A customer just sent me a drawing requesting a quote. They want CNC machined parts for single pieces or samples, involving multiple steps, which increases labor costs. The material quantity might be less than 1 kg, so the customer might find the quoted price too high.

However, when they say our price is high, the reality is that the number of parts to be machined is small. Small quantities are a major headache for CNC machining operators. They arrange the process, program, debug the tooling and fixtures, select the appropriate tools, and so on—all the work is done once, and then everything is changed after each piece is finished. All the preparation work is done once.

This kind of CNC machining adds a lot of hidden costs. It might take a whole day to make one piece, and the time difference for machining dozens of parts isn’t that significant.

The manufacturing process of CNC machined parts is similar to steaming buns in a large pot. Steaming one bun requires preparing flour, kneading the dough, and heating the fire. The same steps and processes apply to steaming a whole pot of buns. A whole pot of buns doesn’t require significantly more time than one bun, so the cost of a single machined part is much higher than batch processing.

Those familiar with CNC machining understand that the unit price of a product will inevitably be higher. Most customers don’t grasp this and simply say, "It’s expensive." To these customers, we can only patiently explain that CNC machining is different from fast-moving consumer goods. Good workpieces speak for themselves through quality; this is the characteristic of CNC machining manufacturers. The relatively high price per sample is also a disadvantage for CNC machining manufacturers.

If you have future projects requiring CNC machining, please send your drawings to this email address for an evaluation and quote: info1@us.cjcncmachining.com