by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
A single decimal place on a drawing can double the cost of a part. Tolerance callouts are one of the quietest margin killers in digital manufacturing — easy to skim past during quoting, brutally expensive once the job hits the floor. Here are the questions shops ask...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Anodizing, plating, powder coating, heat treat, passivation — most machine shops and manufacturing service bureaus rely on outside vendors for finishing. It’s efficient, but it makes quoting harder. You’re now pricing work you don’t fully control, on...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Every shop has taken a job that felt too small to bother with — a single bracket, one turned part, a handful of laser-cut blanks. On paper it looked like easy money. In reality, the setup, handling, and admin ate every cent of margin. A well-chosen minimum order value...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Low-volume, high-mix (LVHM) work is where a lot of shops quietly lose money. The parts are interesting, the customers keep coming back, and the invoices look fine — but the margins don’t hold up because the real costs hide in setup, changeover, and one-off...
by Chris Anjel | Jul 13, 2026 | Materials & Pricing, Quoting & Estimating
Raw metal prices rarely sit still. Steel, aluminum, copper, and specialty alloys can move week to week, and every swing eats directly into your margin if your quotes lag behind. For sheet metal shops, CNC machining shops, and on-demand manufacturers, material is often...
