Guides / Quoting

Take It or Pass: Judging an RFQ Before You Pay for It

September 22, 2026

A preview is deliberately short. Eight lines, no identity, no files. That is enough to decide, and deciding fast is the point: you are not reading it to quote, you are reading it to work out whether quoting is worth your time.

Here is how to read each line.

Size and finished weight

Read these together and against your own machine, not against your ambitions.

Envelope against travel, with fixture and tool stack allowed for. Weight against the load you would accept for this tolerance, not against the plate on the machine. And weight against the crane over that machine, which is the limit most shops forget about their own floor.

If either fails, pass in ten seconds. This is the line that disqualifies most previews and it should.

Material

Two questions. Do you cut it regularly, and does its condition change the plan?

Structural steel weldment is bread and butter for most heavy shops. Thick stainless or a nickel alloy needs power, tooling and experience, and if you would be learning on the buyer’s part, that is a pass. A casting with no stated ageing history is a risk that belongs in the price, not a reason to skip.

Quantity, and whether it repeats

One piece means no fixture amortisation and all the programming on a single part. That is fine if your rate covers it, and a problem if you have priced as though it were four.

A repeat expected once or twice a year is the good outcome. It justifies a proper fixture, the second piece is faster, and it is the kind of work that fills a boring mill for years. Weight that heavily.

Tolerance

This is the line that separates a comfortable job from one that eats a week.

Ask yourself specifically: is the tolerance on a feature or on a relationship across the part? A bore to H7 is routine. Two bores coaxial within 0.05 mm across 2.4 metres is a different machine, a different sequence and possibly a different shop. See large bore machining and coaxiality and tolerance across a large part.

If the preview says the relationship is the requirement and you cannot hold it in one setup, pass.

Region

If the buyer named a region and you are outside it, the odds drop. Not to zero, because capability sometimes wins over geography on heavy parts, but do not pay for a lead where freight alone will beat you. On very heavy parts transport is a real share of the landed price.

Deadline

Check it against the machine, not against the calendar. Your boring mill is booked in days, not hours. A ten week deadline on a part that needs three weeks of your machine time is comfortable. The same deadline when the machine is full for eight weeks is not, and taking it means either disappointing this buyer or the last one.

Also check whether the deadline leaves room for an oven cycle if the part needs one.

The part description itself

Read it for what it implies rather than what it says.

“Welded housing, bores on two opposite faces” implies a rotary table index and probably stress relief. “Machine base, 3 800 mm, rail mounting strips flat within 0.1 mm” implies a gantry, one clamping and a thermal stabilisation. “Ring, 1 600 mm diameter, bolt circle” implies a vertical lathe with a live head, ideally in one setup.

If the implication points at a machine you do not have, the fit was never there whatever the envelope says.

A two minute decision

Run it in this order and stop at the first no:

1. Does it physically fit, including crane and door?
2. Do I cut this material routinely?
3. Is the tolerance a feature or a relationship, and can I hold the relationship?
4. Does the implied machine match one I own?
5. Do I have the process steps, or partners for them?
6. Is the machine free inside the deadline?
7. Does the quantity justify the setup?
8. Is the lead price sensible against the likely order value?

Six yeses and a sensible price is a take. Two or more noes is a pass, and passing is free.

Passing is not losing

Shops sometimes treat a pass as a missed opportunity. On heavy work it is the opposite. The expensive outcome is taking a lead, quoting, winning, and then discovering during roughing that the part needed a sequence you did not price.

The shops that do well out of this are the ones that take fewer leads and quote them properly.

What to do next

Write down your own hard limits once: table, travel, rated load for tight work, crane, door, materials you cut weekly, longest span you will hold position across, oven size you can reach. Pin it next to the screen. Most preview decisions then take under a minute.

Related for shops: how to quote a large part and what a heavy machine hour has to cover.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Pricing a Field Machining Job Instead of Shop Work
• What to Ask a Buyer Before You Spend Hours Quoting