Help Quote First BIG Order!!

[Dan Moffett]

Hi from Kentucky.

I have my first BIG, or big to me, order to quote. We engrave on Kentucky whiskey barrel tops. They are 21 inches in diameter, 1 inch thick white oak.
A customer wants quotes on the following:
250, 500, and 1000 tops engraved 25% and a quote for 50% coverage. They will supply vector art.
So I need to quote 250 at 25%, 250 at 50% and so on. Oh, and they also want to quote with and with out a stain.
What a complicated quote this is.
HELP!
I will try to attach a picture of a previous order to give you an idea of what I do.

Thanks.

[AL Ursich]

Looks like a fun project.

Staining this time of year could be hard unless you have a nice place to work.

I wouldn't know where to bid them but I would start high. If you had a laser run time, some would use that as a base for the price.

Good Luck,

AL

[Mike Null]

Dan

I can only say that the engraving time would drive my quote. You have to decide how much you want per minute.

I would not quote the pieces stained. My experience with that (on light woods) has been anything but good and if you can get a good result my guess is that you will have more time in staining than in engraving.

I would certainly want to try a couple of samples with stain before I quoted.

Sometime back I agreed to color fill an order of 100 items and even though I took all precautions--masking, spraying with clear coat twice--the color still bled into the wood and made a mess of everything. It was soft wood rather than white oak but there's still a risk.

Good luck.

[Brian Robison]

This may be a no brainer, but if you have the art work, set up the laser job and run it with the lid open on the proper settings and get your cycle time. Try to get $1.00 a minute and go up on price from there. IMHO

[Mitchell Andrus]

This may be a no brainer, but if you have the art work, set up the laser job and run it with the lid open on the proper settings and get your cycle time. Try to get $1.00 a minute and go up on price from there. IMHO

Don't forget to allow for handling of the materials away from the laser. A couple of hundred big, heavy pieces of wood are a PITA to move around and will take up a LOT of room.

Loading and unloading a truck will take much more time than the few minutes the laser needs.

A dollar a minute for the laser, a dollar a minute for the material handlers.

[James Stokes]

I have done some barrel lids, If I remember corectly, I charged 50 cents per square inch.

[Gary Hair]

I would be inclined to quote by square inch. Run a 1" square on your laser and time it. Multiply by the square inches on the lid and you have your lasering time. As others have suggested you also need to account for prep, packaging, etc.

Gary