CNC: CNC machining – is scrap getting you money ?
Do you ever include the scrap cost in your calculations of machining cost ? Sometimes the money that you make from selling scrap can be more than the machining cost, typically for expensive metals. I’ve heard of a weird situation where a job shop paid the customer to turn parts, instead of being paid.
This picture is a screen shot from Cadem CAPSturn, showing actual machining costs for a part being machined in a job shop that uses CAPSturn. The negative machining cost indicates that more money is made from selling scrap than has been spent on machining. If you’re a job shop and are quoting for a part with a lot of material to be removed, your quote MUST take into account how much money you’ll be making by selling the scrap. Else your quote will be higher than it can be, which means you might lose out to a competitor.
Action point
Calculating the machining time, machining cost and scrap cost can be a challenge, but a lot of people do this using spreadsheets and formulae. You can do this, or you can depend on a shop floor programming software like CAPSturn CNC lathe programming software that does this for you – it is a very easy to use and affordable CAD/CAM software. Either way, please do consider this important element of machining cost.
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