It seems like I was incorrect. Thanks @jkopel for informing us of the real costs for the maker space. It seems that the going rate is around $60 per hour if the user is running the laser.
The question is very open though, and each person has different criteria upon which they answer it. For me it comes down to the fact that most people using the machine that aren’t me will be friends and family. Even if I’m doing 100% of the design work, I’m not charging more than the cost of materials for friends and family (barring someone abusing my generosity of course).
That’s the cost-based model of pricing. Works okay for commodities because there are so many providers of say, flour, that the market forces that approach in a drive to the bottom.
For right now, access to a laser cutter is not a commodity. Thus, traditionally a value based pricing approach would usually be appropriate - i.e. what is my customer willing to pay? The second part of that is “can I provide it for that price and make a profit?” Artists are acutely aware of that conundrum. Often the cost of producing exceeds the price people are willing to pay even for supply-constrained or unique non-commodity products. I’d suggest that time on your laser should be priced at the market valuation of that service and not a calculation of the costs + markup. You can decide if $60/hr for example delivers a reasonable profit or if you want to buy marketshare by under cutting competitors.
For personal stuff (I’m not in the business of renting out my lasers), I do it for friends for free unless they would want to use me as an alternative to buying the production capacity for their Etsy or craft show business.
I’m not sure I see how you are deriving your cost figures.
100 hours is 6000 minutes. At $1/min you would pay for a Pro in that time. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that we will have to replace the entire machine after 100 hours of use.
I don’t know what lasers you have now, but you seem to be saying they are well north of $30,000 for 100 hours?
Starting with a theoretical lifespan of the laser and working backward to find how much you should charge is only practical if you are going to use the entire theoretical lifespan. If you aren’t using all the minutes or hours that are theoretically possible, then you will not earn the theoretical amount of money it would take to replace your equipment. And if you are letting strangers use your equipment at a rate that is lower than the cost that it will take to replace it, you are essentially paying them to use it.
I’ve been thinking about offering glowforge-as-a-service type work, to help people get a chance to use lasers before their unit arrives. but I have no idea of what that’s worth or if people are even interested in it
The first is how you compute the cost of replacement.
If I only use my (soon to receive) Glowforge for one hour, ever, and then shove it in a closet and don’t resell it, then that one hour cost me $4000. But that would be me making a terrible purchase decision.
That’s like building a factory capable of making a million units a ready and only making 10. Those ten units may have a marginal cost of $100, but the $1M cost of the factory means they really cost $100,100 each. Using your method of accounting, at any time you stop and measure the accounting, you ignore all future use. So after 10 units the cost over $100,000 each. After 30 days, with 8200 produced, they each cost $222. After a year, the cost of the factory has contributed $1 to each widget. So is the cost of goods for a widget $100,100, or $222, or $101?
most businesses use a depreciation schedule and depreciate the value of an asset from its original cost over time. it starts getting beyond me there, since i’m not an accountant (nor do i play one on TV), but i believe generally equipment is depreciated over a 5 to 7 year span.
here’s an interesting formula for generating an “hourly cost of machines,” if you want to look at it from a commercial perspective. and, of course, that formula doesn’t include profit (or overhead), it just includes the actual cost of labor.
I want to see the results, but it won’t let me unless I fill out the survey. And I don’t want to fill out the survey, because I don’t want to offer this service. My answer would be either $0, because I wouldn’t charge family. Or $500/hour, because I would want to deter strangers, like the bookstore in Good Omens.
Observation: biggest around $50-$60/hour, which is what most maker spaces charge, and a smaller one around $15-$30/hour, which is what people typically make driving for Uber or Lyft (gross, not net of Uber fees, gas, etc).
FWIW Otis College (Art/Industrial Design/Fashion school, therefore non profit). Only for students/staff, of course.
“PRICING
The cost of Laser Cutting is $5 for the first minute and 50 cents for each additional minute. There is a cap of $35 for prints up to 3 hours, and a second cap of $70 for prints up to 6 hours. For print jobs containing more than 10 files, and additional charge of $1 per file will be added to the total print job. The balance is due at pick up, no exceptions! This payment should be paid to a shop technician in form of rapid prototyping cards (blue cards), purchased at the business office.”
More details about their machine, file needs, etc:
Those are interesting. So, $35 would get you 60 minutes beyond the first minute for a total of 61 minutes. After that, the next 119 minutes are effectively free. Strictly interpreted, after passing the first cap, the next minute costs another $35, and the following 179 minutes are free. LOL
The only places that have laser cutters near me are trophy shops. Most of them charge based on the imprint/design they’re cutting, not an amount per hour. I think that’s how they get you…it will just be a few cents per letter or something like that, but on a cutting board I made recently, they were going to charge me over $35 for a few simple sentences to be engraved on the back. There is no way, even with a double engrave, that it would have taken them more than 20 minutes to complete.
I had negotiated a deal with a specific imprint that would only change minimally (different people’s names) with a local trophy shop recently. They did some test cuts on wood I was going to use so I could be sure I was happy with it. Then, I brought them 5 cutting boards to engrave as we agreed. After, she backed out of the deal. I don’t know what made her realize it, but she basically ran my business off. I remember her mentioning something like, “I’ve got to get $65/hr for laser time, or I just can’t do it.” It was just weird because we negotiated something upfront.
Hopefully, I can do all of this engraving from my bonus room soon enough.
A company also has to factor in setup costs and the like. Plus a “could my time be better spent elsewhere” cost. Maybe they have something that pays better. $60 an hour is hobby money, not “im running a business money” I don’t think ive seen less than $100/hr charged for shop time at any shop ive worked for or ordered from; usually more if I required expensive equipment for my part
