Price for Cutting

Everything Else
1

Good Morning

I am new and I would like to know how much I should charge
for a cut that takes 14 seconds.
Would it make a difference if there 1, 12 or 50 cuts ?
Please, Only cut.

Thank You
Hernan

2 Likes
2

i take the cost of materials multiply by 2.25 then add the cutting time at $75 per hour minimum 1/2 hour. Labor cost, such designing time, would be added to that.

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3

While I can’t suggest an actual price, I’d offer the following thoughts to keep in mind:

  1. Don’t forget to take into consideration the prep time, setup, and cleanup, as well as the (albeit small) deprceciation on the 'Forge

  2. Be careful of underpricing. You could easily (and inadvertently) set a “price anchor” in your customer(s)’ minds that limits pricing on future, more complicated jobs.

  3. Also be careful not to Over-Price - and appear too expensive for future consideration.

  4. take this as an opportunity to set up a pricing model (and consider being visible to customers with this) to show:
    a. Prep and Design (and cleanup)
    b. Materials
    c. Cutting / Execution.

  5. If you are working to build business / word of mouth adverstising, consider showing full rates, and then a “new customer introductory welcome discount” - of whatever percent off you may want to provide. (But I would suggest placing a dollar limit on this as well, in case your customers share with their friends / associates / etc.) - you don’t want to “have to” offer 50% off on a BIG project because someone shared that you did it for them on a small project.

Hope this is helpful.

Good luck!

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4

Thank You Gamm1958

Hernan

1 Like
5

Please
Do you have an idea at what approximate time is it necessary to change
the laser engraver of the machine?

Thank You
Hernan

6

The Laser tube itself is rated for 2 years.

7

I charge by the minute plus materials. Cutting takes more power and therefor reduces the life of the laser tube faster, so I charge 1 USD per minute of cuts, with half a minute minimum. Engraving is 0.30 USD per minute. In your instance the charge for the cut would be 0.50 USD plus material cost and setup fee. If the user brings their own material and has the image ready and I don’t have to manipulate the image, I charge a 10.00 setup fee, which I can change as needed depending on the job. This is my time for setting up the image and material and my overhead in working with the customer. If the customer needs image manipulation, etc. I charge 60.00 per hour.

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8

Thank You Todd

Hernan

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9

Thank You ben1
Hernan

10

FYI: the tube is designed to run at “full” power; cutting is not worse than engraving in our testing.

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11

Thank Dan

The tube is spent automatically in 2 years,
or is it due to the use one makes.
In any case what is the cost of the tube?

Thank You
Hernan

12

From what I read, the tube is designed to last at least two years. After that time it may fail due to a loss of seal or other failure. There are some tubes that have failed prematurely, but they are rare. If I recall correctly, the initial tube replacement cost was about 500 USD, but I may be incorrect on this point.

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Thank Ben 1
Hernan

14

That’s actually the general guidance on how they will last with “normal use”. That also happens to be the general rule of thumb for CO2 lasers of this size. In reality it depends on how you use your machine. You may be a “heavy” user vs “normal” user but we don’t have a way to tell. There are people (here even) who have had tubes last over 10 years in their business for other CO2 lasers (Universals) so it’s nothing more than an educated guess that it’ll last 2 yrs or 2000 hours.

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15

Thank You James
Hernan

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