Quote a machining job from material, setup, run time, machine rate, and quantity, with per-piece cost.

About the Machine Shop Job Quote Estimator

Quoting a machining job is where a shop wins or loses money long before the first chip is cut. Price too high and the buyer sends the print to a competitor; price too low and you eat the difference on every part in a 250-piece run. This estimator breaks a CNC or manual job into the four costs that actually drive the number: raw material per part, one-time setup, machine and labor time on the spindle, and the margin you need to keep the lights on.

The tool is built for real job-shop work where you are handed a drawing, a quantity, and a due date and asked for a price by end of day. Instead of guessing a lump sum, you enter what you know about the part and the machine, and it separates the fixed setup cost from the variable per-part cost. That split matters because setup is amortized across the whole lot, so the same part costs far more each at a quantity of 10 than at a quantity of 500.

How the Machine Shop Job Quote Estimator works

The estimator computes per-part cost as material cost plus machine time cost, where machine time cost equals run time in minutes divided by 60, multiplied by your blended machine/labor rate. Setup cost is calculated separately as setup hours times that same rate, because setup happens once regardless of quantity. The subtotal is setup cost plus per-part cost multiplied by quantity, and the total quote applies your margin percentage on top of the full subtotal.

Price per piece is simply the total quote divided by quantity, which is the number your customer usually compares against. Note the rate field is meant to be a fully-burdened shop rate: it should already fold in operator wages, machine depreciation, tooling wear, electricity, and floor overhead. A common mistake is entering a bare wage of $22/hr when the true burdened rate for a CNC mill is closer to $75-$110/hr once the machine and building are accounted for.

Worked example

Suppose a 6061 aluminum bracket uses $4.50 of material per part, needs 2 hours of setup, runs 6.5 minutes on a machine billed at $85/hr, you are quoting 250 pieces, and you want a 25% margin. Machine time per part is 6.5/60 x $85 = $9.21, so per-part cost is $4.50 + $9.21 = $13.71. Setup cost is 2 x $85 = $170.

The subtotal is $170 + ($13.71 x 250) = $170 + $3,427.08 = $3,597.08. Applying the 25% margin gives a total quote of about $4,496.35, or roughly $17.99 per piece. If the customer only wants 50 parts, the same $170 setup is now spread over 50 units instead of 250, which pushes the per-piece price up sharply and is exactly why small runs cost more each.

Tips & common mistakes

Use a fully-burdened machine rate, not just the operator's wage. Divide your annual shop operating cost by billable spindle hours to find a realistic $/hr for each machine class.
Time the first article, not your optimistic guess. Run time per part should include tool changes, part loading/unloading, and in-process inspection, which often doubles a naive cut-time estimate.
Break setup out explicitly on the quote so the customer sees why doubling the quantity barely raises the per-piece price but halving it does not halve the total.
Add a separate line or padding for programming, fixturing, and first-article inspection on new parts; those NRE costs are easy to absorb accidentally into margin.
Revisit material cost against current bar stock or plate pricing before quoting; metal prices swing enough that a stale figure can wipe out a 25% margin.

Machine Shop Job Quote Estimator: frequently asked questions

What should I put in the machine/labor rate field?

Enter a fully-burdened shop rate for the machine doing the work, not a bare wage. Add operator pay, machine depreciation, tooling, power, maintenance, and a share of building overhead, then divide by realistically billable hours. For most CNC mills and lathes that lands between $75 and $110 per hour; simple manual work may be lower.

Why does the per-piece price jump so much at low quantities?

Setup is a fixed cost applied once and then spread across the lot. At 250 parts a $170 setup adds only $0.68 per piece, but at 25 parts it adds $6.80 per piece. The run-time cost per part stays the same, so small lots always carry a higher per-unit price.

Does run time per part include tool changes and inspection?

It should. Enter the true cycle time an operator experiences: cutting time plus load/unload, tool changes, deburring at the machine, and any in-cycle probing or gauging. Using raw cut time from CAM software alone will underquote most jobs by a meaningful margin.

Is the margin the same as markup?

Here it behaves as a markup on cost: the subtotal is multiplied by one plus the margin percentage. A 25% entry means the quote is cost times 1.25. If you want a true 25% profit margin on the sale price you would need a higher markup, since margin on price and markup on cost are not identical.

How do I handle programming and fixturing costs?

For a new part, add those non-recurring engineering costs either into the setup hours or as a separate line so they are not silently buried in margin. On repeat orders where the program already exists, you can drop them and quote lower, which is a legitimate competitive edge.

Machine Shop Job Quote Estimator