What to charge per cut inch and per pierce?

[GPWELDING]

Wondering what everyone is charging per cut inch and per pierce???

I have found on the forum here..
$ .33 per cut inch.
+ $ .15 per pierce point. Factors in consumable replacement cost.
+ $ 1.67 per minute of cutting based on $100.00 per hour for machine.
+ Material cost.
+ CAD, scanning, @ $55.00 per hour.

Seems alittle high but If thats what the average is im okay with it....

[boodog710]

I charge 20 cents an inch plus 22 cents per pierce. Drawing time is $50 per hour. This is my basis and I adjust from there. If its a lot of parts I look at the total and adjust from there. If I cut 1/4 inch and larger I charge more. Also it depends on who I am cutting the parts for. Regular customer or one time deal. Then add in the material.

[kbenz]

check out this post. http://www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5001

[GPWELDING]

Im doing .06 cents and cut inch +.05 cents a pierce + material cost...

And if I think something should be more I add on some labor for grinding it up.

[jimcolt]

Here is a job I just quoted.....and got the order and completed....and how it was invoiced.

My customer needed 800 shims (used in erecting a steel building frame) that were approximately 3" x 5" with two 15/16" slots.....shims were to be produced from 1/8" steel. Architectural drawing (on paper) was provided.....so from the drawing I CAD drew the part....about 5 minutes. From there, I calculated that each piece (including scrap) would use 24.1 square inches of steel, and that the cut path length on each part would be 18.7 lineal inches.

1/8" hot rolled steel at my supplier is currently $115 per 4x8 sheet. Since I pick up the steel (good excuse to go for a ride in beautiful NH!) double the price on steel and call that my selling price.....so each 4 x8 sheet is now in my inventory with a sell price of $230. I then calculate the sell price per square inch....so $230 divided by 4608 (the square inches in a 48" x 96" sheet) and come up with $.049....so round that up to .05, which is 5 cents per square inch.....the selling price for 1/8" steel at my shop.

So.....from my first paragraph above....the square inches of the part to be quoted is 24.1 and the lineal inches are 18.7. The selling price (per part) for material is then calculated as .05 x 24.1 = $1.205....rounded to $1.20. I then use the same .05 figure to calculate the cutting cost....which I have found over the many years in this business works out almost perfectly to cover my shop time, labor and overhead and cutting costs with a tidy profit thrown in. So the cutting cost is .05 x 18.7 = .935, rounded to $.94. So....the price I will quote these parts for is $1.20 (material) + $.94 (labor, overhead,profit) = $2.14 each.

My customer has asked for 800 of these parts....and he forgot to order them for the job....and he wants them yesterday. This particular customer always orders this way....and kind of forces me to drop other things I am doing to get his work done. Should I offer a quantity discount.....no! So I quote the job at $2.14 per part x 800 parts for a total of $1712.00. I will have the parts done tomorrow, and your guy can pick up the shims at my shop.

No one else will bid less....and no one else will take the order for one day delivery. I always get orders like these. So...lets look at the cutting job...pictures below.

I arrayed these simple rectangular parts on a 4 x 4 sheet (I will cut them on my PlasmaCam 4 x 4 with a Powermax85)...and find that I can fit 120 parts on it.....so I need 7 4 x 4 sheets.....I pick up 4 full 4 x 8 sheets at my supplier at $110 each for a total of $440. Since these are shims used in construction....they do not need perfect edge quality, but must have no dross as I do not want to chip dross on 800 parts. ( a parts tumbler would be nice though). From experience....I know that the 45 amp process on my Powermax85 does a nice dross free cut at around 190 inches per minute on 1/8" steel. If I wanted squarer edges...I would cut at the recommended speed of 100 ipm.....but I can go up to the maximum speed of 205 ipm....and higher speed eliminates dross....but does produce a little more taper on the edge.....so I settle on 190 ipm after a couple of sample cuts.....no dross at all.

With handling time (loading the material on the machine) and cutting time....it takes about 25 to 30 minutes to cut 120 parts at this (190 ipm ) cut speed. With stacking and taping piles of 25 parts together, cutting the parts, material handling and cutting the 4 x 8 sheeds (with a Powermax45 hand torch) in half.....I have almost exactly 4.5 hours into this job.

Bottom line. I invoiced my customer $1712.00 (he does pay regularly...so I don't ask for money at delivery), my hard costs were $440. So the income for this job was $1272, and if you figure that over 4.5 hours that is over $282 per hour. From this, of course you must pay for your shop costs, your utilities (electrical and heat), your amortized cost of equipment , business taxes, and after everything is done....there still is a pretty good bit left over.

And....by the way...the PlasmaCam and Powermax85 never skipped a beat on 800 parts. As you can see from the pics the parts were tightly nested....I did have two or three collisions with tipped parts.....damage was averted by my use of a machine torch mounted on a nice magnetic breakaway from http://www.snapncut.com . The consumables in the Powermax85 (new nozzle and electrode for the first cut) provided exactly the same cut on the 800th part as they did on the first. I would do at least another 800 parts with these same consumables....the wear is hardly noticeable on the nozzle orifice.

Another couple of notes: I "tabbed" the parts...leaving a small .06" connected tab on the bottom of each part. This allowed me to pull the whole 4 x 4 off the table with all the parts....so I could throw another sheet on the table. Tabbing also minimizes tip-ups. The parts then were easily broken out of the sheet....and I did run a flap disc on each part to eliminate the nub from the tab.

The PlasmaCam has the best torch height control system on entry level machines. It uses ohmic plate contact before each cut to auto calibrate the proper pierce and cut height....then after the cut starts...it samples the arc voltage and recalibrates the voltage/height relationship......which compensates for electrode wear in the torch. At the end of each 190 ipm cut the torch retracts and the machine traverses to the next part at 1000 ipm. Even after my 35 years in this business working with industrial machines....I find this machine very productive and interesting to watch.

Jim Colt

shim job 001.jpg

shim job 002.jpg

shim job 003.jpg

[CNCCAJUN]

Very informative post.

Will copy & save . . .

I must ask you one question though. Why did you go with a Snap & Cut?

The Hypertherm unit sells for about $150.00 & I believe works the same way.

So I am assuming there is a reason beyond the catchy name . . .

I know Snap & Cut is very well made, but a little pricey . .

Steve

[jimcolt]

Actually the Hypertherm magnetic mount as used with our industrial torch height controls is over $1200.00. The SnapnCut was $295. One broken torch head has a replacement cost of about $300....so the snapncut seems like a good deal to me!. It bolts on to the PlasmaCam DHC2 or the Samson torch mount....which is factory designed to hold a hand torch. The optional machine torch holder from PlasmaCam is crude at best...it uses a hose clamp to hold the torch in place.

I originally had one of the Hypertherm units on the machine in the picture....but it had a bit too much breakaway force as it is designed for use with our larger industrial torches. This one seems to work better.


Jim Colt Hypertherm

Very informative post.

Will copy & save . . .

I must ask you one question though. Why did you go with a Snap & Cut?

The Hypertherm unit sells for about $150.00 & I believe works the same way.

So I am assuming there is a reason beyond the catchy name . . .

I know Snap & Cut is very well made, but a little pricey . .

Steve

[CNCCAJUN]

That makes sense . . .

I just checked back & the part # 128279 I priced is for the TORCH MOUNTING BLOCK ONLY.

That is just one small component of the the break away unit from Hypertherm.

Now it makes sense . . .

Again, thanks Jim . . . Snap N Cut headed my way in the near future . . .

Steve