A general-purpose aluminum alloy and usually the easiest metal on this list to machine: forms clean chips, tolerates high speeds and feeds, and holds a good finish straight off the tool. Anodizes well. The default choice when a print doesn't specify an alloy.
These are the preset values this tool starts from — every one is editable in the settings panel once you load a file. They're cncquoter's own defaults, not a market survey.
A plain 40 × 30 × 10mm block in Aluminum 6061, 3mm stock allowance per side, 2 estimated setups, cncquoter's default shop rate ($95/hr, 25% margin) — computed live by the same cost model at each quantity:
| Quantity | Price / part | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $126.31 – $210.52 | $126.31 – $210.52 |
| 10 | $13.87 – $23.12 | $138.71 – $231.19 |
| 100 | $2.63 – $4.38 | $262.72 – $437.87 |
This is one fixed sample shape for comparison across materials — your actual part's size, geometry, and setups will change every number here.