What a 7-day mold base lead time actually covers

Seven days is the number we publish, and it is the number we plan the shop around. For most mold bases it runs from order confirmation to the day the crate is loaded — not from the day the enquiry arrives, and not to the day it clears your port.

Day 0 is order confirmation, not the enquiry. Between an enquiry and a confirmed order there is normally a drawing review, a steel grade confirmation, a tolerance check and a price approval. That stage is usually a day or two, and it depends on how quickly questions get answered on both sides. It is deliberately not counted inside the seven days — packing a commercial stage into a production figure is how lead times become meaningless.

What has to be settled before the clock starts: an approved drawing, the steel grade, the hardness expected on the working faces, and the deposit. All four are normally in place by the time we confirm the order, so the seven days are genuinely shop time: rough machining, finish machining, inspection and packing.

Inspection happens inside the window. Working faces are measured on a coordinate measuring machine before the base is packed, and the records can travel with the shipment. That is part of the seven days, not an extra stage afterwards.

Where the figure changes. Very large plates, deep pockets, hardened grades that need heat treatment between roughing and finishing, and work with an unusual tolerance class all take longer. Those are quoted with a firm date instead of the standard figure, and that date is fixed before machining starts — not revised once it is running. If a job is going to run to twelve days, we would rather tell you twelve days on day zero than seven days and then explain.

Rush work. When a mold has to be moved forward, say so with the drawing. We will tell you what the shop can actually hold, and confirm a date before the order is placed. A date you can put in front of your own customer is worth more than an optimistic one.

What you can do to protect the date. Send the drawing early, even if the price is still being negotiated — the review is the long pole. Name the grade and hardness rather than leaving them open. And tell us which features are critical, because that decides where the inspection time goes.

If you are working to a fixed installation date, send the drawing and the date together. We quote the base and the schedule in the same reply, so your purchasing team can approve both at once.