In this guide 6 sections
CNC quotes lose money because memory keeps the cycle time and forgets everything around it. Setup, tool wear, deburring, outside processes, bar end waste and inspection hours go missing. Price from a checklist, then compare quoted hours against actual hours after every job.
What memory keeps and what it drops
An experienced estimator recalls how long a part ran on the lathe. That figure sticks because the machine was loud and busy, while the forty minutes spent proving the programme and touching off tools fades quickly.
Quoting from memory also favours the last similar job. A part in 304 stainless looks like the aluminium one from last spring, so the price follows, even though stainless cuts slower and eats inserts faster.
None of this is carelessness. It is how people work. A checklist replaces recall with prompts, so the estimator walks past every cost line on every quote, including the dull ones that a busy morning would otherwise skip.
The costs that go missing
Walk through a quote for a hundred turned shafts. Material, run time and a margin are easy to write, and the trouble sits in the lines that nobody wrote down at all.
Setup comes first. Changing jaws, loading the programme, touching off tools and cutting a proving piece takes real hours. Spread across a hundred pieces it looks tiny, but spread across ten it can be the whole profit of the job.
- Setup and proving time
- Insert and drill wear for the material
- Deburring, wash and marking
- Outside processes such as plating or heat treat
- Bar end and saw kerf waste
- Inspection and paperwork hours
Secondary operations and cut loss
Parts rarely leave the machine finished. They need hand deburring, a wash, laser marking and sometimes tapping on a bench drill. Every one of those steps has a person standing at a bench and a time on the clock.
Material loss is its own trap. A bar of 40 mm round holds fewer parts than the arithmetic suggests once the chuck grip and the parting blade are counted. Plate nested for milling leaves skeleton scrap. Quote the stock you buy.
Outside processes bring lead time and minimum lots. Anodising vendors often charge a minimum per load, so a tiny order carries that fixed cost alone.
Inspection hours are not free
A drawing with forty toleranced features takes far longer to check than one with six. The first article report, a CMM programme and the material certificate pack all cost time that rarely appears on the quote.
Tight tolerances also cost on the machine itself, since a tolerance that forces a finishing pass and a second offset check changes cycle time and scrap. Many shops price tolerance as an afterthought.
Add inspection as a separate line. When a customer asks for a lower price, you can see what is traded away. It might be a full CMM report, a sampling plan or a material certificate.
Build a quote you can audit
Break each quote into operations, each with setup, run, tooling and outside cost, and save that breakdown with the job. The estimator then has numbers to defend instead of a gut feeling.
After delivery, set actual hours beside quoted hours for each operation. The gap per operation is the most honest training an estimator gets, and three jobs of data will correct a habit that years of memory could not.
Pick the last five jobs that felt tight and rebuild each quote from the checklist, line by line, using the hours your operators actually booked. See which line was missing. Fix the template.
Quote build worksheet
This worksheet has one row per operation and columns for setup minutes, run minutes per piece, tool wear allowance, outside process, stock bought, waste and inspection minutes. A footer block sets the quoted total beside the actual hours after delivery and names the largest gap, so the next estimate starts from evidence.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
How do I find which past quotes lost money?
Compare the actual hours on each closed job with the hours quoted, operation by operation. The jobs with the widest gap point straight to the lines that were missed.
Should setup be charged separately?
Often yes on small batches. Showing setup as its own line makes the cost visible and explains why a quantity break exists, which customers usually accept once they can see it.
How do I price tool wear?
Use the number of inserts or drills a similar job consumed, taken from the tool crib log or purchase records, and spread that across the parts in the batch.
Is a quoting spreadsheet enough?
For a few repeat parts, yes. When quotes pile up you need somewhere to store them beside actual hours, so that the comparison happens without extra effort from the estimator.