probably low

[ssbn.981]

hey everyone,

i just completed several animals that are life size.
this is the first large job i have done and some are the largest
pieces i have cut out. i made them for a friend just to get the
practice. the are made of 3/16" cr. and i removed the mill scale.
he showed me what he wanted and i usually find a picture or drawing
and do my own drawing from that. i also do research as to what an average
animal in the wild would be.
i charged him 600.00 for the 5 animals.
i am sure i am low on what i charged, but i wanted to do some
large pieces to get the practice.

thanks

[beefy]

I haven't done any arty stuff with my table yet, but my first impressions are that is easy money.

I'm looking forward to hearing what others think on that selling price.

Keith.

[weldor2005]

Without having numbers to go from, My SWAG of a pricing would be as follows.



Cutting Low Detail .............................2x Material costs (MC)
Cutting Medium detail .........................2.5x MC
Cutting Low Detail + Painting/PC.............3x MC
Cutting Medium detail + Painting/PC.........4x MC
Special patina + Clear coating.................Varialble, however replaces regular costs associated with painting.

So, I visually think that you are pretty close to par on your price. but this is my simple quick gut check method of costing.

[beefy]

David,

going by your pricing this is what I came up with.

Going buy the size of the house bricks, I get the impression those cuts could be nested on half a sheet of 4 x 8.

Here in Australia the closest metric size to 3/16 would cost $260 (hot rolled was the price I checked). I think here everything costs more than in the US. So IF those parts could fit on half a sheet, that's $130 dollars of steel, it's simple "silhouette" cutting, and bare steel so a 2X price which brings it to $260. That on the other hand seems a bit too low to me for the five peices.

Keith.

[weldor2005]

Kieth,

Your right, it is low. I might also add an hour of labor at whatever rate may be, for my hobby it is $50/hr.

Then, cost of steel can be figured out in so many different ways...

What you pay for it, $260 + the fuel costs of getting it, ~$20, + time of getting it and putting in the shop, again $50.

That overhead all gets rolled into ow much the steel really costs me. so then 260+50+50+20=380 / (3/16) Sheet.

1/2 sheet x2 then again 380 . Enough Math... Bottom line for me. If I can get a customer who don't want me to paint something, that saves me a headache, If they will pick it up and not need an out of the way delivery, another headache saved. So If all I got to do is drop files in and scale them and then load a sheet and press go. at $380, that is easy money.

[ssbn.981]

Thanks for the reply's. Great feed back.

Sounds like I am in the ball park. Definitely will use
some of the pricing suggested here. Don't want to
over charge or lose money either.

I bought a 4x8 sheet for just over 200.00, and I used a little
more the half the sheet. The hard part was the mill scale.
this sheet was tough to get off. the clear coat was
matte clear.


thanks again for the advice.

doug

[beefy]

Doug,

regarding the mill scale. Have you heard about muriatic acid dissolving the mill scale. Do a search for it on this forum and even Google about it. Quite a bit of talk on the acid on this forum, and apparently the acid even helps dross just fall off.

My experience with the acid is you must immediately rinse with water afterwards then blast dry with compressed air. This prevents the flash rusting.

Read about the rusting issues with the acid too. Funny thing is it dissolves rust but when you remove the part it gets flash rusting if you don't immediately rinse it, etc.

Keith.

[weldor2005]

Doug,

regarding the mill scale. Have you heard about muriatic acid dissolving the mill scale. Do a search for it on this forum and even Google about it. Quite a bit of talk on the acid on this forum, and apparently the acid even helps dross just fall off.

My experience with the acid is you must immediately rinse with water afterwards then blast dry with compressed air. This prevents the flash rusting.

Read about the rusting issues with the acid too. Funny thing is it dissolves rust but when you remove the part it gets flash rusting if you don't immediately rinse it, etc.

Keith.

Just giving my endorsement here as well, I use it on some smaller projects. Works great. and then even for the smaller ones that can fit in a pail I use vinegar for a day or two.

[ssbn.981]

i did use muriatic acid. other pieces the scale came off real easy.
a couple of the pieces i cut from different stock and it took a
long time.
never tried the vinigar. but i will on the smaller pieces.

thanks for the advice.

[beefy]

From what I can remember the vinegar does work but takes a lot longer.

I think a search on the forum for "vinegar" will bring up some conversations on that.

Keith

[JEd]

Shouldn't Cold Rolled not have had mill scale? I pretty well always by my 14 gauge in CR for this reason.