A Quoting Routine That Survives a Busy Week

September 25, 2026 by The Alu CNC Parts editorial desk / how this is checked

The shops that quote consistently are not the ones with the best software. They are the ones with a routine that produces the same answer on a Friday afternoon as it does on a Tuesday morning.

Start from the block, not the part

Open the model, get the bounding box, then decide what stock it actually comes from. Round up to the real plate or bar size you can buy, not the theoretical minimum.

Two numbers fall out of this immediately: material cost, and roughing volume. On a part where most of the billet becomes swarf, those two dominate everything else, and you can sanity check a quote in thirty seconds.

If the customer drew 52 mm and you have to buy 60 mm plate, that is worth a line in your reply. It is often a free saving for them and it makes you look like you were paying attention.

Count setups before anything else

Setups are the number most often underestimated and they are the easiest to count. Look at which faces carry features. Five faces means five setups unless you have fixturing or a fourth axis that collapses them.

Each setup carries fixture time, re-indicating and a share of the operator’s attention. On low quantities the setup count frequently matters more than the cycle time.

Read the tolerances for operations, not for difficulty

A tolerance does not cost money because it is tight. It costs money because of the operation it forces.

±0.13 mm: normal milling, spot check.
±0.05 mm: careful setup, more frequent checks.
±0.025 mm: bored or reamed rather than drilled, most pieces measured.
±0.013 mm: temperature control, every piece measured, and worth a conversation with the customer about whether they need it.

Price the operation and the inspection, not a vague difficulty factor. That is what makes two estimators in the same shop produce the same number. There is more on how buyers should be writing these in the tolerance guide, which is worth sending to a customer who tolerances everything.

Do not forget the parts of the job that are not machining

These are where estimates leak:

Outside processing. Anodizing, chem film, plating, heat treatment. Each has a minimum batch charge and its own lead time. On a small order the coating minimum can exceed your machining value, and the lead time is the one most likely to slip.

Deburring and edge break. Hand work, does not get cheaper in quantity, and on a part with many intersecting features it is real hours.

Inspection and paperwork. A dimensional report, a first article, material certificates and traceability all cost time that is invisible in the cycle.

Masking. Hand work per piece, and it stays hand work at quantity.

Packaging and freight. Soft aluminum parts that arrive marked are a rejection, whatever the dimensions say.

Flag the risk rather than padding for it

When something on the drawing is genuinely uncertain, say so in the quote:

Price assumes the 1.5 mm wall can be held without a
sacrificial support. If it chatters on the first piece we
will need a soft jaw fixture, which adds one setup.
We will confirm before proceeding.

That protects your margin, gives the customer a real decision, and is far better than a number quietly inflated to cover a possibility that may not happen. The customer who understands the risk is also the one who might just thicken the wall.

Keep the estimate after the job runs

The routine only improves if you close the loop. Record what you quoted against what it actually took, on the parts where the gap was largest. Most shops discover their error is systematic, and usually in setups or in deburring rather than in cycle time.

That is the difference between quoting faster and quoting better. Doing both is what lets you say yes to work at a price you can live with while everyone else is still opening the STEP file.

Sources

Figures in this guide are checked against the following. Published values are typical ranges for test material, not a guarantee for your part.

Frequently asked questions

Should I quote from the model or the drawing?

Both, and the drawing wins where they disagree. The model gives you geometry and volume for the stock calculation. The drawing carries tolerance, finish, alloy and which features are critical, and none of that is in the STEP file. A model without a drawing is a request for an estimate, not a quote.

How do I price a part I have never made before?

Break it into operations you have made before. Setups, roughing volume, finishing passes, tolerance driven operations, inspection and outside processing are all things you have timed. New geometry is usually a new arrangement of familiar work.

How much contingency is reasonable?

Enough to cover the thing you are least sure about, and stated. If the unknown is whether a thin wall will chatter, say the price assumes it will not and that you will confirm on the first piece. A named assumption is defensible. An invisible margin is what gets argued about later.

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