Quoting Inserts and Heat-Set Hardware

Inserts and heat-set hardware show up on a surprising number of RFQs — threaded brass inserts for 3D printed enclosures, press-fit dowel pins for CNC fixtures, helical inserts for soft aluminum, even captive nuts for sheet metal assemblies. They’re small line items...

Quoting Jigs and Fixtures Without Guesswork

Most digital manufacturers treat jigs and fixtures as an afterthought — quick to quote, easy to underprice. But tooling often carries hidden complexity: design iterations, specialized materials, precision machining, and inspection requirements that don’t show up...

Quoting NRE Costs That Actually Stick

Non-recurring engineering charges are where digital manufacturing quotes go sideways. Quote them too high and the customer walks. Quote them too low and you’re subsidizing their project with your shop’s time. The problem isn’t the number — it’s...

How to Quote Parts With Threaded Features

Threaded features look simple on a drawing — a hole with a note like M6 × 1.0 6H — but they quietly derail quotes. Miss a tolerance class, forget a gauge check, or pick the wrong creation method, and you absorb rework or scrap costs that erase margin. Below is a...

Managing Multiple Quoting Formulas Per Process

Ask any estimator how they price a CNC job and you’ll hear about the base formula: machine rate times cycle time plus material plus setup. Ask how they price it for titanium versus aluminum, or for a prototype versus a production run, or for a strategic customer...