Pricing Stock Before You Cut It
Raw material cost is driven by volume and density: a bigger or denser piece of stock simply weighs more, and weight is what most suppliers price against. This calculator covers the three stock shapes you'll size most often, rectangular block, round bar, and tube, and converts each one into a weight and a dollar figure using your material's density and price per pound.
Why the Waste Allowance Matters
The net volume of a finished part is rarely what you pay for. Facing cuts, parting operations, and bar-puller grip length all consume material beyond the part's final dimensions, so the waste allowance bumps the calculated weight up before pricing to reflect what you'll actually need to buy.
Swapping in Your Supplier's Numbers
The density presets here are standard reference values for common alloys and plastics; switch to custom density if your supplier's mill certs show a different exact value, and always use your own current price per pound rather than the placeholder shown by default.