Home / For shops / What we look for
The Bar, Written Plainly
So you can decide whether this work fits your floor before you fill anything in. We would rather you self select out than register and find the requests are wrong for you.
There is no certification requirement. This is consumer hardware, not a regulated industry, and we are not going to ask you to claim a standard that has nothing to do with the risk in the job.
What the work actually is
Read this part carefully. It is where most general machine shops discover the job is not what they assumed.
- Cosmetic, not functionalA keyboard case is a surface before it is a part. A witness mark on a chamfer scraps a case that measures perfectly. If your quality conversation is entirely about dimensions, this work will surprise you.
- Tolerances are ordinaryPlus or minus 0.1 mm across most of the part, with four or five features tighter. If you hold five microns on aerospace work, the dimensional side of this is comfortable.
- The finish decides the jobBlast grit, anodising batch and colour repeatability across lots. More runs go wrong here than anywhere else, and buyers ask about it before they ask about price.
- Quantities are 50 to 500Plus a prototype first, almost always. Small in piece count, reasonable in value because the parts are finished and specified.
- Dates are publicThese buyers have taken money from a few hundred people against a published ship date. A missed date costs them refunds and a reputation, so honesty about schedule is worth more here than a low price.
The six things we ask about
None of them is a certificate. All of them are what a keyboard run actually needs.
Cosmetic experience
Parts a person holds and looks at, finished, not brackets that go inside a machine. Tell us what you have made and roughly how many runs.
A finishing route you control
In house, or a named finisher you have used for years who will batch a top and bottom together and repeat a colour six months later.
Work envelope
A TKL or full size case needs the travel. Give us your largest so we never send you a request your machines cannot hold.
A realistic overage
Cosmetic scrap is normal. A number means experience. "Exactly what you order" tells us you have not run this work at volume.
Dates you will defend
Including your finisher's queue, quoted separately. We would rather hear a no in week one than a slip in month three.
Confidentiality
You sign an NDA when the designer asks, before files move, and you do not show an unreleased design to anyone.
What will get you passed over
Not to be harsh. These are the answers that reliably predict a run going wrong, and we would rather say so here than waste your time later.
- "Flawless, no problem"Nobody who has finished cosmetic aluminium at volume says this. It tells us the cosmetic standard has not been priced, which means the price is wrong and the argument is coming.
- A vague answer about finishingIf you cannot name who anodises your parts, you cannot control the step where most of these runs fail.
- A three week quote including finishingPossible for machining. Not possible for machining plus a prototype round plus an anodising batch. It means the finisher has not been asked.
- Agreeing to everythingA shop that declines a date it cannot hold and tells a designer a feature is expensive is worth more to us than one that says yes to every line. Agreement is free, delivery is not.
What you get
Plainly, because a lead source that is vague about its terms is a lead source with a reason to be vague.
- Previews before you payPart, alloy, size envelope, quantity, tolerance, finish and date, with the buyer's identity hidden and the lead price shown.
- Pay per request takenNo subscription. No commission on the order you win. Pass on anything that does not fit, at no cost.
- Up to 3 shops per requestWe do not blast a drawing to a list. A buyer who gets fifteen quotes stops answering, and a shop quoting against fourteen others stops taking us seriously.
- The relationship is yoursYou get the designer's details and files and deal with them directly. We never sit in the middle of a quote, an order or a payment.
- Requests filtered to your floorMatched on envelope, materials and the finishes you can actually deliver, not on a keyword.
Questions shops ask first
We machine aerospace parts. Is keyboard work a step down?
It is a different job, not an easier one. Your tolerances are almost certainly tighter than a keyboard needs. What a keyboard needs is a surface a person will hold three inches from their eyes, and a colour that repeats across two anodising batches six months apart. Plenty of shops that hold five microns have never had to do that.
We do not have anodising in house. Does that rule us out?
No. Most shops do not. What matters is whether you have a named finisher you have worked with long enough to batch parts together and repeat a colour, rather than whoever answered the phone that week.
Are these small orders?
Most sit between 50 and 500 units, with a prototype first. They are small in piece count and reasonable in value because the parts are cosmetic and the finishing is specified.
Do we have to take every request?
No. You see a preview and the lead price and decide. Passing on requests costs you nothing and does not change what you are sent next, other than teaching us what fits you.
What do you do with our capability information?
We use it to match requests. We do not publish your name on this site, we do not sell your details and we do not list you in a directory. Buyers learn who you are when you take a request and contact them.
Sound like your floor?
Registration takes about five minutes and we reply within 24 business hours. You can also just email and ask.