OH NO.....NOT ANOTHER PRICING QUESTION

[wenclewicz]

ok...here it goes.....I cut metal art....nothing too big....i powdercoat my stuff
forget the time programming, electic bill, time cutting, etc.....
I took:
cost of metal sheet
cost of tips
cost of paint
cost of grinding disc

took those....added my profit....and there you have it....$2.50 per inch

Is this a good way to price out....is that too much.....too little....NOT A CLUE

some pieces i see look like $2.50 inch too much...others not enough!!!!

what to do...what to do...what to do!!!!????

[jmsrbrt]

Any business, stays in business by turning a profit. You have to recoup your cost of doing business just to break even. That said, and without going into so much detail as to be impractical, your selling price has to include, at the bare minimum, the cost of your materials, and time. Add to that figure any profit you'd like to get. I haven't really given you a number, and can't, because that is different for everyone. You should probably start by figuring out what it costs you to produce an object, and compare it against your competition, and go from there. A small shop with little overhead, can price things below what a larger shop would with higher overhead. But then a larger shop might be able to price things lower than a smaller shop because of volumne. There's no such thing as "no job too large, no job too small".

[AnotherDano]

Another consideration I use is the utility possible for the amount of metal I can get.
Cutting a dozen small pieces from the same square footage as one large one comes into play.
Does it make sense to cut/coat a single oval wall-hanger that will sell for $40.00 if I can cut a dozen 'trinkets' from the same size, that sell for $10.00 apiece? Makes me say Hmmmm.

When pressed for an estimate, before any design work, I just give customers some pricing guidelines.
14ga steel costs me $.024/sq". I charge anywhere from $.05 to $.15/sq".
Lots of piercing; $.15/each for a few, for many, I don't count them, but use a higher sq" number.
Inches of cut; same rate, $.05 ~ $.15, "Until it gets stupid". If a piece calculates out to more than I think I would pay or the market will bear, I use a lower rate.

Powder coating; $5.00 sq'. and don't forget the back side. A 12x12 piece is two square feet. Another factor with powder coating is the size of the piece. Don't just count the powder that coats the item. It comes out of the gun at the same rate for big pieces or small ones. If small pieces result in a lot of powder in the booth filter or on the floor, it all costs the same from the powder supplier. Batch up your work. I don't even turn the oven on for less than $30.00. I lke to keep a stack of uncoated things stacked up, to fill up the oven. When shooting a single customer piece, shoot a couple of them with the same color and get more utility from the same curing cycle.

[Largemouthlou]

ok...here it goes.....I cut metal art....nothing too big....i powdercoat my stuff
forget the time programming, electic bill, time cutting, etc.....
I took:
cost of metal sheet
cost of tips
cost of paint
cost of grinding disc

took those....added my profit....and there you have it....$2.50 per inch

Is this a good way to price out....is that too much.....too little....NOT A CLUE

some pieces i see look like $2.50 inch too much...others not enough!!!!

what to do...what to do...what to do!!!!????

I like that 2.50 an inch.. dang, I just cut a few pces that were 518 inches.. but could only get 45.00 each for them cause the owner supplied the material..

I feel your pain on the pricing game, I try and figure mine like Dano, then if you figure a shop rate of 100- 150 an hour and the price is lower then Dano's method..

Guess it depends on what your cutting.. Some art work I do has 250 pierces in a 10" X 48" area and is about 15 minutes worth of cutting.. if your figuring 100 and hour a quarter of the is 25.00 that is a lot of pierces for just 25.00 of cut tim.

I would love to hear more discussion on this matter myself..

[planetxfred]

I still like to use the simple method for cutting cost (and have had no complaints) and it covers consumables, time and electricity.
take the total inches of cut, add one inch for each pierce, multiply the total times the thickness, DONE
Material cost same as others, round the square inches up to the nearest 1/2 sq foot.
Design & finish are a whole other thing.
Fred