CNC Quote Builder

What this tool does

CM8-02 builds a machining quotation for one part at multiple quantity breaks. You enter the operations, material, outsourced processes and one-off tooling; the tool amortizes fixed costs across each quantity, applies overhead and your target margin, and produces a cost breakdown, a CSV export and a clean printable quotation sheet.

Everything runs inside this single HTML file. No installation, no account, no network requests — your rates, customers and prices never leave your computer.

The cost model

• Setup is fully attended: while a machinist sets a machine, both the machine and the labour hour are consumed, so setup uses machine rate + full labour rate.
• Cycle labour is scaled by attended %: at 100% an operator stands at the machine; at 25% one operator tends four machines; 0% is lights-out running (machine rate only).
• Overhead covers rent, utilities, programming amortization, quality, consumables and admin not already in your hourly rates. If your machine rates are fully burdened, set overhead to 0.

Entering operations

• Add one row per work centre visit: e.g. Sawing → Milling op 1 → Milling op 2 → Deburring → Inspection.
• Setup minutes: fixturing, tool loading, program proving, first-article. Charged once per lot.
• Cycle minutes: floor-to-floor time per piece including load/unload, not just cut time.
• Inspection and deburring are usually labour-only: set the machine rate to 0 (or a bench rate) and keep the labour rate.
• Programming can be entered as an operation with setup minutes only, or as a tooling line if you charge it as a fixed NRE amount.

Why unit price falls with quantity

Setup, per-lot outsourcing charges and tooling are fixed per lot. At quantity 1 the part carries all of them; at 250 they are divided 250 ways. The quantity-break table makes this visible: the “Setup (amortized)” and “Tooling / fixtures” rows shrink as quantity grows while material and cycle cost stay constant. This is the honest way to show a customer why 50 pieces cost far less each than 5.

Margin vs. markup

This tool uses margin on selling price: at 25% margin, a $75 cost sells for $100 and the margin is 25% of the price. Markup is the same dollar figure expressed on cost (33.3% markup in this example). The two are related by:

• Margin on price — Equivalent markup on cost
• 10% — 11.1%
• 20% — 25.0%
• 25% — 33.3%
• 30% — 42.9%
• 40% — 66.7%
• 50% — 100%

Typical planning rates

Every shop differs — these are only sanity-check ranges for fully burdened machine rates in North American job shops. Use your own accounting figures for real quotes.

• Work centre — Typical rate / hour
• 3-axis vertical mill — 60 – 95
• 5-axis mill / mill-turn — 95 – 150
• CNC lathe (2-axis) — 55 – 85
• Wire EDM — 70 – 120
• Surface / cylindrical grinding — 65 – 110
• Bench (deburr, assembly) — 0 machine + 25 – 45 labour
• CMM inspection — 60 – 100

Saving your work

• Autosave: the whole quote is kept in this browser's local storage (when allowed) and restored when you reopen the file. The indicator in the toolbar shows the last save time.
• Save: writes to local storage on demand and flashes Saved ✓ with the time — use it before closing the tab if you want to be certain.
• Export .json: a portable project file containing every input — archive it with the job or send it to a colleague using the same tool.
• Export CSV: the full quantity-break breakdown for spreadsheets and ERPs.
• Print Report: builds a dedicated quotation document — header, executive summary tiles, price schedule, the three analysis charts, cost build-up, your notes and the validity statement — and sends it to the browser print dialog, where you can save it as PDF. The report is rebuilt from current inputs every time, so it never prints stale numbers.
• Report header fields: the report title, company, prepared-by and notes fields at the top of the builder are what appear on the printed quotation, and they are stored with the project.