Guides / Cost

Where the Money Goes in a Machined Keyboard Case

September 21, 2026

A keyboard case quote is not one number. It is machining time, material, finishing, tooling and a risk allowance, and when a price surprises you it is nearly always one of those five that you were not thinking about. Here is what each one is doing.

You buy the block, not the case

A machined case starts as a solid billet and most of it ends up as chips. A 65 percent top case can begin as a piece of 6061 weighing eight to twelve kilograms and ship at a little over a kilogram. You pay for the whole block, and you pay for the spindle hours it takes to remove the rest.

This is why pocketing depth matters more to your price than the outline does. A design that hollows out aggressively takes longer to cut than one that leaves material where nobody sees it. It is also why aluminium price movements show up in case quotes faster than people expect.

Every setup is a fixture and a risk

A part that can be cut in three setups is cheaper than the same part cut in five, and not only because of the machine time. Each flip needs a fixture or a set of soft jaws, each fixture is designed and machined, and each one is another chance to lose alignment on a part where alignment is visible.

Shops price this before they price cutting. If two quotes for the same model are far apart, the usual reason is that one shop sees a three setup job and the other sees a five setup job. Ask them. The answer often tells you something about your model.

Cycle time and the machines it needs

A three axis mill will make most keyboard cases. Five axis makes some of them faster and some of them possible, particularly cases with angled faces or undercuts. Five axis time costs more per hour but can collapse several setups into one, which is why the cheaper machine does not always give the cheaper part.

Feeds and speeds on a cosmetic surface are slower than on a functional one. The finishing pass that leaves no visible tool mark is not the same pass that removes metal quickly, and it is a real part of the hour count.

Finishing has a batch, not a unit

Anodising is where the price curve bends. The tank has a minimum. Racking, blasting, dyeing and sealing take roughly the same setup whether you send fifty cases or two hundred. That is the main reason a run of two hundred can cost much less per unit than a run of fifty, and why quoting a per unit price without a quantity is meaningless.

A second finish means a second vendor. A brass weight that gets PVD coated is a separate shipment, a separate queue and a separate date that can slip on its own. Every added vendor adds cost and, more importantly, adds schedule risk.

Cosmetic scrap is priced in whether you discuss it or not

On a fine blasted anodised case, a scratch discovered after finishing is not reworkable. The part goes back to raw stock. Shops know their scrap rate on this work and they build it into the price.

The tighter your cosmetic standard, the larger that allowance. This is worth being deliberate about. “No visible marks at arm’s length under office lighting” is a standard a shop can price. “Flawless” is not, and what you get for it is a higher number and an argument later.

Tolerance you did not need

A blanket tolerance of plus or minus 0.05 mm across a whole case makes every feature expensive, including the ones where half a millimetre would have been fine. It forces slower passes, more inspection and more scrap.

Pick the features that actually matter. On a gasket mount case that is usually the gasket shelf, the plate pocket, the screw pattern and the port cutouts. Everything else can run at a normal block tolerance. This single change can move a quote more than any material substitution.

Tooling and first article

Fixtures, soft jaws and any custom tooling are usually quoted as a one time cost. That is good news on a repeat run and bad news if you are comparing a first run quote against a friend’s second run price for a similar board.

Ask whether the tooling cost is separated out, and ask what a repeat run of the same case would cost with the tooling already paid for. If you expect a round two, that second number is the one that matters.

What actually moves the price

If you want a cheaper case, in rough order of how much each one moves the number:

1. Raise the quantity into the next finishing batch.
2. Cut the number of setups in the model.
3. Loosen every tolerance that is not load bearing.
4. Stay with one material and one finishing route.
5. Reduce pocketing depth where nobody will see it.
6. Give the shop a longer, realistic date.

Changing the alloy usually moves less than people hope, unless you are moving away from 7075 or titanium.

Compare quotes on the same basis

Ask every shop for the same breakdown: machining, finishing, tooling, prototype, packing and freight, at two quantities. Quotes that look wildly different on one line usually agree closely once the lines are matched up, and the differences that remain are the ones worth asking about.

This is one part of our guide to keyboard case manufacturing cost, which adds freight, duty and the retail price.

When your model and your quantity are settled, send the files through the RFQ form and we will put them in front of shops that price this work regularly.

Frequently asked questions

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