Traveler

Machine Shop Quote Calculator

Setup, cycle time, material, outside processing and margin in — a price at every quantity break out, with the break-even traps flagged and a clean customer quote you can print. Defaults are the worked example from our quantity-break post. Need parts per bar first? Use the bar stock calculator. Runs in your browser — nothing leaves this page.

Job inputs

Material priced

Whole bars are charged to the job. Get parts per bar →

Price at each break

QtySetupRunMaterialOPUnit costUnit priceExtended
1$380.00$14.25$203.001 bar$0.00$597.25$918.85$918.85
10$38.00$14.25$20.301 bar$0.00$72.55$111.62$1,116.20
25$15.20$14.25$8.121 bar$0.00$37.57$57.80$1,445.00
50$7.60$14.25$8.122 bars$0.00$29.97$46.11$2,305.50
100$3.80$14.25$8.124 bars$0.00$26.17$40.26$4,026.00

All figures per part except Extended. Unit price = unit cost ÷ (1 − margin).

  • ⚠ At the 10-pc price ($111.62), an order below 6 pcs loses money — price orders at the break they actually hit.
  • ⚠ At the 25-pc price ($57.80), an order below 14 pcs loses money — price orders at the break they actually hit.
  • ⚠ At the 50-pc price ($46.11), an order below 19 pcs loses money — price orders at the break they actually hit.
  • ⚠ At the 100-pc price ($40.26), an order below 31 pcs loses money — price orders at the break they actually hit.

Where the money goes at 25 pcs

Setup
$380.0026%
Run time
$356.2525%
Material
$203.0014%
Outside processing
$0.000%
Total cost
$939.2565%
Margin
$505.7535%

Percentages are of the $1,445.00 lot price. At low quantities setup and a mostly unused bar dominate; past the point where setup is a small share, only cycle-time improvements move the price.

Customer quote

Fill these in and print. The printout shows prices per break only — never your cost build-up.

Traveler is being built to do this on every quote.

Traveler, our quoting and shop management software for small machine shops, is being built to price quantity breaks from the routing automatically, show your last material buys inline, and feed actual setup and run hours from past jobs into the next quote of the same part. It's pre-launch — this calculator is the part you can use today. See the quote template guide for what else belongs on a quote.

Straight answers

▸How do you calculate quantity break pricing for a machined part?

For each break: setup cost divided by quantity, plus run cost per part (cycle time × shop rate), plus material per part based on the whole bars you buy, plus outside processing. That is the unit cost; divide by (1 − margin) for the unit price. Setup drives the difference at low quantities, run time at high ones.

▸Is margin the same as markup?

No. This calculator uses margin on price: a 35% margin means cost ÷ 0.65, so 35% of the selling price is margin. A 35% markup (cost × 1.35) only yields about a 26% margin.

▸Why is material charged by the whole bar?

Because you buy bars, not parts. At 27 parts per bar, a 10-piece job still consumes a full bar, so the drop is real cost. Charging bar price ÷ parts per bar gives the remainder away on every job unless you reliably reuse remnants.

▸What does the break-even warning mean?

If a customer orders fewer pieces than the break they were quoted, setup and whole-bar material spread over fewer parts. The warning shows the quantity below which that break's unit price no longer covers cost, so you can state on the quote that pricing follows the quantity actually ordered.