QuotedPartCost guides · Updated 2026-10-30
What should a shop charge per hour for 5-axis machine time?
Price one of your own parts: Drop a STEP model or PDF drawing — about 90 seconds, no account.
Your part priced in about 90 seconds, no account.
A 5-axis rate should come from the machine's actual burden and billed utilization. This example changes the machine package, floor space, operator coverage, and overhead in the pure rate calculator, then prices a reference bracket through the 5-axis engine route. It does not present a copied market range as fact.
See how QuotedPart connects to your workflow with its API, MCP server, autonomous quoting and shop-specific learning.
The expensive line is not the whole rate
The example uses a $420,000 machine package, ten-year payback, 400 square feet, 25 kW, and $28,000 annual upkeep. Those inputs produce a break-even billed-hour cost after dividing by 65% utilization; profit is added only at the final line.
A shop with a lease, different power draw, or shared operator should change those fields. The rate calculator is useful because it shows which assumption moves the answer instead of hiding it in a single hourly constant.
- Use the installed machine cost, not list price.
- Include probing, coolant, and service in upkeep.
- Review billed utilization against dispatch data.
Compare the rate with a 3-axis route
The same bracket can be priced on a 3-axis VMC and the 5-axis route. A higher 5-axis hourly number can still be economical when it removes re-fixturing, datum recovery, or a separate operation. The pricing model route table makes that trade visible for the stated geometry.
Do not set a 5-axis rate by adding an arbitrary percentage to a 3-axis rate. Machine ownership, tooling, labor, and utilization are different inputs.
- Measure setup reduction on real jobs.
- Price workholding and probing explicitly.
- Keep the rejected route as a sanity check.
Use the rate in a quote
A rate is only one input to a customer price. The part still needs a measured cycle, stock cost, inspection, outside process, and markup policy. Show the buyer the route and quantity assumptions so the 5-axis premium has a concrete reason.
The numbers here are illustrative and dated with the page. Recalculate after a financing change, a second shift, or a material utilization change.
- Separate break-even from profit rate.
- Document machine and operator coverage.
- Update the model when utilization changes.
Use the result as an estimator's starting point
For this 5-axis cnc hourly rate: build-up from machine cost and utilization example, an estimator can challenge every 5-axis cnc milling input. Replace this fictional geometry with the customer's STEP file or drawing, then replace the catalog stock price, work-center rate, setup minutes, and markup with the shop's current 5-axis mill values.
Keep the lot setup visible when you send this quote for 5-axis cnc hourly rate: build-up from machine cost and utilization. Confirm stock form, material condition, tolerances, inspection, deburr, and outside-process timing before promising a ship date. If one of those inputs changes, rerun the calculation and show the buyer what moved.
- Show both unit and lot totals.
- Label illustrative values clearly.
- Have the estimator review access, tooling, and first-piece risk.
Illustrative 5-axis rate build-up from US shop assumptions
- • Material: Aluminum 6061-T6; the US catalog input is $9.50/lb and machinability 1.00 relative to 6061-T6.
- • Process: 5-axis CNC milling; the pricing model includes CAM programming, 12 toolpaths, Mill 5-axis, 2 setups, Deburr, Inspect and calculates the quantities shown.
- • Geometry: 4 × 3 × 1 in; Fictional 4 × 3 × 1 in prismatic reference part. Two mill setups are inferred from the top and side features.
- • Markup: 30% catalog default. Taxes, freight, customer-specific rates, and unlisted outside services are excluded.
- • No external published rate range is asserted; the page is a transparent rate model that a shop should replace with its own invoices and utilization.
- • Every dollar and minute in the table is a reproducible example from the stated inputs, not a market average or supplier promise.
| Rate line | Annual amount | Billed-hour share |
|---|---|---|
| Machine payments and interest | $56700.00 | $43.62/h |
| Floor space | $4800.00 | $3.69/h |
| Power | $4550.00 | $3.50/h |
| Service, coolant and tooling | $28000.00 | $21.54/h |
| Operator, with taxes and benefits | $93600.00 | $72.00/h |
| Share of shop overhead | $55000.00 | $42.31/h |
| Total cost | $242650.00 | $186.65/h |
| With stated profit | — | $214.65/h |
Sources and limits
Claims are dated where they can change. Product calculations are examples from the stated inputs, not a promise about a customer's quote. Competitor wording is attributed to the source shown.
- The numerical table is computed at build time from the stated geometry, catalog inputs, and shop-rate assumptions.
Questions
Is this a guaranteed 6061-t6 aluminum quote?
No. It is a transparent estimating example. Replace the example inputs with the customer's drawing, stock quote, current shop rates, and inspection or finish requirements.
Why does quantity change the unit price?
Setup and programming are lot costs. The pricing calculation spreads those costs across the stated quantity and keeps the per-part run time and material inputs visible.
Price one of your own parts
Drop a PDF drawing or a STEP file. QuotedPart reads the print, measures the model and prices it in seconds, on default shop rates you can change.
Your STEP file or PDF drawingDrop a PDF drawing, a STEP file or both
Free. No account, no email. Priced at our default US rates until you set yours.
Related QuotedPart guides
Cost guides
3-axis CNC milling cost per hour: build the rate from inputs
See a transparent 3-axis VMC hourly-rate build-up for a small US shop, plus an engine-priced milling example with every assumption visible.
Cost guides
5-axis versus 3-axis machining cost at three quantities
Compare the same reference part on a $95/hour 3-axis VMC and a $145/hour 5-axis mill, including setup, cycle, quote, and lead time.
Cost guides
How to price large machined parts: one base scaled ×2 and ×4, with crane time and a big-machine rate
Scaling a steel base from 6 × 4 in to 24 × 16 in takes the price from $521 to $1,871 for one. Hoist setup, handling minutes, tool changes and a $150/h large machine priced step by step.
Cost guides
Sheet metal shop hourly rates by work center
A transparent laser, brake, weld, bench and inspection rate card with operation math and a mixed-routing example at one, ten and 100 parts.