vls660 rotary questions

[Chris Holtgrewe]

I am running my vls660 60watt. I have been given a price of $1500 for the attachment.First off will the older rotary attachments work with my newer machine are the plug ends the only difference ?Is there any place on the forum to put in looking for used laser rotary?Finnally I have A job for 150 wine glasses that the guy has the glass what should I try to get per glass.The job takes 2min. to run?If I knew what the going rate for glasses was it would help me figure how often I would have to engrave glass to pay it off.Thanks for any info Chris

[Dan Hintz]

If you're a machine loading/unloading, and he's providing the glasses, I would probably shoot for $4-5/glass (assuming no wrapping/unwrapping, just setting in a divided box). If wrapping is necessary, I'd add another $1/glass.

[Mike Null]

You can buy the glasses for less than three dollars already marked. You figure what it's worth.

[Todd Suire]

I agree with Mike.

Based on the 60w taking only 2min to run the job, $2-$3 would be more in line with what I'd charge. It's tedious work, I've done a job of 144 wine glasses recently, but the customer could get them somewhere else for about the same price.

[Dan Hintz]

I agree with Mike.

Based on the 60w taking only 2min to run the job, $2-$3 would be more in line with what I'd charge. It's tedious work, I've done a job of 144 wine glasses recently, but the customer could get them somewhere else for about the same price.
Then let them go somewhere else. If they can get something of equivalent quality elsewhere, you're either charging too much for the item or the laser isn't the appropriate tool for the job. Assuming you could get a glass in/out of the engraver every 3 minutes, that's 20 glasses/hr... at $3/glass, that's $60 hr. Okay, but does it cover the time needed to handle the glasses (individually wrap, ship in/out or pick up/drop off, etc.), deal with the customer on the phone/in person, deal with the graphics (are they ready to go or do they need some tweaking?).

$60/hr is just the engraving... by the time you add in dealing with everything else, that price drops quite a bit. At 20 glasses/hr, that's an entire day's work or engraving, doing nothing but glasses, for $450. The short runtime means you have to man the machine that entire time, too. I'd still probably do it at $3/glass, but other higher-paying jobs would take priority...

[Mike Null]

You can make at least 40% by having an ASI company do the glasses and all you have to do is place the order. The customer's price would be $3 or less plus shipping.

[Mike Mackenzie]

The rotary attachments are not the same older ones will not work with the newer systems. It has to do with the CPU not just the cables.

[Chris Holtgrewe]

Thank you all for all your information.I did A sample today without the rotary, not 100% but the guy was very impressed and I gave him A price of 3.50 each if he got the glasses.They are for his liquore store wine tasting about 4miles from me and no wraping or shipping.

[Chris Holtgrewe]

I called universals aplications lab and they offer 2 rotarys A long and A short.If anyone has any suggestions on which one they think would be
the most versital and easy to use.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Chris,

The long rotary's are for the longer systems, they use them for doing baseball bats, & longer items. They are only available for the 32, 36, & 48 inch systems.