Centralize the engineering. Distribute the cutting.
Praetore is a precision manufacturer with a distributed factory floor: one engineering core, a network of American shops on one standard. You get a price in minutes and a date backed by money.
Not a marketplaceNot softwareOne accountable party
| Entity | Manufacturer of record |
|---|---|
| Engineering | Central; verified in simulation |
| Cutting | Distributed; one shop standard |
| Price | Minutes, inside the envelope |
| Date | A contract term with credits |
| Outside it | Never refused; human-quoted |
Note 1 — Catalog lane only. The instant price and the credit-backed date apply inside the published envelope. Anything outside it is not refused: it routes to the Sourcing lane, where a person quotes the job within two business days and commits to a date, without the automatic-credit instrument.
I need parts
Upload a model. Price in minutes. Guaranteed date.
Catalog lane · price in minutes · date backed by money
I run a shop
We send you the job, not the RFQ.
No quoting · no programming · no fees, ever
Two days of machining inside twenty-five days of everything else.
American machining does not lose at cutting metal. It loses in the hours around the cut: quoting, DFM review, CAM programming, fixture design, setup, first article, inspection documentation, and the coordination between all of it. Those are skilled-engineering hours — exactly the input this country is shortest of.
The drawing runs the full twenty-five days — scroll it →
America doesn’t lose at cutting. It loses at everything around the cut.
So we deleted everything around the cut.
How the model works
Delete the coordination. Keep the craftsmanship.
Marketplaces automated finding a shop and left the inefficiency intact. Shop software makes one programmer faster, one seat at a time. The unexploited move is to centralize the engineering and distribute the cutting — so shops contribute what they are genuinely world-class at: spindle time, machine ownership and craftsmanship.
One engineering core.
DFM, CAM, fixturing and inspection plans are done once, centrally, by experts leveraged with AI and verified in simulation. The engineering that every shop in the country currently duplicates happens a single time.
Four release gates before a packet ships: simulation, tool crib, stranger test, probe coverage.
One standard.
Every network shop runs the same modular workholding and receives the same complete Job Packet. Any qualified shop can run any job — which means the packet, not the shop, is the thing that has to be perfect.
v0.1 of the standard is a soft-jaw spec on vises a shop already owns. The jaw programs ship inside the packet.
Liquid capacity.
Jobs route — and re-route — to real open spindle time. That is why the date can be guaranteed with money instead of promised with enthusiasm.
A reroute is a re-post and a re-release through the same gates. Never an emailed program and a hope.
The Job Packet is machining’s container.
Containerization didn’t make ships faster. It standardized the interface between cargo and vessel — and loading collapsed from days to hours, cargo became fungible across ships, trains and trucks, and global trade restructured around the standard.
Machining’s missing container is the Job Packet plus the workholding standard: twelve mandatory artifacts, complete enough that a shop which has never seen the part can run it without a phone call. A shop receives this. Not a drawing and a prayer.
The Job Packet · 12 artifacts · 1 revision · 0 clarifying calls
- 01
Cover sheet
Delivered as: 1 page
- 02
Customer print + model
Delivered as: PDF + STEP
- 03
Process plan
Delivered as: Structured doc
- 04
Verified NC programs
Delivered as: G-code per op
- 05
Simulation record
Delivered as: Video + report
- 06
Setup sheets
Delivered as: Illustrated pages
- 07
Fixture plan
Delivered as: Programs + drawing
- 08
Tool list
Delivered as: Structured table
- 09
Probing routines
Delivered as: Macro programs
- 10
Inspection plan
Delivered as: Form + CMM program
- 11
Packaging & ship spec
Delivered as: 1 page
- 12
Acceptance criteria
Delivered as: 1 page
Note 2 — Twelve mandatory artifacts, one packet revision, zero clarifying calls. Zero is the packet’s release standard, not a measurement: if a shop has to ask a question to make the part, the packet failed — not the shop.
- 01
Capacity becomes liquid.
Any qualified shop runs any packet, so a job can move mid-week when a machine goes down. Rerouting is the only honest way to guarantee a date.
- 02
Onboarding collapses.
A shop joins by installing the standard and passing a test-part protocol. The first fixture is a set of soft jaws cut from our own program. Application to routing-eligible runs two to three weeks — the process as designed, not an average of completed onboardings.
- 03
Batching becomes possible.
Parts from different customers sharing material, stock and fixture family run in one setup. No single shop sees enough order flow to do that. A network does.
Note 3 — Batching savings split three ways by published principle: roughly a third to the customer’s price, a third to the shop, a third to Praetore. The exact ratios will be tuned from delivered data. The three-way split will not.
Note 4 — What isn’t on this page
No counters, no customer logos, no testimonials, no case studies. Praetore has not shipped these jobs yet, and an unmeasured number is not a number. On-time rate, jobs shipped, shops on the standard and median quote-to-price time publish on the Ledger when the Ledger has them — quoted versus delivered, by part class, with the methodology written out. Everything quantified above is a published constraint or a stated standard, and it is labeled as one.
The LedgerSend us a part
Upload a model. Inside the published envelope it comes back on the Catalog lane with a price in minutes and a ship date written into the order as a contract term. Outside it, nothing is refused: the Sourcing lane names the feature that put it there and a person returns a quote and a committed date within two business days.
Catalog lane: 3-axis milling, 12 × 8 × 4 in, a fixed material library, tolerance classes priced rather than negotiated.
Send us your calendar
You never write another estimate for us. Packets arrive verified, your machinist loads and runs, and you are paid on delivery. Your performance data wins you work and underwrites you — it is never used to negotiate your rates down.
What we ask: vises you already own fitted to our soft-jaw spec, probing, and an honest calendar. No hardware purchase, no fees, ever.