Design education, not a rate card
What makes a part cost what it costs
Nobody else publishes this. Here's the honest version of what drives a machined part's price — and, more usefully, what you can change on your end to bring it down. This page won't give you our internal rates or cycle times; it will tell you what to design differently.
The drivers
Six things that move your price
None of these are secrets. They're just rarely explained plainly.
01
How many setups your part needs
Every time a part has to be unclamped, flipped, and re-clamped to reach another face, that's a setup — and each one adds handling, alignment and machine time. A part that can be finished in one setup is cheaper than a geometrically similar part that needs three. This is where 5-axis machining earns its keep: reaching more of the part in fewer setups.
02
How tight your tolerances are
A tolerance of a few thousandths of an inch on a critical feature costs more to hold than a loose one, because it demands slower cuts, more careful fixturing, and more inspection. If a tolerance doesn't actually matter for how the part functions, loosening it is one of the easiest ways to bring the price down.
03
What material you choose
Materials differ a lot in how fast they can be cut and how hard they are on tooling. Softer aluminum alloys are generally the quickest and cheapest to machine; harder alloys, stainless steels, and exotic metals ask more of the machine and the tools, and that shows up in the price.
04
Finish and cosmetic work
A raw machined surface is the cheapest option. Anodizing, polishing, bead blasting, and other cosmetic finishes are additional hand and process work layered on top of machining, and they add real cost — especially anything that needs a defect-free, show surface.
05
Thin walls and deep pockets
Thin walls flex under cutting pressure, and deep, narrow pockets need longer tools that can't be pushed as hard. Both force slower, more careful machining than a part with generous wall thickness and shallow features — even if the overall size is the same.
06
How many you order
Ordering more parts spreads the fixed cost of programming and setup across a larger batch, which is why per-part price usually drops with quantity. But it doesn't drop endlessly — the time to actually cut each part doesn't shrink much just because you ordered more of them.
Design for a better price
Changes that actually lower the cost
If you're iterating on a part before you order, these are the highest-leverage changes to make — roughly in order of impact.
- Combine features so the part can be finished in one or two setups instead of several.
- Only tighten a tolerance where the part's function actually requires it — leave the rest at standard.
- Choose the least exotic material that still meets the part's real requirements.
- Skip cosmetic finishing on surfaces nobody will see or touch.
- Add a small radius instead of a sharp internal corner where you can — sharp internal corners often need a slower, smaller tool.
- Keep walls and pocket depths generous where the design allows it.
Illustrative example
Take two versions of the same bracket. Version A has a tight tolerance on a hole that doesn't need it, a polished cosmetic finish, and needs the part flipped twice to reach all the features. Version B loosens that tolerance to a standard value, skips the polish since the surface is hidden in the assembly, and is redesigned so every feature is reachable in a single setup. Same function, same envelope — but B is meaningfully cheaper, because it asks less of the machine, the tooling, and the finishing line at every step. We don't publish a rate to calculate exactly how much less — upload both versions and the quote will show you.
Parts too complex to price automatically? A real engineer looks at it.
Some geometry is too unusual for an automatic quote to price safely. That's not a wall — it's routed straight to a person who machines these parts for a living.
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