Subtractive · Live
CNC turning quote software: lathe and mill-turn pricing
Price CNC turning from a STEP model: bar stock, the turned profile, bores, parting and off-axis work. Parts that are not mostly round go to review.
- Process
- CNC turning
- Family
- Subtractive
- Input
- STEP, mesh (reviewed)
- Status
- Live
The price follows the physics.
A turned part is priced from its bar and its profile. The stock is the next bar diameter that holds the largest radius, cut to length with an allowance for facing and parting off. Cycle time comes from roughing and finishing the outside profile, boring the inside, then grooves, threads and knurls. Anything off the axis, a cross hole or a flat, is live-tool time on a mill-turn or a second operation on a mill. With a bar feeder there is no blank to saw and nothing to load by hand, which is what makes long runs cheap.
- 01
Bar stock
The diameter and length of bar consumed per part, including the facing and parting allowance.
- 02
Profile cycle time
Outside roughing and finishing and inside boring, depending on the material and the depth of the profile.
- 03
Off-axis features
Cross holes, flats and slots need live tooling or a second operation on a mill.
- 04
Threads, grooves and knurls
Each is a separate tool and a separate pass.
- 05
Set-up and programming
Fixed per batch, so they dominate short runs.
- 06
Bar-fed or chucked
A bar feeder takes the sawing and hand loading out of every part, which is where long turned runs get cheap.
Measured from the file. Priced on your machines.
Measured from the geometry
- How much of the part is turned. A part below your turnable share, 0.85 in the shipped configuration, goes to review with a suggestion to mill it.
- Largest diameter and length. Give the bar: the next standard diameter that holds the part with its allowance, and the length plus facing and parting.
- The outside profile and the bores. Roughing and finishing of the outside, and boring of the inside at its slower rate; deep bores warn.
- Off-axis features. Cross holes and flats are priced on live tooling, or as a second operation when the lathe has none.
- Slenderness, smallest diameter and wall thickness. Long thin parts, very small diameters and thin tubes carry a warning.
Configured by you
- Turnable above and standard bar diameters. Which parts are quoted as turned, and the bar sizes you buy, with the diameter and facing allowances and the parting width.
- Bar feeder capacity, live tooling and sub-spindle. Per lathe: a bar feeder removes blank sawing and hand loading, live tooling cuts off-axis features in the same set-up, and a sub-spindle saves the second operation.
- Live-tool rate and second operation factor. How off-axis work is timed, with live tools and without them.
- Tolerance classes, surface finishes and threads a buyer may count. The same quality rows as milling, with review where you mark it.
- Roughing rate, finishing rate and boring rate. Per material and per lathe, calibratable against jobs you have run.
- Programming per part and per operation, set-up per set-up and sawing a blank. Charged once per design, once per lot and once per part.
What your buyer sees
- Material, tolerance class, surface finish and a thread count, with knurling, concentricity, finishes and inspection reports as options in the shipped configuration; concentricity goes to review.
- From a STEP file, an instant price; from a mesh, an estimate that goes to your review.
- Quantity breaks as programming and set-ups spread over the run.
- A review instead of a lathe price when the part is not really a turned part, with a suggestion to mill it.
Set-up and programming are paid once; after that each part costs its bar and its cycle time. With a bar feeder the blank sawing and hand loading per part disappear as well, which is why long turned runs can be very cheap per part.
Typical materials
- Free-machining brass
- Free-machining steel
- Stainless steel 303 and 316L
- Aluminium 6061 and 6082
- Alloy steels
- Titanium
- POM (acetal)
- PEEK
Typical parts
- Shafts, pins and spacers
- Bushings and sleeves
- Threaded fittings and connectors
- Valve and hydraulic components
- Small precision parts on Swiss-type lathes
Estimate: the shop confirms this price before the order is final, as its template asks.
Estimate: the shop confirms this price before the order is final, as its template asks.
Both priced by the real engine for the sample shaft against the CNC turning job shop template that ships with Quotometry.
Pricing cnc turning, in depth
CNC milling vs turning: which process for which part
Milling moves a spinning cutter over a fixed part; turning spins the part against a fixed tool. How to tell which one a part needs, and what it does to the price.
Knowledge baseWhat drives CNC machining cost, and how estimators work it out
Stock, set-ups, programming, cycle time, tooling, tolerances and finishing: how a CNC estimate is built, with a worked example for one part at two batch sizes.
Knowledge baseSet-up time in CNC: the hidden cost in small batches
Why one CNC part can cost ten times a part from a batch of a hundred: set-up and programming explained, with a unit cost table from 1 to 100 parts.
CNC turning quoting, answered
Can I quote CNC turning with Quotometry today?
Yes. CNC turning prices end to end in the widget, on 2-axis lathes, lathes with live tooling and sub-spindles, and Swiss-types set up as small-bar lathes. A STEP file prices instantly; a mesh goes to your review with lower confidence. Hex and square bar are not modelled: the stock is round bar, charged by weight per part.
What is a mill-turn part?
A part that is mostly rotational but has features off the axis: cross holes, flats or slots. On a lathe with live tooling those are cut in the same set-up at the live-tool rate; on a plain lathe they are priced as a second operation, at the lathe’s rate times your second operation factor. Quotometry prices whichever route your lathes allow.
Does Quotometry tell a buyer a part should be milled?
It does not price it on a lathe. A part counts as turned when a lathe can make at least the share of its surface you set, 0.85 in the shipped configuration. A part below it goes to your review, flagged as not turnable with a suggestion to mill it, so the buyer is not given a turning price for a part a lathe cannot make.
How does bar size affect the price?
The stock is the next standard bar that holds the largest diameter plus your allowance, so a part a fraction of a millimetre over a standard size jumps to the next bar and turns the difference into chips. The bar diameters you configure decide the sizes available, and the facing allowance and parting width add to the length.
Other subtractive processes
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