Articles and news

Should-cost versus your real cost price

A buyer puts a should-cost model next to your quote. Here is how to find, line by line, where the model and your shop part ways.

Milling or turning: which route costs less?

A part with round and flat features can come from bar or from a block. Here is how to choose the route and find the quantity at which it tips.

What AI means for the modern precision machine shop

AI earns its place in the estimating office, where every request needs a cost price, as a proposal your cost engineer confirms or corrects.

Own purchase price or market price in the estimate?

The material line costs what your supplier charges for this block, with source and price date.

Blake at the Precision Fair 2026

On 18 and 19 November Blake is at the Precision Fair in 's-Hertogenbosch, stand H1-101. We show what AI does in a machine shop.

Printing or machining: when to choose which

Geometry, material, tolerance, finish, quantity and lead time side by side.

Design for cost: what a tolerance really costs

Every tolerance, roughness value, material choice and feature position lands in a cost line of its own: machining, setup, inspection or subcontracting.

Repeat orders: what makes the second run cheaper?

The program and fixture are paid for, the first article inspection in part. What drops out of a repeat order, what gets shorter and what must be redone?

Thin walls: when the wall sets the price

A thin wall adds no material, but it costs passes, setups and scrap. How to cost each measure as a separate line, with the reason beside it.

Roughness and finishing: what Ra 0.8 costs

A lower Ra costs money only on the face that carries it. Choose the route per face, ask if sizes apply before or after coating, and cost the finish separately.

Which tolerances make a part expensive?

A tolerance only costs money when it calls for an extra operation, another gauge or another machine. How to find those dimensions on a drawing and cost them.

Choosing aluminium: 6082, 7075 or 5083?

Which aluminium alloy and which stock form suit a milled or turned part, and what does that choice do to distortion, anodising and the price per part?

Machining plastics: POM, PA and PEEK in the price

Plastic machines fast but costs money in different places from metal: in the block, in stress and size, and in scrap. How to build the price up line by line.

Mill-turn: when does one machine pay off?

A turned part with a spanner flat and a cross hole can travel across two machines or come off one finished. How to check, part by part, which route costs less.

Why does a small batch cost so much per part?

Ten parts cost more each because setup and programming happen once per batch, and that fixed time belongs on its own line in the estimate.

How do you calculate a machine hour rate?

A machine hour rate belongs to one machine, with the operator beside it as a rate of its own.

Count the setups before you name a price

Every setup adds setup time, programming time and one more clamping of every part, so count them by machining direction before the quantity breaks are fixed.

Software-driven machining starts at the request

Record a part once, at the request, and build every later step on that record.

Estimating software for machining: what to check

Test estimating software on a drawing you have already quoted, priced with your own machines and rates, in lines you can check.

How accurate is an AI estimate, line by line?

An AI estimate proves itself line by line, not with an accuracy figure on the total.

Quote faster with AI, and set the price yourself

Most of the hours in a CNC quote go on retyping and looking things up, and that is where software should make the first proposal.

Four cycle times for the same part

Every cycle time should say where it came from: estimated, from CAM, simulated or measured.

From AI pilot to results in the machine shop

Why AI pilots in manufacturing stall, and what it takes to make one pay off in estimating and work preparation.

What to ask an AI vendor about customer drawings

A customer drawing falls under your NDA, and the NDA decides what may happen to it in an AI tool.

How do you keep a cost engineer's know-how?

What an experienced cost engineer knows does not survive an exit interview, a handbook of rules of thumb or a spreadsheet nobody else can read.

What belongs in a complete request for quote?

A request is complete only when every part has its model, a drawing with its revision, and the requirements the model does not hold.

Excel estimating: where it works, where it strains

A price can be defended only when a colleague can check every estimate line, with its time, rate and quantity beside it.

Can AI read an engineering drawing for a quote?

A requirement read from a drawing should only count in the cost price once the cost engineer has confirmed it.

Finishing without a price: leave the line open

A 6082 housing, 25 pieces, black anodised, and the anodiser's price has not come back yet. That line belongs visibly open.

What a 0.02 position tolerance does to the route

A position tolerance of Ø0.02 mm is a route decision: it settles setup, machine and measuring, and with them the price of one feature.

Setup plan: start with the last setup

A 6082 housing with two bores in one position tolerance is planned back to front: the last setup first, then back to raw stock.

Sizing the blank: allowance, clamping and stock

Material is costed on the sawn piece, not on the model's bounding box.

Estimate versus actuals: compare per operation

Job costing on the order total adjusts the wrong standards: an 11 per cent overrun hides a milling operation that ran nearly half over.

General tolerance: what ISO 2768 says and leaves out

ISO 2768-mK in the title block covers every dimension without its own tolerance, and what it costs is mostly inspection time, not extra axes.

Subduxion is a resident of the AI Innovation Center

The AI Innovation Center at High Tech Campus Eindhoven welcomes Subduxion, the company behind Blake, as a resident.

Source: AI Innovation Center