Erik Morris
Plastic
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2019
- Location
- Portland
Hey everyone,
I'm a young punk kid in the Portland area who recently purchased a Haas Mini-mill to start my own machining business and i'm in need of some advice. I'm trying to make a model for costing CNC services. Between feature based costing, hourly rates, and other methods of costing, it seems difficult to determine what the market will bear (especially as a new guy). I'd like to keep costs low, so i'll be using Excel or other freeware.
Ideas
Excel: Feature Based costing, price per hole, etc
Hourly estimate + material
Surface area * tolerance call out + material cost
bartering with machinist friends to find out what something costs
Potentially bad Ideas
Dartboard Pricing
Create 5 unique parts, get quotes from other machine shops, base incoming work on the 5 models I created
Ask the customer what they want to pay and go up from there
Buying quote information from a machine shop about to go out of business (probably not the best quotes)
Machine Learning: Use a few quotes to generate a table on variables like tolerance, # of holes, etc and build an algorithm.
Machine Learning: Partner with a few similar machine shops, pool in the quotes, CAD files, and prices, and build a quoting engine for the group.
I currently work a different engineering job, so all of my expenses are covered, and i'm not losing sleep over my idle machine (yet)
In the end, I'd like to specialize in machining composites, but for now I'll take what business I can get.
Let me know what you guys think,
I'm a young punk kid in the Portland area who recently purchased a Haas Mini-mill to start my own machining business and i'm in need of some advice. I'm trying to make a model for costing CNC services. Between feature based costing, hourly rates, and other methods of costing, it seems difficult to determine what the market will bear (especially as a new guy). I'd like to keep costs low, so i'll be using Excel or other freeware.
Ideas
Excel: Feature Based costing, price per hole, etc
Hourly estimate + material
Surface area * tolerance call out + material cost
bartering with machinist friends to find out what something costs
Potentially bad Ideas
Dartboard Pricing
Create 5 unique parts, get quotes from other machine shops, base incoming work on the 5 models I created
Ask the customer what they want to pay and go up from there
Buying quote information from a machine shop about to go out of business (probably not the best quotes)
Machine Learning: Use a few quotes to generate a table on variables like tolerance, # of holes, etc and build an algorithm.
Machine Learning: Partner with a few similar machine shops, pool in the quotes, CAD files, and prices, and build a quoting engine for the group.
I currently work a different engineering job, so all of my expenses are covered, and i'm not losing sleep over my idle machine (yet)
In the end, I'd like to specialize in machining composites, but for now I'll take what business I can get.
Let me know what you guys think,