Stainless steel sign pricing

[Hannu Rinne]

Hi all,

If you make a sign 200x400mm (stainless steel 1mm) using thermark (as in the picture), what would it costs ? I have some difficulties to do pricing (or how much to charge from my customer). It took about 1,2 hour to run it through laser. I know that the prices in the US and everywhere else are different than here up north but these days people are making orders all over the world and that is why I would like to hear your opinion. (cutting, grinding, drilling and varnishing the oval base took about one hour)

Regards, Hannu

[Neal Schlee]

I charged $250 each for Cermarking 2 of these 15" x 24" crosses. Customer supplied the water jet cut SS crosses.

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Neal

[Mark Sipes]

Neal, who did the art work??

[Mark Sipes]

Hannu, what were your power and speed setting to run this job.. I calculate 100 power and 60% speed 500/600 DPI maybe 15 minutes tops?

the major cost was your labor cutting and shaping the plate. What equipment was used.. freehand grinding.....or cnc.

who did the artwork?

was this a local customer or was the item shipped.......

[Dee Gallo]

Neal, that's a great registration job you did! Those crosses look perfect.

cheers, dee

[Gary Hair]

Hannu,
I'm also curious to know your settings. I have a 30 watt machine and I don't think it would take more than 20-30 minutes to run in my laser. One thing I see right off is that the text would be rastered and the outer line as well as the graphic in the middle would be vectored - both would save lots of time vs rastering the whole thing.

Gary

[Hannu Rinne]

My settings was (with 60W) Power 100/ speed 35/ dpi 760. Normally I've made ss using 600 dpi but I've noticed that it turns out more grey than black. Maybe the speed could be higher, I have to test...

Neal, your crosses are great!!
Mark, the artwork is mainly mine, made with freehand grinding (as I'm still without water jet) and the customer is local :)
Gary, the whole sign I made using raster engraving, but with next job I will use also vector as you mention - thanks for the tip!

Regards,
Hannu

[Mark Sipes]

Hannu If I were to have made the 8"x16" (rough) oval lasered and drilled I would have charged around $ 100-120 US.

my billing :8x16 stainless brushed $15, oval cut and drill (cnc) $30, Design and setup $25, Cermark and laser $30, time 1 1/2 hr. and I am on the low side...I would see if the customer would accept $150 as a billing first and then negotiate. $150 is more than a fair price. but to make the sale and still make a profit I am comfortable with $100-120

[Neal Schlee]

Neal, who did the art work??

Customer supplied a rough sketch, I vectorized and cleaned it up.

Neal

[Neal Schlee]

Neal, that's a great registration job you did! Those crosses look perfect.

cheers, dee

Thanks Dee! Registration was pretty much straight forward as the customer was able to supply the DXF file from the water jet cutter. It took approx. 1.5 hours for each as I ran them fairly slow with a high dpi using a 120 watts. They will be mounted outdoors on a tombstome monument.

Neal

[Martin Boekers]

Just curious, does it have to be Cermark or would a vinyl cut do?

[matt aiken]

I do a lot of SS tags with Cermark, and signs for industrial use. I charge $1.50 a square inch across the board on signs and have quite a bit of repeat business. The tags most of my customers use to put serial #'s on their products and I charge roughly $4.50 each (of course it really depends on how many text changes and the quantity of the order) to cut them out and add a punched hole if requested.

edit- I have a VLS4.60 60watt and I run at 100% power / 50% speed / 500 ppi / 5 image density

[Neal Schlee]

I charged $250 each for Cermarking 2 of these 15" x 24" crosses. Customer supplied the water jet cut SS crosses.

242507


242508

Neal

Update on these Crosses. Customer sent pic of finished Monument.

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