What Happens After You Send the Drawing
Six steps from your file to a box of parts, with the timing we actually work to and what we need from you at each one. Nothing here is a best case — if a step is going to take longer on your job, we say so in the quote.
Six steps, and what
each one needs from you.
Most delays on a custom part are not machining delays — they are a missing line on an enquiry, or a drawing revision that changed after the quote. So this page is written from both sides: what we do, and what we need from you to do it on time.
Your files go to an engineer, not to a sales inbox. We accept STEP, IGES, SolidWorks, DXF, DWG and PDF, and for a flat part a DXF on its own is often enough. If a similar part already exists, a photograph of it with a ruler beside it will tell us more than a page of notes.
What we need
A 3D model, a dimensioned drawing, the quantity now and per year, the material or what the part must survive, and which fits actually matter.
We read the drawing for manufacturability before we price it. Whether the tolerances are achievable in the material you named. Whether an internal corner radius forces a smaller cutter and a much longer cycle. Whether a wall is thin enough to chatter. Whether the finish you asked for will change the dimensions after machining. If something on the drawing costs you money for no functional gain, we tell you with the quote rather than quietly quoting it.
What we may ask
Which dimensions are functional and which are inherited from an older drawing. It is the single question that most often reduces a price.
Price, lead time, material, and the process route we intend to use — plus anything we could not commit to, stated plainly. If a feature on your drawing sits outside what we can hold, it appears in the quote rather than being discovered at first article. Quantity breaks are shown where they exist, because on most parts the second hundred costs much less than the first.
What we need
Your target date, and whether the quantity you gave us is a one-off or the first of a repeating order. Both change the price.
We confirm the drawing revision, the quantity, the delivery date and the inspection requirement, then schedule the job. The revision number matters more than most people expect: we machine the revision we quoted, so if a new file arrives after the order is placed we will stop and confirm rather than assume.
What we need
A confirmed drawing revision. If anything changes after this point, tell us before the batch runs rather than after.
Turning, milling, drilling, boring, tapping and finishing across eighty-eight CNC machines — lathes and turn-mill for round parts, 3-, 4- and 5-axis for everything else. A first article is machined and inspected before the batch runs, not after it. Prototype, small batch and repeat production all go through the same route; only the fixturing and the inspection frequency change.
Good to know
Outside finishing — anodising, passivation, plating — is partner-processed, and that leg is included in the lead time we quoted.
Critical dimensions are verified against the drawing with calipers, micrometers and gauges, and on a CMM where the tolerance calls for it. Parts are deburred, cleaned, and packed to survive the journey rather than just to fit the box. We ship worldwide through freight partners, and we would rather hold a shipment one day than send a part we are not confident in.
What to ask for
A dimensional report, material certificate or certificate of conformity if your process needs one — request it at quotation, not at dispatch.
Why one quote takes a day
and another takes three.
We quote a complete enquiry within twenty-four hours. Almost every quote that takes longer is waiting on the same handful of missing lines — so here they are, in the order they cost us time.
Quantity is not a detail. One piece and a thousand are not the same process at different volumes — they are different processes. Fixturing, tooling and inspection frequency all change. An enquiry without a quantity cannot be priced at all, only guessed at.
Name the material, or tell us the job. Either is fine. “6061” works; so does “it sits in a wash-down area and takes a 20 kg load” — we will propose a material and say why. What we cannot price is “metal”.
Tell us which fits actually matter. A drawing where every dimension carries a tight tolerance is priced as if every dimension is critical, because we have no way to know otherwise. On most parts, two or three features do the work and the rest can be general tolerance — marking them can change a price substantially.
Send the drawing, not a picture of the drawing. A screenshot of a CAD window cannot be measured and a photograph of a printed sheet cannot be scaled. A PDF exported from CAD takes you ten seconds and saves a day of back-and-forth.
Say if the finish is part of the product. Anodising, passivation and plating all add thickness, and colour has to be planned into the tolerance rather than applied over it. A finish mentioned after the quote usually means requoting, not just adding a line.
What we check,
and what arrives with the parts.
Inspection is only useful if you know what was measured and what was not. Ask for anything on the right at quotation and it comes with the shipment; ask at dispatch and it delays it.
Inspección
With the shipment
How to write a tolerance, a datum or a finish callout so it means the same thing to both of us is covered in our specification library.
Lee la guía →Where your part
gets made.
Six material routes, each with its own page showing the parts we have actually cut in it, what we can hold, and what to tell us. If you are not sure which one your part belongs to, send it anyway — sorting that out is our job, not yours.
Every machine on the floor, what it reaches and what it puts out per day is listed on the home page. Company background is on acerca de nosotros.
We publish how to write
the drawing we quote from.
Eighty articles by the people who cut the parts. If you want a faster quote and fewer questions, these are the ones that pay for themselves.
Start at step one.
Six things make the difference between a quote tomorrow and a quote next week. You do not need all six to write to us — but the more of them you have, the faster this goes.
- Modelo 3D STEP / IGES
- Plano acotado PDF
- Material, or what it must survive o pregúntanos
- Cantidad y volumen de repetición obligatorio
- Which fits actually matter si los hay
- Finish and any certificates si los hay