Quote Questions

[Jeff Wilkins]

I was wondering what some of you would charge for this job. It is a 1in x 1in tile that takes me about 1:20 to engrave and cut in my laser. The customer wants pricing for 50, 100 and 400 of them. Any recommendations on what to ask? I will be using 1/8 BB ply on them. So material cost will be about 1 cent per tile I think. 5x5ft BB ply at $25.00 is 2500 cents / 3600 sqin = 0.70 cents / square in.

Thoughts?

[Martin Boekers]

Do you have to clean them up a bit? The edge can be a bit nasty and may not hold paint, if he is going to paint it.

Forget the cost of material, that is negligable, its all about time, maybe more time involved in ordering material,
contacts with client, testing, if they pay cash or charge, etc.

Do you know his ultimate use and if he is reselling it what his charge is?


I (as well as others here) have seen a job like this turn on you too often.
You spend time with them making tests working out the details, they ask for
price point quotes. Sometimes they just drop the project completely or they
say we'll start out with 5 now and see how it goes...


I try to get a feel from the outset, before any testing occurs to see if they actually
have a realistic Idea of the cost. You may find that you think you can do it for about $3ea
and find out they actually thought it would be about $.25ea (been there done that! )


One concern is how detailed these are and whether you can consistantly engrave and vector
through out the laser bed. You may find that to be an issue.

Another concern is from looking at this there may be quite a bit of smoke, and will require
lens cleaning etc a few times in the run.

Board warping at that size could create issues

Your talking 9-10 hours of running (480 min @ 48 per hour for 400 )

Sooooo if all went perfect at $3 a piece there could be a profit of $80 or so an hour.

Would I take this on for that? Probably not as I can see too many things that could run astray.


Now with all that said..... I have taken on jobs in the past that everyone said I was nuts to,
and made it work with a nice profit!


I wish you the best on this and let us know how it turns out!

[Gary Hair]

I would start by marking up the material by 3 times and $120/hour ($2.00/minute) and see what that gets you. Include your setup, prep, laser, package, cleanup, etc., in your time, not just laser time. Then you need to think about perceived value and adjust your price accordingly. This should, in theory, get you a decent price for small quantities - 1-50 or so. Adjust your price down for the higher quantities but not so low that you are not happy seeing the customer come back with a 400 piece order. Oh, and a word from experience - if they want prices on 50, 100 and 400, they will definitely order 10 to start with and will expect the 50 piece price. Do yourself a favor and include a 1-25 and 26-50 piece price and have a minimum order amount as well. It would suck to price them at $3.00 each and have him order 5 at a time - $15.00 won't even get me up from my chair...

Good luck!
Gary

[Mike Lysov]

I totally agree with Gary, may be even start with $150/hour for small 10 pieces run.
Just do not make it cheap for the first quote but mention that you will drop its price for huge order.
Take into account that 1/8" plywood is the worst material you can work with. It is never flat so you will spend a lot of time finding panels that are are not bent or trying to work with bent ones.

[Rodne Gold]

As others have intimated , this job is FRAUGHT with potential problems. I would quote a FOAD (f... off and die) type price on em.
I would decline a 1-50 price and quote only a 100 and above price.
I would charge $5 a pop for 100 - 400 and not worry too much if you don't get it.
FOAD pricing is pricing so high that its VERY profitable and worth the effort if they accept .... otherwise they can FOAD ..a bit crude..but....

[Joe Hillmann]

Jeff,

Have you tried making more then one at a time yet? With that much detail cut into such a small area I would worry about tar build up and smoke build up on your lenses. It may be worth doing a small batch of them to see what problems you will have. From experience I would have a lot of concerns with doing that many pieces with that much detail in plywood.

[Mike Null]

Rodney is right! Why would anybody select that material for this job?

[Jeff Wilkins]

Would you guys use acrylic instead? They just want it 1/8 thick.

[Martin Boekers]

I think acrylic would definitely be better, There may be issues with how thin some of the cuts are though.