Would you accept a consulting gig if it was a one-off job, required a 2 hour commute in both directions, and you expected to be onsite for only 1 hour? Maybe...

You might accept if you were really desperate to get any job, or you might accept if your contract pays for your commute time and expenses. But if neither of those conditions are met, you would probably turn it down as it wouldn't be worth your time.

This is over-simplifying this a bit, but it's along the lines of how the factories view this sort of thing.

The author is asking them to spend more time and expense tooling up than they will in actual production (your 4 hour commute round-trip). If they were already tooled for this component (you lived in the same city), then they'd be more open and provide a better rate (you charging just your on-site fee). But since those conditions are not met, they will make you foot the bill for tooling (you charging for your commute and expenses), especially since the likelihood of some other buyer coming along and commissioning this component are very slim (the consulting gig is a one-off).