, another wait and more freight.
- Packing each part, and freight with insurance. Washing, wrapping, marking and boxing are per-piece time. A lost box of expensive parts is your problem if it went out uninsured.
- Customer emails and drawing questions. Calls, revisions, purchase order rules and invoice requirements eat real hours on every job, and they belong in the price.
Put these hours at your break-even rate, not a helper's wage. Afterwards, compare quoted and actual hours in the Job Log; job costing covers how.
Four CNC quoting mistakes that cost small shops money
Most bad machine shop quotes come from pricing by feel, skipping an operation, cutting the price because the shop is slow, or pricing before checking the job can be made.
Two people, two numbers. When the owner and a production manager each quote the same part from their heads, they rarely land on the same price, and one person quotes differently on a Monday than a Friday. One of those numbers loses money and the other loses the job. A fixed method with the same rate and the same checklist fixes that.
The short job that runs for days. A job quoted at 7 hours that takes four days is not bad luck. It is usually an operation, a setup or a finishing step that never made it onto the quote. List every op, and don't let the quote be finished until each checklist line is answered. At the same time, don't spend hours quoting a simple part.
Cutting the price because it is quiet. Taking a $500 job for $250 to keep a machine busy, then expecting 5 hours of work to fit into two, loses money twice: once on the price and again when the job runs over. A slow month is a reason to chase more RFQs, not to drop below break-even.
Pricing before checking the bar, the reach and the jaws. Before sending a number, confirm the stock size is something your supplier carries, the features can be reached with cutters you own, and how many setups and sets of jaws it needs. A sent quote is your last easy chance to change the price.
Payment, rush and revision rules machine shops use
Three rules protect a CNC quote: the price covers the drawing as sent, a rush costs extra, and small jobs pay up front. A revised drawing gets a new price through a written change order. A job that bumps another off the machine should carry an expedite fee you set in advance.
One owner takes full payment up front on jobs under $250 and 25% down on bigger ones, a deposit sized to cover the stock and tooling bought for the job if the customer walks. If you only give a rough number before seeing the final drawing, call it an estimate; quote vs estimate explains the difference.
Price your next drawing in the spreadsheet
The Machine Shop Pricing Calculator runs this whole method in Excel or Google Sheets. Enter the operations once and it prices four quantities, adds the anodize lot charge, asks every don't-forget line, and builds a one-page customer quote with price breaks. Start with your rate in the free true hourly rate calculator if you have never worked it out.