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Ray Mighells
09-13-2008, 5:55 PM
I took on this job as a means of making a contribution to my home County Bicentennial celebration and to get a few pieces into prominent locations. This project comprised 15 plaques to be presented to sponsors at a variety of levels, so there were no duplicates as the name of the awardee changed on each one. Each plaque was edge glued with 3 pieces of Black Cherry 3.75" x 16.5" x .25', then about 5 passes through the drum sander, then sanded w/80 grit pad sander, then double coated both sides with heavy bodied sanding sealer (lacquer w/HVLP system) face sanded by hand w/150 grit, then lasered (78 min to burn and vector each), then heavy wet coat of lacquer, then color fill, then hand sand excess color off and a good heavy wet coat finish. Then I added 2 battens cross grain on the back to stiffen them up, lacquered those and put hangers on. The question is, with that much labor and that much laser time, would these be a viable product? The overall finished size is 11" X 16". If I was asked to do a one off on this type and size I believe I would ask $125 -$150. What do you think??

Frank Corker
09-13-2008, 8:09 PM
Ray the work is without doubt extremely well executed. Very clear and excellent colour fill, as for pricing I'm not so sure what people would pay. I think it would depend on the general income for your area and if they specifically wanted the piece.

Sometimes in order to make a piece of work look so good, the time factor doesn't make it worth doing in order to reach what people are prepared to pay. It can sometimes be compared to house improvements, you could own a house, add a swimming pool and jacuzzi, indoor cinema but if all the houses in your area are $100,000 would someone buy yours for $500,000? As I said, the work is excellent, would people in your area be prepared to pay what you are asking despite all the work and time that has gone into it?

.

Scott Shepherd
09-13-2008, 8:18 PM
Signs being sold to businesses, I'd say your pricing is in the ballpark. Probably need to steer closer to the top than the bottom, but that's just my opinion.

Think about it- it's a hand made, one of a kind sign for a business. I wouldn't even take the order for less than $100 each. I have a commercial pricing guide and I can check that next chance I get, but I seem to recall somewhere in the $100 per sq. foot range as a general guideline for something that's not painted multiple colors, and going into the $200 per sq. foot for routed out, multi color painted signs.

Larry Bratton
09-13-2008, 9:32 PM
Signs being sold to businesses, I'd say your pricing is in the ballpark. Probably need to steer closer to the top than the bottom, but that's just my opinion.

Think about it- it's a hand made, one of a kind sign for a business. I wouldn't even take the order for less than $100 each. I have a commercial pricing guide and I can check that next chance I get, but I seem to recall somewhere in the $100 per sq. foot range as a general guideline for something that's not painted multiple colors, and going into the $200 per sq. foot for routed out, multi color painted signs.
Not in my area it isn't :(

Scott Shepherd
09-14-2008, 8:22 AM
Larry, that's a national average from the Commercial Pricing Guide I bought. So far, for my area, I have found it to be about 20% high for my area. It contains routed signs, painted, vinyl, and a lot more, along with various substrates.

Scott Shepherd
09-14-2008, 9:13 AM
Using the pricing guide numbers, and it's not quite apples to apples, since this is laser cut and not routed, and the price is for a routed sign, here's what the book says :

Redwood -
1 Sq. Foot- Economy layout-1 side, 1 color - $119.
Custom layout - 1 color, 1 side - $158.

2 Sq. foot - Economy layout-1 side, 1 color - $207
Custom layout - 1 colors, 1 side - $257

Extira -
1 Sq. Foot- Economy layout-1 side, 1 color - $72.
Custom layout - 1 color, 1 side - $110.

2 Sq. foot - Economy layout-1 side, 1 color - $112
Custom layout - 1 colors, 1 side - $163

Take that for whatever it's worth.

Bob Davis
09-14-2008, 9:48 AM
Nice work, but that seems like a huge time to laser the pieces, especially if you used a vector setting (presumably for the border).
Whenever I laser wood I tend to use a lowish dpi figure because the substrate can't display the detail properly anyway. The heat tends to continue to burn on the edges after the beam has moved on, and the height and texture variation in the surface due to grain disguises the edge in my experience, at least on the woods I use here in sunny Australia.
I generally use a maximum of 300dpi, and I'd use less if I had a more powerful laser (than 25w) available.