Pricing a Machined Weldment Without Guessing
Weldment estimating has a reputation for being an art. It is not. It is two estimates that get added together, and most of the pain comes from treating it as one.
This is written for shops, not buyers.
Estimate the two halves separately
Weld hours scale with joint length, joint preparation, position and the acceptance level. They are labour dominated and reasonably linear once you have your own data.
Machine hours scale with setups, part handling and the tolerance being held. They are capital dominated and step shaped, not linear. One extra setup on a two tonne frame is hours before the spindle turns.
Adding them at the end is fine. Estimating them as one number is where the variance comes from, because a change that halves the welding can leave the machining untouched and vice versa.
Cost setups honestly
The most common under-estimate in this niche.
For each re-fixture on a heavy part, count: crane and slinger time, unclamping and re-clamping, packing, indicating the part back in, re-proving offsets. On a large weldment that is routinely hours, and it repeats for every setup.
Then count the tolerance consequence. Features cut in setup one and setup three are related through two re-indications. If the drawing demands they be tightly related, either you work to a tighter number in each setup or you use a slower, more accurate alignment method. Both cost, and neither appears if you estimate by cutting time.
A practical habit: write the number of setups on the estimate sheet, and write which features are in which. It makes the estimate reviewable and it gives you something to say when the buyer asks why you are dearer than the shop down the road.
Price the risk you are actually carrying
Every gap in the RFQ is risk, and it gets priced whether or not you name it. Naming it is better.
The gaps that matter most:
- No weld sizes. You will assume, and you will assume upward.
- A blanket quality level across the whole frame, where the buyer probably only needed it on six joints.
- “NDT per drawing” with no method, no welds named and no extent.
- No stress relief instruction on a part that clearly needs it.
- No machining allowance stated, so you do not know whether you are cleaning up 3 mm or 8 mm.
Put the assumptions on the quote as a short list. It costs nothing, it protects you, and buyers who know what they are doing read it as competence rather than as hedging.
Quote the fixture separately on repeat work
If the enquiry says one and you suspect it repeats, ask. If it repeats, quote the tooling as a line and drop the unit price.
Three reasons. It makes part one comparable with competitors who are doing the same. It stops you giving away the repeat margin. And it makes the ownership question explicit, which you want settled before the buyer asks for the fixture back on the day they dual source.
Know which enquiries to decline
An estimate you cannot win is a cost. So is one you win and then lose money on.
Decline when the envelope does not fit your machine, the crane cannot lift it, the tolerance is beyond what you can prove, or the certification scope is outside what you hold. Saying so within 48 hours is worth more to a serious buyer than a slow quote that was never real. It is also what gets you the next enquiry.
There is a longer version of this in when a shop should decline an RFQ.
Build the feedback loop
The single highest return improvement in weldment estimating is recording what actually happened.
Actual weld hours against estimate. Actual setups against planned. How much the part moved and how much stock you wished you had. Within a year that file is worth more than any estimating software, because it is your shop, your machines and your crew.
It is also what lets you prebend the next one correctly, which is the difference between a shop that has made the part before and one that has not.
What buyers on this site see
We ask every registering shop for machine travels, table load, crane capacity, oven size, welding processes, qualifications and which steps are subcontracted. Enquiries are matched against that, so you only see parts your machines can actually take.
Register your shop and you preview each enquiry, with the part type, material, size, weight, quality level and inspection scope, before you decide whether to pay for it. No subscription and no commission on the order.
Frequently asked questions
Why do our weldment quotes swing so much?
Usually because the estimate is built as one number rather than two. Weld hours and machine hours behave differently, scale differently and carry different risk. Estimating them separately, then adding a named risk line, makes the quote defensible and makes it obvious where you lost when you lose.
Should we price the fixture separately?
On repeat work, yes, and say so. Buyers understand tooling. Burying a fixture in the unit price makes part one look expensive and gives away the margin on the repeats, and it makes a second source look cheaper than it is.
How do we price an incomplete RFQ?
Either ask the three questions that unlock it, or quote the assumptions explicitly and list them. Quoting the worst case silently is how you lose work you would have won, and quoting the best case silently is how you win work you then lose money on.
Need a quote for this part?
Send the drawing. We match you with up to 3 shops that weld and machine it in house, and we reply within 24 business hours.
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