I bill at $150/hour with a 2-hour minimum. In practice, most projects land somewhere between $600 and $6,000 — a single bracket or cover with clean geometry sits near the low end, while a full intake manifold, exhaust routing, or a multi-part assembly with a lot of surfacing work sits toward the high end. Tell me the part and what you need out of it and I'll give you a real number before we start. No surprise invoices.

There's a 2-hour minimum on billable work, but the better answer is about scope: I take on part development projects — scan it, model it, make it manufacturable — rather than one-off measurements. If you need a single dimension checked, a local machine shop will serve you better and cheaper. If you need a part that doesn't exist yet, that's my work.

Accurate enough that the parts fit the first time — which is the only measure that actually matters. I use a hybrid blue-laser and infrared setup and choose the mode based on the part: fine laser scanning for tight features and mating surfaces, structured light for larger bodies and assemblies where overall form matters more than micro-detail.

Rather than quote a headline number off a spec sheet, I'd rather talk about your specific part. Real-world accuracy depends on part size, surface finish, geometry, and how much prep is practical — a machined aluminum bracket and a textured plastic interior panel are not the same job. Tell me what you're scanning and what it has to mate to, and I'll tell you straight whether I can hold what you need.

Anywhere from about 1 inch cubed up to a full vehicle. On the small end, that covers brackets, fasteners, clips and fittings. On the large end — I've scanned the entire length of a vehicle to design a complete header and exhaust system from the engine back to the bumper. That's about as big as the scope gets, and it works.

Within about 45 minutes of Morton, Illinois, yes. Outside that, shipping the part to me is almost always faster and cheaper for both of us — the scanner is portable, but a day of travel adds cost that rarely pays for itself.

Absolutely — and this is a great option if you're outside my area or already own a scanner. Send me your mesh and I'll review it, tell you honestly whether it's usable, and take it from there into production-ready CAD. If the data won't support what you're trying to build, I'll say so before you spend money on modeling hours.

Real numbers from recent work: simple parts have gone out in 24 to 72 hours, and larger multi-part projects have run 5 to 12 days. Turnaround depends on part complexity and how much is already in the queue — I keep project slots limited on purpose so the work I take on gets real attention.

Solid CAD as STEP or IGES, and meshes as STL. I can also detail the parts and provide PDF drawings, which is what most fabricators and suppliers actually want in hand when it's time to quote and build.

Yes, with prep. Polished metal, clear plastic, and deep gloss black all scatter or absorb light in ways that confuse a scanner, so those parts get a light coat of removable scanning spray first. It evaporates or wipes off and won't damage your part. If you're shipping something with a finish you're precious about, tell me up front and we'll talk it through before anything gets sprayed.

Yes — I'm open to an NDA on any project. A lot of what I work on isn't public yet, and I'd rather you feel comfortable sending me the real part and the real problem than a sanitized version of it.