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What to put in a CNC machining RFQ so you get a real quote

September 18, 2026

A machine shop cannot price what it cannot see. Most quote requests that stall do not stall over price. They stall because the shop is missing one number, asks for it, waits two days for the answer, then asks for the next one. Eight lines up front turns that week into a quote.

This is the list we use when we read a request before sending it to shops in Vietnam. It works the same way wherever you are sourcing.

The eight lines

1. Geometry, in a file a programmer can open

Send a STEP file. It is neutral, every CAM system reads it and it removes the guesswork about internal features that a drawing view can hide. IGES works. A native SolidWorks or Fusion file usually does not, because the shop may not own that seat.

Send a PDF drawing with it. The model carries the shape and the drawing carries the intent: which surfaces are datums, which dimensions are critical, what finish the part needs and what standard applies. A model on its own means the shop has to assume the tolerance, and shops assume defensively.

2. Material and condition

Name the grade, not the family. “Aluminium” covers 6061, 6063 and 7075, and the price gap between them is real. Add the condition: T6, annealed, hardened and tempered to a hardness range.

Then answer the question the shop will ask anyway: can an equivalent local grade be substituted? In Vietnam, 6061 and 304 are on the shelf and a mill certificate to a specific heat is not. If your part needs traceability to a named heat, say so on line two. It changes the supplier list, not just the price.

3. Quantity, and the quantity behind it

Give the order quantity and the annual expectation. These are two different numbers and the second one does more work than the first. A shop that sees 250 pieces now and 1,000 a year will spend money on a fixture that drops your unit price. A shop that sees 250 pieces and nothing behind them will quote the setup into the order.

If you want to see how much of your price is setup, ask for the price at your quantity and at twice your quantity in the same quote.

4. Only the tolerances that matter

A blanket ±0.01 mm on every dimension is the most expensive line in most quote requests, and it is almost always an accident of the CAD template. It forces the shop to price inspection on features that do not need it.

Call out the two or three features that actually control function: the bore that takes the bearing, the face the gasket seats on, the true position between two holes. Leave the rest on a general tolerance note. If you are not sure, say what the part has to do. A shop that understands the function can tell you which dimension is doing the work.

5. Surface finish and coating

Ra value if it matters, and the coating spec if there is one: anodise type and colour, plating and thickness, passivation standard, bead blast media. Most shops subcontract coating, so this line also affects the lead time you get quoted, usually by three to seven days.

If there is no coating, write “as machined, deburred, no coating”. It stops the shop quoting a finish you never asked for.

6. A real date

Not “ASAP”. Give the date you need parts in hand, and say whether that date is a launch or a preference. A shop that knows the date is real will tell you whether it is possible instead of quoting a lead time that quietly assumes everything goes right.

7. Where the parts are going

The destination country decides the freight, the paperwork and whether the shop can ship directly at all. It also tells the shop which certificate of origin and which export documents it needs to prepare, and shops differ a lot in how comfortable they are with that.

8. What proof you want with the parts

A dimensional report on critical features, a full report, a material certificate, a first article inspection or nothing at all. Ask at the start. Paperwork quoted at the start is cheap and paperwork requested after the parts are cut is not.

The four mistakes

Sending only a photo or a sketch. A shop can tell you it is interested. It cannot tell you a price. Every number that comes back from a photo is a placeholder that will move.

Asking for a “ballpark” on a complex part. You will get one, it will be high, and it will not help. A shop protects itself when it guesses.

Hiding the quantity. Buyers sometimes hold the quantity back to avoid being upsold. It backfires. The quantity is the single biggest input to the unit price, and a shop with no quantity prices for the worst case.

Leaving the critical dimension out because it is “obvious”. Nothing is obvious across a language boundary and a time zone. Write it down.

A worked example

Here is a request a shop can quote in one pass:

6061-T6 pump bracket. STEP and PDF attached. 250 pieces now, around 1,000 a year. Four bores at ±0.02 mm, true position 0.05 mm to datum B. Everything else general ±0.1 mm. Bead blast, no anodising. Parts in hand in five weeks, destination Netherlands. Dimensional report on the four bores. Can substitute an equivalent local 6061 grade, no heat traceability needed.

Sixty seconds of typing. It contains every one of the eight lines, and a shop can come back with a price, a lead time and one question rather than five.

What to do with it

If your request now looks like that example, send it. Our request form has the eight lines built in as fields, so you do not have to remember them, and the coverage table on the home page tells you what to attach for each process.

If the quotes are already coming back and you are trying to line them up against each other, that is a different job with its own traps. It is worth reading before you pick the lowest number.

Questions we get on this

Keep reading

• What machining in Vietnam actually costs, and where the saving goes
• Minimum order quantity in machining, and why it is really a value