what should i charge ??

[mike merrill]

;) It is 7x11 from white masenite customer has the masenite
what do you think is a good price he wants around 100

thanks
Mike

[Bruce Volden]

Were it me, I would shoot for 10 - 12 $ ea. That may sound cheap (or high depending where you're at), I like it when the customer supplies the "stock". I would vector the lines @ low power and save lots of engraving time and then come back to the text (2 files)! 100 shouldn't take more than a day or two and it's mostly pure profit. My 2 cents. Bruce

[mike merrill]

I just got off the phone with the customer he wants to pay 1.00 per
sheet i would just engrave the lower part with the lines and the words not
the top he wants 5000 of them a 1.00 seems low but 5000 i need
to run it to see how long it would take i have a epelog 12x24 45 watts
what do think ?
thanks
mike

[Dave Fifield]

Mike, it seems that $1 per minute for laser time and $1 per minute setup time is the normal rate for laser work. Hope this helps. Maybe you should mock one up and see how long it takes.

I see (from a quick google search) that the going price for a professional clapper board like this is $26.50. I have seen them for more than this in video mags. Considering how much the materials cost ($3 per?), you should be charging MUCH more than $1 per.....more like $5 per unit....

Dave F.

[Ken Frisby]

I always try and get $1.50 to $2.00 per minute. I wouldn't touch that job for less than $10-15 per unit. At $1.00 that is an insult and the customer is setting a very low price to see if your crazy or hungry enough to take it. It looks like you have to vector cut, mask the top portion for paint, engrave and then paint, remove the mask. Then how are you going to wrap them for shipping? You will have at least 10-15 minutes in each one. I would vector cut and then have them silk screened.

[Joe Pelonio]

I agree with the others, I charge $1 minute actual time and for a huge quantity might give a 15% discount. If you spend 10 minutes on each that's $10, less 15% is $8.50. Do a test run for time before giving a price. Remember to on a job like that you'll be tying up the laser for a few days and may miss other jobs, plus it's using a lot of hours of your machine's life. It's easy to think of it as all profit when they provide materials but remember the overhead including future repair/replacement costs for your laser.

[mike merrill]

Im thinking the same thing they seid thats what they are paying
right now they are using a engraving machine but its slow
you guys think it would vector cut lines and raster the words
what do you think on time it take i can fit 3 on the machine
im a way from the shop im out of town so i cant test how long
thanks for the info

Mike:rolleyes:

[Joe Pelonio]

I have the same machine as you, I'd guess 6-8 minutes rastor run time, 4-5 vector, then there's time to change material, apply transfer tape, any cleaning up and that would probably end up close to 18 minutes for 3, or
6 minutes each. For 5,000 that's 500 hours of your time, or 21 days working 24 hours a day. Make sure you get at least 1/2 payment in advance so you have the money to pay for a new tube should it go
out in the middle of the job.

[Ken Frisby]

I have the same machine, I just ran one and with paint and clean up it was 16 minutes for one! For that quanity I would charge 13.50 each minimum for that job. If you got it to 15 min each average, that's 4 an hour or 1250 hours total or 53 days running 24 hours a day! I wouldn't tie my machine up that long on one job, I would lose other long term customers if I did. It would almost pay to buy another machine to run a job like that.

[Joe Pelonio]

I have the same machine, I just ran one and with paint and clean up it was 16 minutes for one! For that quanity I would charge 13.50 each minimum for that job. If you got it to 15 min each average, that's 4 an hour or 1250 hours total or 53 days running 24 hours a day! I wouldn't tie my machine up that long on one job, I would lose other long term customers if I did.

On the other hand, I guess you could say that at $67,500 for 5,000 of them you could buy a second machine with 1/2 of the advance deposit. It just doesn't sound like his customer is going to go for anything close to a fair price.

[mike merrill]

would you use tape with mesanite the black and white toppart
he will do

[Joe Pelonio]

If it's that stuff with the real thin white laminate on it yes, it will discolor from the laser if you use enough power to go deep enough in one pass but don't tape it.

[mike merrill]

what do you think would be faster cnc router or the laser the cnc is 48x 97 thanks
MIKe

[Joe Pelonio]

I don't have a cnc, so someone else would have to comment, but it seems like if you could put a whole sheet in at once at least you'd spend less time loading and unloading, plus no need to transfer tape or clean it after. Might not be quite as nice a resoluton on the text though.