Unit 7, Kalamunda Road · Malaga
Truebar EngineeringPrecision machining and general engineering in Malaga — one-offs, spares and short runs
Bring us the broken one. We’ll draw it, cut it, and make you two. CNC turning and milling, surface grinding, and a manual lathe that still earns its keep at 4pm on a Friday.
The Setup
Job TB‑383 · Ø60 × 100 billet
Truebar EngineeringDWG TB‑383
$720
Ø60 × 100 · 20 MIN · ×10
CNC turned — $180 setup and programming, charged once
Notes
Every figure is GST‑inclusive and worked from the rates below — machining by the minute at the machine’s hourly rate, material and finish per part, setup once per job. Nothing here is a commitment until we’ve seen the drawing.
Process
what cuts itMaterial
per part, on a Ø60 × 100 billetRun time
cycle time per partQuantity
setup is charged once, whatever the batchFinish
per partThe drawing, as text
This is what the job prices at on our rates. Send the drawing (or the broken part) and we’ll confirm the cycle time off the first one.
Rates · bill of material
What a machine shop actually charges for
Time on the machine, the bar it comes out of, the setup, and the finish. Four numbers. Everything below is GST‑inclusive and is the same rate we’d put on the invoice.
CNC turning
$120/hr + $180 setup
Shafts, bushes, spacers, adaptors and spindle repairs on the two CNC lathes. Bar to 65 mm through the spindle.
CNC milling, 3‑axis
$144/hr + $240 setup
Adaptor plates, brackets, manifold blocks, jig plates. 800 × 400 mm of travel and a 12‑tool carousel.
Four‑axis milling
$168/hr + $360 setup
Anything that needs work on more than one face without a second setup — cam lobes, indexed bolt patterns, splines.
Surface grinding
$108/hr + $120 setup
Ground to size and parallel when a milled finish won’t do it. Die plates, gauge blocks, hardened wear pads.
Manual lathe & fitting
$96/hr + $60 setup
The cheapest way to fix one thing. Reverse‑engineering a worn bush, skimming a face, cutting a keyway, pressing a bearing.
Material, supplied
from $14 a part
Priced on a Ø60 × 100 billet: mild steel 1020 $14, acetal $18, 6061 aluminium $22, 304 stainless $46, brass 385 $68.
Finishing
$4 to $12 a part
Deburr & tumble $4, black oxide $7, zinc plate $9, clear anodise $12. As machined is $0 — the edges are broken either way.
Minimum invoice
$220
Under that the setup and the paperwork cost more than the part. It bills instead of the job total, never on top of it.
Material test certificates (EN 10204 3.1) and CMM inspection reports — supplied on request, at cost from the mill or the lab. We don’t mark them up, and we don’t quote them until we know which mill the bar came from.
The shop
Twenty-one years on the same estate
Six people, seven machines, and a habit of writing the cycle time on the job card so the next one is quoted off a measurement rather than a guess.
- Established
- 2004, Malaga WA
- ABN
- 00 000 000 383
- Quality system
- To ISO 9001
- Drawings
- Read & produced to AS 1100
- Material certs
- EN 10204 3.1 on request
- Inspection
- CMM reports with production runs
- Insurance
- $20M public liability
- On the floor
- Two CNC lathes, three mills, a surface grinder
Three jobs
What people actually ring us about
Night shift · Bayswater
“The auger shaft let go at 11pm. I dropped both halves at Malaga at 6am, they measured it, cut a new one out of 304 and I had it back on the plant by the next afternoon. No drawing, no part number, nothing.”
Shutdown · Welshpool
“Twenty-five stainless spacers, four days before a shutdown. They quoted the batch and the setup separately so I could see exactly what the second twenty-five would have cost. They were on the bench Thursday.”
One-off · Osborne Park
“I brought in a worn bronze bush off a 1970s press with no part number and no idea what it should be. They put it on the bench, worked out the original size from the housing, and turned two. Charged me the minimum.”
Where the parts go
Malaga is the shop. The metro is the run.
We run our own delivery two afternoons a week across the industrial belt, and courier everything else. Drop-offs at the Malaga counter from 7am.
Questions
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us work
Can you make it if I haven’t got a drawing?
Yes — that’s most of what walks through the door. Bring the broken one, or the housing it came out of, and we’ll measure it and draw it. Reverse-engineering time is billed at the machine rate of whatever process ends up cutting it, and we’ll tell you before we start if it’s going to run past half an hour. You get the drawing either way — it’s yours, and it means the next one is a repeat order rather than a fresh setup.
What does a setup actually pay for?
Programming the toolpath, proving it, making or setting the work-holding, picking and offsetting the tools, and cutting the first one carefully enough to measure it. On the CNC lathe that’s $180; on the four-axis mill it’s $360, because a four-axis job needs a trunnion set and a datum found in three planes rather than one. Setup is charged once per job, not per part — which is why the tenth part is so much cheaper than the first.
What’s your lead time?
A one-off on the manual lathe is usually same day or next day if the bar is on the rack. A CNC batch is typically three to five working days. Breakdown work jumps the queue — if the plant is down, ring rather than email and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can get to it. Plating and anodising add two to three days because they leave the building.
What file formats can you cut from?
STEP and IGES for solids, DXF for flat profiles, and PDF drawings for anything dimensioned. Fusion 360 and SolidWorks native files are fine too. If all you’ve got is a phone photo with a tape measure next to it, send that — we’ll tell you what else we need. We don’t quote off a photo alone, but it’s a much faster start than a description.
Do you do one-offs, or is there a minimum quantity?
One is a perfectly good quantity. There’s no minimum number of parts — there’s a minimum invoice of $220, which is what it costs us to open a job, set a machine and check the part. On our rates that only ever binds at one, two or five parts; from ten parts up, the job always prices above it on its own.
Can you supply material certificates?
Yes — EN 10204 3.1 certificates come from the mill with the bar, and we pass them through at cost with the batch. CMM inspection reports are done here and come free with production runs; on a one-off we’ll do a dimensional check against your drawing as part of the setup and write the actual measurements on the job card. If the job is going into a certified assembly, tell us before we buy the bar — certified stock and shelf stock are not the same purchase.
Price a job
Tell us what it is. We’ll tell you what it costs.
We answer the phone between 7am and 4pm, and we’d call you back within one business hour of an enquiry landing. If the plant is down, ring — don’t wait on an email.
Counter drop-offs from 7am at Unit 7, Kalamunda Road, Malaga. Park in the visitor bay and press the buzzer on the roller door.
Whatever you’ve set in the Setup above is already in the job note below — change it, or leave it and we’ll work from it.
Thanks — that’s landed on the job board
We’d call you back within one business hour between 7am and 4pm, or first thing tomorrow if it’s after hours. If the plant is down, ring (08) 9000 0383 and say “breakdown” — those jump the queue.
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