Laser Engraving cost??

[Mike Berndt]

Hi All at SMK,
I have laser engraved some pens and cases on top and inside the case. I have taken the logo and artwork and made it to customer specs. I have also engraved 30 pen upper barrels. I am trying to figure the cost for doing the upper barrel and cases and am looking for help at pricing the engraving. It took 2:45 min/sec to do the pen case top, 1:20 min/sec to do the inside of the case and 1:20 min/secs to do the pen. I did the art prep work as well. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts??? Thanks for any help and all sugesstions.

MikeB.

[Ernie Martinez]

I just did a similar job. $1.50 per minute of laser time, $50 set up + 2 x materials.

[Mike Berndt]

I just did a similar job. $1.50 per minute of laser time, $50 set up + 2 x materials.

That helps out and thank you!!

Mike B.

[Tim Bateson]

I do pens for $10 each. The cases would also be $10 each. I price as not to have to add "setup" fees. For 30 I would likely discount the order - more so if this is a repeat customer. I should add, that I built a jig to easily do a dozen or so pens at the same time. This saves me a lot of setup time.

[Jeff Belany]

A $50 setup fee for a pen seems pretty excessive, unless you just don't want to do any. Pens are usually just a name and maybe a title under it. Can't imagine anyone paying $50+ to get a name on a pen. I charge $8-10 and will discount for multiples at the same time. I don't have a rotary so maybe setup on that takes more time. Don't feel I need one for just names. Done a lot of them over the years since I make them myself to sell.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Ross Moshinsky]

Hub charges $70 for a setup, wants $.60 extra for personalization, and they have a minimum of 75 pieces. Base cost is around $1.75-$2.00 for the pen. All they do all day is engrave and print on pens.

[Mike Berndt]

Hi Tim, Thanks for your input.

MIke B

[Mike Berndt]

Hi Jeff,
I am with you on your suggestions and thanks.

Mike B.

[Mike Berndt]

Hi Ross,
Thanks for your input.

Mike B.

[Martin Boekers]

Mike, what laser and power are you using? The reason I ask is it seems that it's taking quite a bit of time
to engrave these. The pen for instance rarely takes me more than 15 sec. I mostly use standard pens from
JDS, but there are many suppliers of pens out there. I sell pens w/engraving for $10, quantities can go as low as $3
and I still will make good money per hour. Do you have a jig set up for the pens? Are you doing a mail merge if
they have different engravings? Also if you auto focus, take that off if the pens are all the same that saves some time
as the laser doesn't have to go through the process. Each of us have different clients and some here stay away from
pens as they are cheap to purchase from promo companies. Last year I did 200 pens in less than 2 hrs and made right around
$100 an hour so in can be done in the right circumstances.

[Bill Cunningham]

I| just did 50 pen tops, all the same with logo and line of text. Setup $15.00 and $3.50 per pen. Did them two up, took 26 seconds engraving time per 2-pen run + about 15-30 seconds per run placement and pick-up and 15 minutes re-pack for the whole 50 pens

[Jeff Greer]

I must be way under priced. We are going along with the prices the original owners of the store had and we are making some adjustments as we go. If a customer buys the pen in the store - that includes the laser fee, they bring it in - $2.50 a pen.

I just did a order of 150 aluminum pens and I made a "small" jig that held 48 pens to see how that worked. It was great and next time I have a large order I will make a bigger one to cover more of the table.

[Mike Berndt]

Jeff,
What did the jig look like? and did you use step and repeat?

[Doug Novic]

Mike,

Just finished 150 for $2 each. Engraved two sides of the top. Jig set for 40 pens at a time. Customer brought pen boxes later. 2 lines at $2 per box. Good profit, honest work. Trick is in your templates and setup. Art work is a minimum of $20 one time. Now I have the art work and a repeat customer.

[Jeff Greer]

Jeff,
What did the jig look like? and did you use step and repeat?

I just drew a boxxy like silhouette that held the pen in place, tried it out, and then when I had it fit good enough-I made columns with the shapes and then vectored a piece of cardboard. High tech stuff from this guy!!!
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