kerfmaster pin list · Estimator & quoting
intentmixedWhat we want to build. Never claimed the present, so it cannot be stale — and must never be read as a description of the code.
Content last changed 2026-08-21 — computed from the item itself, not typed.
Contract — Report stage
This contract describes a stage we intend to build — it is NOT a description of the code.
takes sheet-layoutmaterial-table
makes delivery
fails if A quantity break at a round number rather than at a real sheet boundary.
Contract last changed 2026-08-06 — computed, not typed. Dated separately from the text above, so neither date can speak for the other.
Material cost is sheet price × how much of the sheet the job actually consumes — and that number comes from nesting (item 3). So the estimator cannot be finished before the nester, and the nester's value is most visible through the estimator. Same project, opposite ends.
Because nesting is computed rather than assumed, we can give real quantity break points instead of round-number discounts:
At 10 pieces the sheet yield is 62%. At 24 it is 88%, and the price per piece drops 19%. At 26 it spills onto a second sheet and jumps back up.
Those four numbers are an illustration of the SHAPE of the answer, not a measurement — and they do not add up. Flagged 2026-08-02: 62% yield at 10 pieces makes one piece 6.2% of a sheet, which puts 24 pieces at 149% of a sheet, not 88%; read the other way, 88% at 24 puts 10 pieces at 37%, not 62%; and at that packing 26 pieces would not spill. Stale line corrected 2026-08-21 — this read “no nester exists”; the nester has since been built and is in production use (the TL-1016 toronto splits; the O0104 demo kit: 24 parts on one 96×48 sheet, utilization and remnant measured in each build’s stats.json). Real break points are computable today; pricing them in dollars still waits on the 15e rates.
That is a genuine sales tool — it lets inside sales steer a customer to a quantity that is better for both sides, with a number behind it. Nobody quoting from a perimeter formula can do that.
Cost per piece is not smooth. It steps every time the job needs one more sheet, and the worst place to be quoted is one piece over a boundary. The estimator should surface the nearest cliff in both directions, because that is the single most useful thing sales can know while a customer is on the phone.