Guides / For Machine Shops

Pricing Your First Keyboard Case Enquiry

September 25, 2026

You have an enquiry for two hundred aluminium keyboard cases. Your estimating sheet asks for material, cycle time, setups and tolerance, and every one of those answers looks easy. That is the trap.

A keyboard case is a cosmetic part with ordinary tolerances, which is the inverse of most contract work. If you price it the way you price a bracket, you will win the job and lose money on it.

What your sheet is not asking

The finishing pass is not the roughing pass. The surface a buyer holds three inches from their face needs a slower, lighter finishing pass than the same geometry would need on a functional part. That time is real and it is not in a standard cycle estimate.

Handling is a cost. Between operations, a cosmetic part cannot go in a tote with other parts. It needs separation, soft contact and an operator who has been told why. That discipline costs a few seconds per part and saves you far more.

Scrap is not a rounding error. On a fine blasted anodised case, a scratch found after finishing means a new part from raw stock. There is no rework. Whatever your normal scrap allowance is, this work wants more, and you should quote an overage rather than absorb it.

Finishing has a batch minimum. Your anodiser charges for a load whether you fill it or not. On a run of fifty that batch term can be a third of the finished cost, and it does not scale with quantity the way machining does.

Quote it as five lines, not one

Buyers in this niche compare quotes line by line because we tell them to. A single number invites the assumption that it is padded. Break it out:

1. Machining per unit, at the quantities they asked for.
2. Finishing per unit, plus the batch term stated separately.
3. Tooling and fixtures, one time, itemised.
4. Prototype, priced on its own and clearly not at the production rate.
5. Packing, because cases arrive scratched when they are packed like castings.

A shop that gives that breakdown reads as competent before the numbers are even compared. A shop that gives one number reads as either careless or hopeful.

Price the cosmetic standard, or refuse to price without one

This is the single most important line in this article.

If the enquiry says “flawless finish” and nothing else, you have been asked to price something with no inspection method. You have three options and only one of them is good.

You can pad the quote heavily, and probably lose the job. You can agree, ship, and have the argument in month five with nothing written down. Or you can go back and ask for a written standard: viewing distance, lighting, zones and defect limits.

Asking is the right answer and it is also good business development. Very few shops ask, so the ones that do stand out immediately, and the buyer learns something useful from the question. If the customer does not have a standard, point them at a template and let them fill it in. You will get a better specified job and a cheaper one to deliver.

Zone the part before you price it

Not every surface deserves the same effort. A case has surfaces a buyer looks at constantly, surfaces they see occasionally and surfaces nobody ever sees.

If the drawing does not zone the part, zone it yourself in your quote and say so: “priced with the top, front and sides to a primary cosmetic standard, the underside and rear relaxed, internal pockets functional only”. You have just told the customer you understand the part, and you have protected yourself from being held to a mirror finish on a gasket shelf.

Count the setups out loud

When you return the quote, state how many setups the part takes and what drives that number.

It costs you a sentence. It does two things. It proves somebody looked at the geometry rather than running a volume estimate, and it very often starts a conversation about a feature the designer did not know was expensive. Designers in this niche are usually one or two people who will happily change a model to save money, which is not true of most industrial customers.

That conversation is how a first enquiry becomes a repeat customer.

The date is part of the specification

These runs have public ship dates and buyers who have already paid. That makes the schedule as real as the drawing.

Quote three dates, not one: prototype lead time, production lead time, and finishing lead time separately. The third one matters most because it is the one you control least, and a customer who sees you have asked your anodiser will trust the other two.

Then hold to it, or say no. An honest refusal of a date in week one is worth more to these customers than a low price they cannot ship against.

The prototype is not a loss leader

Almost every one of these jobs should start with one machined and anodised sample. Price it at what it actually costs, which is the whole setup block divided by one part.

Shops discount prototypes to win work and then discover the customer changes the model twice. Charge properly, and make clear the prototype is made the production way, with the same alloy, blast, colour and setups. That is what makes it worth what you are charging.

What this work is worth

Piece counts are small, usually 50 to 500. Values are reasonable because the parts are finished and specified rather than raw. Customers are one or two people who answer email quickly and who talk to each other constantly.

That last point is the real economics of this niche. It is a small community with public forums, and a shop that delivers a run on time gets named. So does one that does not.

Quote it properly, ask for the cosmetic standard, and the second job is easier than the first. If you would like requests that already come with a spec, see what we look for.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Should Your Shop Run Anodising In House?
• Why Your Anodiser Decides Whether You Keep This Work