Guides / For Suppliers

Registering Your Shop for Delrin and POM Machining Leads: A Walkthrough

September 25, 2026

Registering takes about five minutes. What happens after that is less obvious from the outside, so this walks through the process end to end: what you tell us, what you see before you pay for anything, and what changes once you take a lead.

Step 1: Register your shop

The registration form asks for the details that actually decide whether a request fits your shop:

• Machines you run, by model and count. This is the single most important field. A request for a part that needs a live tool lathe does not reach a shop that only runs 3-axis mills, and there is no value in seeing leads you cannot quote.
• Largest part envelope, so requests outside your capacity never reach you.
• Acetal grades you machine regularly, including whether you stock filled grades like PTFE filled or glass filled acetal, or food contact and detectable grades.
• Stock forms you hold, rod, sheet, plate or tube, since a request for a part that needs stock you would have to special order changes the quote you would give anyway.
• Quantities you take, from single prototypes through production runs, so you see requests sized for your shop.
• Certifications, if you hold any relevant to the work you want, such as ISO 9001 or industry specific quality systems.
• Industries you serve, so requests that come with specific documentation needs, such as food contact or medical traceability, reach shops that already handle that paperwork.

None of this is verified beyond what you tell us at registration. Accuracy here is what makes the matching work in your favor: an overstated capability list gets you leads you cannot actually win, and an understated one means you miss requests you could have quoted well.

Step 2: You start receiving RFQ previews

Once registered, requests that fit your profile arrive as previews. A preview shows enough to judge fit and effort without identifying the buyer:

• Part type and a short description
• Material grade
• Approximate size
• Quantity, and whether it is expected to repeat
• Tolerance
• Preferred region, if the buyer specified one
• Needed-by date

What a preview does not show: the buyer’s name, company, contact details or files. That information is released only once you take the lead.

The reasoning behind this is straightforward. Buyers send RFQs expecting their information to go only to shops that are actually going to quote the part, not to be broadcast to every shop in a directory. The anonymous preview lets you judge whether a request fits before either side commits to anything.

Step 3: Decide whether to take the lead

Each preview shows the price to take that specific lead before you decide. Pricing reflects the complexity and size of the request; you see the number, not a subscription fee or a flat rate that applies regardless of what the part actually is.

There is no obligation attached to seeing a preview. You take the leads that fit what you want to quote and pass on the ones that do not. A shop that consistently passes on requests it is not suited for tends to see better-matched previews over time, because the fit between what you registered and what you actually take is part of what keeps matching accurate.

Step 4: Take the lead and get the buyer’s details

Taking a lead releases the buyer’s name, company, contact information and any files attached to the RFQ, drawings, models, specifications. From this point, the conversation and the quote happen directly between you and the buyer. We do not sit in the middle of the quote, the negotiation or the order.

Step 5: Quote and win the work on your own terms

There is no commission on the order. If you win the job, the full value of that order is between you and the buyer. Your quote, your terms, your relationship going forward, including any repeat business that follows.

This is a deliberate difference from marketplaces that take a percentage of every transaction or push shops into open bidding against each other. You pay once, for the lead. What happens after that is yours.

What makes a shop a good fit for this network

A few things matter more than others when we match requests:

Genuine experience with acetal. Not a shop that occasionally cuts plastic when a job comes in, but one that keeps stock on hand and runs it regularly enough to know how it behaves: workholding for a soft material, tool geometry that avoids melting the surface, and an understanding of how the part moves after machining.

Honest capability information. The match only works as well as what you told us at registration. A shop that registers accurately gets requests it can actually win. A shop that overstates its capability wastes time quoting jobs it was never going to land.

Reasonable response time. Buyers expect a reply within a business day or two once you take a lead. A shop that sits on leads for a week loses the buyer to whichever other matched shop responded first.

Willingness to decline a bad fit. If a request looks like it needs equipment or a grade you do not actually run, passing on it is the right call. It costs nothing, and it keeps your account matched accurately for the requests that do fit.

What this is not

This is not a bidding platform. A request that reaches you was matched to your shop specifically, not broadcast to every registered shop for an open auction. You are not competing on price against an unknown number of other shops for the same lead.

It is also not a marketplace that takes a cut of your revenue. The lead fee is the only charge. What you quote and what you collect from the buyer is between the two of you.

And it is not a subscription. There is no monthly fee to stay registered, no minimum spend, and no penalty for a quiet month where nothing matches your profile.

Updating your profile

Machines get added, stock changes, and the grades you keep on hand shift over time. Keeping your registration current is worth doing whenever something meaningful changes, since it is the only input the matching runs on. A shop that adds a new grade or a new machine and does not update its profile simply will not see requests that would now fit.

How pricing actually works for a lead

Every preview shows its price before you decide anything. That price is not a flat rate. It moves with what the request actually involves: a small, simple bushing in a quantity of ten prices differently from a tight-tolerance gear housing in a quantity of five hundred, because the second one is a better lead for a shop that can win it.

There is no subscription, no minimum monthly spend and no fee to stay registered with nothing matched. If a quiet month goes by with no requests that fit your profile, nothing is owed. The only charge is the price shown on a preview you choose to take.

This matters for how you should think about the cost. A lead that costs more is, in principle, a request worth more once won, not a random fee. If a lead’s price does not look justified by what the preview describes, passing on it is a reasonable call, and it costs nothing to do so.

A realistic first month

Shops new to the network sometimes expect a flood of previews immediately after registering. That is not how it works, and it is worth setting the expectation correctly. Previews arrive only when an actual RFQ matches your registered profile, and the volume depends on how much demand exists for your specific combination of machines, grades and part envelope.

A shop registered for common capabilities, general 3-axis milling and turning in natural homopolymer and copolymer rod, sees previews more often than a shop registered for a narrow specialty, such as glass filled acetal in large diameter plate. Neither situation is a problem. The narrow specialty shop sees fewer previews, but the ones it does see are better matched, since fewer other shops compete for the same narrow fit.

If a full month passes with nothing matched, it is worth checking whether the registered profile is unnecessarily narrow, a part envelope set smaller than what the shop can actually handle, or a grade list that leaves out something the shop would gladly quote if asked.

Keeping the relationship going after the first order

Nothing about this process requires a buyer to come back through a new RFQ for repeat work. Once a shop and a buyer have connected on the first order, the two of them are free to continue working together directly, on repeat orders, design changes, or entirely new parts, without another match ever being needed. The matching step exists to make the first connection. What happens after that is an ordinary supplier relationship, built the same way any other one is.

Getting started

Registration takes about five minutes and creates no obligation. You will see your first RFQ previews as soon as a request matches what you registered, and you decide from there which ones are worth taking.

Register your shop and start seeing requests that fit your machines and your stock. Questions before you register are answered from that page within 24 business hours.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• What Equipment a Shop Needs to Machine Acetal and Engineering Plastics Well
• From RFQ to Delivered Part: How Delrin and POM Machining Sourcing Works Here