Most quote requests we get do not start with a drawing. More often, they start with a phone photo of a part that came off a machine an hour ago, along with a short note about what happened.
That is usually enough to begin the conversation. You do not need a finished drawing or a complete specification before reaching out. In most cases, what slows a quote down is not the lack of a drawing, but missing details about the job itself, especially two pieces of information people often do not think to include.
Start with what you have
If the part exists, even in pieces, we can usually work from the part itself. Send what you have and we will tell you what else we need.
You are not expected to guess at what a shop wants, and nobody here expects a maintenance manager to arrive with a dimensioned print.
The short list
Send these and we can usually tell you whether it is quotable and what is still missing:
- Photos from several angles. The part on its own, and in place on the equipment if you can get it. Put a tape measure in frame for scale.
- Rough overall dimensions. Tape measure numbers are fine. We are checking scale and material size, not building from them.
- Material, if you know it. Steel, stainless, aluminum, or “no idea” are all useful answers. Knowing it early affects price and availability.
- How it failed, or what problem it is causing. Cracked, worn, bent, seized, or simply obsolete. This tells us whether to reproduce the part or change something about it.
Not every job can be quoted from photos. Some parts have to come to the shop, and some need a look at the equipment they mount to before anyone can put a number on them. We will say so when that is the case.
Then the two that actually change the plan.
Quantity changes the whole plan
One part and six parts are different jobs, not the same job at different prices.
For a single part, the fastest route wins. We might cut it from stock already on the floor, machine it from solid, or build it up as a weldment, whichever gets it done soonest without setup that would never pay for itself.
For a batch, the arithmetic flips. Fixturing and setup can be worth building, because the cost spreads across the run. Material is often better bought as a full length or sheet than worked from a drop. Operations tend to get sequenced so every part goes through the same step together rather than one part running start to finish. Per-part cost usually drops, and the first part can take longer to arrive than a one-off would.
This is why quantity is not a detail you can fill in later. Quote one, then ask for five, and we are often re-planning the job from the beginning rather than multiplying a number.
One more thing worth saying up front: if you need one now and expect to need more later, tell us. We can choose an approach that makes the next set easier, and you can ask us to hold the drawing so the second order does not start from scratch.
The date it has to be back in service
“As soon as possible” tells us urgency. It does not tell us anything we can plan around.
A real date does. There is a large difference between a machine that is down right now and a spare being built for the shelf, and the right approach is not the same for both.
When we know the actual operational deadline, we can:
- Talk through whether a temporary repair makes sense to get you running while the permanent part is built.
- Choose material we already have over a better-suited material that has to be ordered in.
- Sequence the work against what else is on the floor.
- Tell you honestly, early, if the date is not realistic, while you still have options.
That last one is the reason to give a real date rather than a padded one. A deadline with slack built in gets planned against the slack. If the true date is Friday, Friday is more useful to you than “end of month.”
What missing information actually costs
None of this is paperwork for its own sake. Each gap has a specific consequence:
- No quantity means we quote for one. When the real number arrives, the quote changes and the clock restarts.
- No date means the job enters the normal queue. If your equipment is down, that is time you did not need to lose.
- No material means we price an assumption. If the assumption is wrong, so is the number.
- No failure information means we reproduce the part exactly as it was, including whatever made it fail the first time.
The last one is the expensive one. A part that broke for a reason and gets copied faithfully will usually break the same way again.
Send us what you have
You do not need to have this figured out before you call. A broken part, a few phone photos, and a sentence about what happened is enough to start, and we will tell you what else is needed.
If it turns out the job needs fabrication, surfaces that have to be machined, or both, that is our problem to sort out, not yours. Our post on how the job runs from there covers what happens after the quote.
Send Thompson Repairs what you have, and we will tell you what else we need.
Call (904) 384-5175 or request a quote. We are on Dignan Street in Jacksonville.
General guidance on what helps us quote. What any specific job requires depends on the part, the equipment it works with, and what it has to do.