Price check - bicycle drawing

[beefy]

Just got paid for my second ever job. I have to say again this is so much more enjoyable and a zillion times less stressful than excavation. I love the thought of my work making the Dad and his little girl happy.

This is a drawing someones little girl did with a paint brush. The father wanted it reproduced in 3mm steel. Dimensions on the attached drawing. This is what was involved in this job:

1) Return trip to the guys workplace to view and talk about the drawing, 40 mins travel time PLUS half hour chatting (Muzza always warns us about that one ).
2) Return trip for steel 1 hour.
3) About 2 hours cad time. The drawing I was given was terrible, hazy edges, etc like a photocopy of a photocopy 100s of times, so a lot of line/node work. Had to also modify her "signoff" to make it all one piece.
4) Cut time was only about 12 mins
5) Deliver to customer (bare steel), about 50 minute round trip.

Just wondering what you guys would have charged before saying what I got.

The purple box is NOT part of the cut, it's just a bounding box to show dimensions. The cut was just the pink bike.

Keith

[Corfabrication]

I feel lucky to have a steel warehouse that delivers free.
Guessing on inches cut I'd say you would get 250-300 us
Not quite sure what that converts to across the pond.

[SeanP]

I would be around €130 around 180 of yours just for drawing time, material and cutting.

[beefy]

Thanks very much lads.

I got A$300 plus sales tax (which the government takes away). If I was established I'd no doubt have steel on hand and not go to the steel suppliers for each job. I'd also guess most of you don't do 2 return trips to first talk about the job then deliver it afterwards. The things we do to get started.

I actually did this job as sub-contract for an engineering shop. The shop owner has a Plasmacam but said he couldn't be bothered with this type of stuff. I don't think he has the knowledge of tracing, or dealing with nodes and curves like we do regularly. Everything is 3D solid modeling type software in his world. He actually had a sketch he'd done with all sorts of dimensions everywhere, he was indeed getting very "mechanical" about it. I said just give me the bounding dimensions and I'll give him a cut very close to what the original painting looked like. Of course he still tried to explain to me how to do it

The engineering shop is now sending it out to get powder coating done before giving it to the customer. Goes to show what some people will spend on something like this.

My only disappointment is that I don't think the customer will know I exist. I get the impression the engineering shop has done the job as far as the customer is aware. That's a bit like the excavation, where all your work get covered up and nobody knows anything about you afterwards LOL.

Keith.

[tnbndr]

don't think the customer will know I exist

That is where a scribe comes in handy. Scribe the name of your company on all products.

[beefy]

That is where a scribe comes in handy. Scribe the name of your company on all products.

Thanks Dennis,

any idea if it would still show after painting or powdercoating.

Keith

[Gamelord]

Powdercoating will reproduce a finger print....a scribe will show up just fine. Paint will also show depending on how thick you put it on.

[beefy]

Powdercoating will reproduce a finger print....a scribe will show up just fine. Paint will also show depending on how thick you put it on.

Thanks Gamelord,

and here I was thinking powdercoat would be a lot thicker than paint, because it's melted plastic. Always so much more to learn.

Keith.

[Gamelord]

Most powders come with a technical data sheet (TDS), that will give you the recommended thickness for the specific powder. Powders are not all the same, some are a lot thicker than others. Normally though, most powders will be shot at 1.5 mils to 5 mils thickness, some a bit less (mostly translucents) and some a little more. Most I have shot is around the 1.5 to 2-3 mils. This is for electrostatic spray technique on thermoplastic resins, fluidizing technique will run from 5 to 12 mils or more. Also, just for clarification, mils is not Millimeters but thousands of an inch.

Paint is usually a lot thicker, especially when you consider the base coat sealer, primer, paint and clear coat. Automotive coatings on vehicles is usually around 6-10 mils for aftermarket finishes, factory finishes are usually around 5 mils, not counting the clearcoatings which can be another 1-2 mils.

These are just rough numbers as each powder will be different and how the powder is applied will be different. Also, these thicknesses will vary depending on the part being painted / coated. A part with a lot of curves, valleys and bends will have thicker areas than a piece of perfectly flat metal.

Hope this helps.

[beefy]

Thanks very much Gamelord, definitely been a bit of education.

Makes sense actually when you mention up to 4 coats for painting.

Cheers,

Keith.