Most people want a price before they want anything else, and custom work makes that hard to give. A great deal of what we make is one of a kind, so there’s no catalog page to flip to and no sticker on the side of the box.
What follows is what we’re weighing when we put a number together.
The Short Version
- Complexity moves the price more than anything else. Bends, welds, and tight tolerances cost more than material does.
- Per-piece pricing starts improving around ten pieces. Below that, setup gets spread thin.
- Short runs carry a fixed finishing charge. This is the one that surprises people most.
- Powder coat is the economical finish. Custom plating is the expensive one.
- Two swaps often bring a quote down: tubing instead of solid stock, and stainless instead of chrome plating.
- Sending dimensions won’t lower your price, but it will shorten your timeline.
- Lead times run two to ten weeks, depending on how complex and how large the project is.
- An overseas quote may beat ours on unit price, but that number leaves out quality, shipping, and timing.
Complexity Matters More Than Material
People assume the metal is the expensive part. Usually it isn’t, because what drives the number up is how much has to happen to that metal before it becomes the thing you drew.
Say we cut two pieces from the same length of steel. One gets trimmed to length and finished. The other gets bent at three angles, welded to two other components, ground so the joints disappear under a finish, and held to a tolerance that leaves no room to wander. Their material cost is nearly identical, and the second one can price out at several times the first.
Every bend, weld, and ground-flush joint adds setup and hands-on time at the bench, and that time is most of what you’re paying for.
Size works the same way. A larger piece needs more material handling, more fixturing to hold it steady, and sometimes more than one person working on it at once, which is why a big simple part can come in higher than a small complicated one.
Where Quantity Starts Working in Your Favor
Around ten pieces, per-piece pricing starts to come down.
The reason is setup. Before anything gets made, someone has to program, fixture, and dial in the process, and that work happens once whether you order three pieces or three hundred. Across three parts, the cost is obvious. Spread over three hundred, it disappears into the per-piece price.
If you’re on the fence between ordering five now and five more in six months, ask us to price it both ways. The combined run sometimes saves enough to decide for you.
The One That Surprises People: The Finishing Charge
Short runs carry a fixed finishing charge, and it’s the line we end up explaining more than any other. Running a finish process has costs that don’t change based on how many pieces go through it, so whether we’re finishing three or thirty, some of that cost stays the same. On a small order, it lands on fewer parts, which makes it a bigger share of your total.
If your quantity has any give in it, ask about this one before you finalize anything.
Finishes Range From Economical To Expensive
Powder coat is the most affordable option and the one most projects use. It’s durable, comes in a wide range of colors, and holds up to heavy use in commercial settings.
While custom plating adds a richer finish appearance, it is a more costly process. Chrome, brass, and specialty plated finishes go through outside processors with their own minimums and schedules, and that shows up in both the price and the lead time.
Between those two there’s room to work, and the right choice usually depends on where the piece is going to live and what it has to stand up to.
Two Swaps That Often Save Money
Tubing Instead of Solid Stock
A lot of designs call for solid material when tubing would do the same job. Solid tends to add weight and cost without adding anything you can see or anything the piece needs to hold up. If you send us a design with solid stock in it, don’t be surprised when we ask whether tubing would work. Often it does.
Stainless Instead of Chrome
When you ask us for chrome, especially for lower-volume orders, we’ll probably ask what you’re going for. When the answer is a bright, corrosion-resistant metal look, stainless can get you there without the added cost of a custom plating step, and most people can’t tell the two apart once the piece is installed.
Both swaps show up on the quote without changing how the finished piece looks.
What To Send Us & What It Does for You
Send prints, a photo, or a drawing with dimensions. Whatever you have on hand.
Better documentation won’t lower your price, though it will shorten your timeline. With dimensions in front of us, we can price a project quickly, and without them we’re trading emails and asking questions before anything can be quoted at all.
Sketches and napkins count. Nobody needs a finished CAD package to start a conversation with us, but the sooner we know how big your project is, the sooner you get a number.
Lead times generally run two to ten weeks, and where you land depends on how complex the project is and how large.
About That Overseas Quote
We lose jobs on price sometimes. An overseas unit price can beat ours, and on simple parts at high volume that math works out fine.
What it leaves out is quality, shipping cost, and timing. We hear about all three when customers come back. Sometimes it’s a first article that didn’t match what they ordered, and sometimes it’s a schedule that slipped past what their own project could absorb.
Other times people show up holding parts they’ve already paid for that aren’t what they wanted. We do a fair amount of that work, correcting fit, reworking welds, and refinishing pieces so they can be used. It costs money that never appeared on the original quote.
For a simple part at high volume, overseas may be the right call. When the piece has to match a design and arrive on a date someone already promised a client, the unit price is only part of what you’ll spend.
Ready for a Number?
Send us what you’ve got. A print, a sketch with dimensions, or a photo of something close to what you’re picturing, plus how many you need and where the piece is going.
We’ll come back with a detailed, line-item quote within 48 hours. If we spot a way to bring that number down, we’ll tell you, whether or not you asked.
