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Using Xometry to compare your own quotes

cgrim3

Cast Iron
Joined
Dec 4, 2020
Location
Baltimore
Hi all,

Say you are having trouble quoting a job for whatever reason. Do any of you use Xometry's online quoting engine for a tough quoting job to get a price, or use the online quoting engine to make sure you're in the ballpark when quoting jobs?
 
Not a job shop so take this with a grain of salt -- I'm just thinking it through.

I think it's likely a mistake to look at Xometry before you come up with your own estimate, but it sounds very useful to use for comparison after you have. If your price is significantly under, you may be leaving money on the table. Significantly over, you may be missing something or it may be indication that you aren't ever going to be competitive for a certain kind of part without further investment in a better process. In the ballpark, maybe you can find a way to adjust things slightly one way or the other to either make a bit more or a bit less to win the bid if you need the work.
 
Not a job shop so take this with a grain of salt -- I'm just thinking it through.

I think it's likely a mistake to look at Xometry before you come up with your own estimate, but it sounds very useful to use for comparison after you have. If your price is significantly under, you may be leaving money on the table. Significantly over, you may be missing something or it may be indication that you aren't ever going to be competitive for a certain kind of part without further investment in a better process. In the ballpark, maybe you can find a way to adjust things slightly one way or the other to either make a bit more or a bit less to win the bid if you need the work.

Yeah that is what I was thinking. I compared some of the jobs we have quoted to their online quoting engine and we are right there with them. Xometry has different prices: cheap for chinese made and long lead time, more money for US made and short lead time, and expensive for very short and US made. Our prices typically fall in between the US made short lead time and the US made very short lead time. I am not sure if Xometry is high or not on price though compared to other shops though. Disclaimer: I don't do the quoting. My dad does.
 
Is Xometry considered expensive or affordable to its customers? Like you said, I don't want to leave money on the table.
 
I'd say use those tools to your advantage.

I use oshcut.com's tool for costing laser cut parts. They are an online laser cutting outfit and their price is pretty consistently 30% more than my local top notch outfit. So I can pretty easily run my parts through their instant quote and know what to expect for a part price. I use that for costing my laser cut parts. On occasion and for a weird material, I end up using oshcut so they still make money off of me.
 
Yeah we definitely try to use it to our advantage. It is a nice way to see if your quotes are in the ballpark. Fictiv is also another site but their prices are very high
 
imo only do that if you want to be more confused (and depressed) than before. I have seen most small envelope jobs ridiculously cheap. Like “idk why someone would even walk out to their home shop tormach” cheap, let alone keep real a biz afloat. Then seen other larger envelope jobs that are too high compared to our quote and what other shops here would quote. Much better idea to get comfortable with your own numbers and not put too much stock in xometry pricing. Learn your customers. Learn your area. Learn your own costs. Heck, sometimes even just ask your customer.

This might turn a few heads, and sorry if I come off up tight, but it’s also unethical. We can all agree it’s unethical to solicit quotes from other local shops if we have no intention of sub’ing them the work and just using it to check our own prices. Xometry seems different since it’s automated (and I hate them) but it’s not different in theory.

And I struggle with the same issues every time I tackle a quote. It’s tough I know. I try to make friends with other professionals near the industry but not competing in the same way. I’m having lunch with a fella tomorrow who is a pm at a large shop to look over a particular part with me and sanity check my number. I trust his experience as a data point way more than xometry.

There just aren’t any (good) shortcuts on quoting
 
vmipacman,

I think you are correct in almost all points you have touched on. I agree with most of what you have said.
 
For fun and education I have compared an order that I have outsourced about 9 months ago. The outsourcing was to Malaysia with ~4 weeks delivery, so I compare it to the 'international' price given by Xometry. This 4 weeks is also quite comparable to the 12 business days at Xometry.

On a first glance: Overall, the price is comparable to what I got directly ordering from that (trusted) shop. Xometry is cheaper on some parts, more expensive on other. But most of these parts are flat plates up to 600mm longest length. The only discrepancy is for parts that are more cube shaped and >100x100x100mm, where Xometry is actually significantly more expensive (+30%).

I mentioned on first glance for a reason. The standard at Xometry is 3.2µm, +/-0.127mm tolerance and no measurement report. If I modify the parts to what I actually need, the cube shaped part is 2x more expensive and the other x1.5 more.

The price for 'USA made', is about 2x and USA made expedite is 3x higher.

Would be nice to have some similar comparisons for the US/EU rates. Given the other comments on Xometry being cheap that is an interesting one, because here it is the other way around. Particularly interesting for those interested in quoting for a very general machine shop...
 
I feel like it's complicated for me since I retail what I make. So how much does the shop charge the retailer for the part? Right now it's one entity so idk how that works.

Anyway, since I'm just starting out, I've done this a couple times just to see. Both times on a brake booster delete I make. Just a 4"X4"X1/2" plate with some tapped holes and some fancy contouring, end up removing about half the material. Unless I was getting 100, they were high. At 1 USA made, they are almost 2x what I retail it for. At quantities of 100, I can pay my shop $100/hr to do them, and then still get more than 200% markup on the retail side. I sell for $90 after fees and such. Takes a little less than 20min, and $10 materials. I do them in batches of 10, as it might take all year to move them. I do this with like 20 different products, and add more as time and capital allows.

If they moved a little faster I'd probably have them do a batch, and see how that does.
 








 
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