SK 
EN for locksmith and metal fabrication shops
A metalwork system that adds up weight, offcuts and zinc
Metal fabrication is priced from weight and from hours, and in a small shop both get estimated by eye. That is exactly why two similar jobs end up with margins tens of percent apart and nobody knows why.
A custom system for a metal fabrication shop starts at 1 400 EUR and the first version is usually ready within a week. From a list of profiles it works out the weight, material use including offcuts from bar stock, the area for surface finishing and the price from your own rates, so the quote no longer rests on a guess.
Where a metalworker loses margin
Weight gets figured out in your head
On a simple structure it works out fine, on a more complex one you are off by tens of kilograms and that goes straight into the price.
Offcuts from bar stock go uncounted
A meter and a half left over from every bar never gets used. Over a year that is a pile you paid for.
Surface finish gets added later
Galvanizing is charged by area or weight, and in the first quote it is often missing entirely.
Nobody measures hours per job
You know it took a long time. You do not know how long, so the price never gets corrected on the next similar job.
What a system like this includes
A breakdown of the structure into profiles and sheets with lengths. Out of that comes the weight based on real profile weights, not a guess, and right away the material use including leftovers from bars.
The area for surface finishing, meaning galvanizing or painting, worked out straight from the breakdown. Thanks to that this item is in the quote from the first version and not a nasty surprise after handover.
Rates for cutting, welding, drilling and assembly that you manage yourself. For repeated products a template gets saved and the next quote is ready in minutes.
Measuring hours per job, so you can later compare the estimate against reality. This is the only way to learn to price more accurately in metalwork, because without numbers the estimate never gets fixed.
A record of stock on hand with minimum quantities. A missing profile stops a job for a week and costs more than the whole stock that would have covered it.
- List of profiles Types, lengths and sheets, the way you will actually build it.
- Weight and material Including offcuts from bar stock, not just the clean total.
- Surface finish Area for galvanizing or paint, worked out from the breakdown.
- Price and hours Rates per operation plus an hours estimate you can check back on.
What stands behind it
I have not built for a locksmith shop specifically yet, but scaffolding rental is as close as it gets: steel profiles, weights, a bill of materials and a price. What is not there is surface finishing and offcuts from bar stock, and that is the part I need you to walk me through, based on how you calculate it today.
The closest finished system is the one for scaffolding rental. There too the bill of materials, weight and price come from the dimensions, and scaffolding is, by the way, also a steel structure.
Building it started by taking apart the client Excel, where 10 errors turned up that had been shaping quotes for years. With weights an error like that is especially sneaky, because it looks believable the whole time.
Common questions
We make gates, railings and one-off structures too. Can it handle both?
Yes. Repeated products like gates get saved as a template and one-off work is priced from the breakdown. Most shops have both and this is exactly how it splits.
Can we set our own profile weights and material prices?
Yes, the profile catalog and prices are data you manage yourself, and they can be updated in bulk when steel gets more expensive.
We have software for cutting plans. Does this replace it?
It does not have to. The usual approach is to leave it where it is and build pricing and job tracking on top of it, which it does not handle.
How long does it take?
The first version within a week. Most of the time goes into matching the calculation to how you price today, because every shop has its own rules for markups and offcuts.
Do you know how much you made on the last gate?
Tell me how you price today and where it most often does not add up. After every gate you see on one line what was left on it, not a quarter later in the books. The first call is free.
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