my original r31 diff cost just over $200 all up shortened and in the car with rebuilt calipers

like i said, the place i got axles done kept putting their price up as they said that the money barely covered the labour cost of the machinist doing the work.
but dattodude, this is a shop that has regular axle resplining business. a bit different to a one off in a mill. ive got a mate of dads that said he could do the resplining on his mill but siad the time it takes to do it isnt worth it and its batter off going to someone with a splining machine...which is what i did

I reckon your mate's dad is thinking the same way I am. A dedicated splining machine must be easier to do it for those prices.
I reckon people could almost make a decent business collecting a load of R31/gmh/ford diff and getting them shortened ready for a datto/mazda/toyota.

reply to datodude, i've been resplining axles for some 20 years and seen it all good and bad , the best way i have seen is to use a special grade of carbide insert in a tip cutter and always climb mill, i can do 10 to 15 31 spline axles with one corner, and as for cost with turning and resplining $150 per axle should be plenty . It's the rest of the mods that are time consuming and therfore expensive , measuring the car, cutting and reworking the housing , straightening the housing after welding on the brackets , then all the basic rebuilding of the center and the cost of bearings and seals , it is critical the housing is straight or it will eat wheel bearings and/or chew out the spline in the side gear of the center, its the old saying "you get what you pay for"

exactly wards, the first 2 diffs i made i actually pressed the axle tube out of the centre and then cut it down and pressed it back in...so if that needs straightening afterwards then i'd be mighty surprised
but yeah actual outlay of money was only $200 but it took a good day of grinding to get all the mounts off and the tubes smooth, then about the same to drill out the original welds that hold the tube in, then i was lucky that we had a hydraulic ram that would fit inside the tube, but more time was spent making up jigs that would hold it in there and make sure it was going to press the tube out. also took alot of heat at the same time to get it to move

then theres the time sourcing the diff, then measuring it up and figuring out how much to cut it and where to cut, then mounts have to be made and time spent to get the pinion angle right and so on
thats why i feel after all that $1000 is an acceptable price to be asking for them