Thread: Laser Engraving - What to charge $$

I would defiantly have a base min
Then maybe a 15 min time slot from there.
But I don't know how long it takes to set up either

Personally, I think that $40/hr is not enough for a specialised service.

A few questions, are there any consumable components? If so, what's the cost and how long do they last? How much power is used to run it X cost per KW.
Are you wanting to do this as a money making concern or a hobby? Anywhere else charges about $100 per hour, to cheap and you will be over run with work, to expensive and you go hungry and broke. DAMHIKT
Kryn

You may also need to consider the time that you may have to spend converting files so that they can actually be used in the laser.

I personally wouldn't raise any eyebrows if someone quoted me 80bux/hour for labour. In fact I would probably let out a sigh of relief because it was less than the $110-130bux/hour I am commonly quoted when my car is threatening to give up the ghost.

back in 2007-2009ish I used to quote the occasional CNC routering job for a small business producing signage and acrylic point of sale displays. I was the bloke which programmed and ran the machine on a daily basis, I could see how long a specific job would take at a glance.

(hours x $120) + materials +gst.

There was a fair amount of fat in that equation, given that the materials value was also marked up. So when the inneviatble happened and a client requests a re-quote, I was able to quote as low as 80bux/hour for labour. Reducing the quote would depend on how easy a job will be. If the job was going to be annoyingly frustrating demanding exact precision, then the client isn't getting any favours from me, because he will probably complain about something and waste extra time later on. But if the job tolerances are +/- a football field, then I can be little laxed about the price and effort, because the client is unlikely to complain and won't be sapping any extra time arguing with me.

small jobs odd jobs was 50bux min charge....cash

Don't sell yourself short, you have a specialised service that's not super easy to find. I reckon $80/hr is definitely fair.
I think we charge $100/hr at work for machining and $120/hr for CNC work with a minimum charge of $80 unless it's a quick "can you cut this in half" type of job.

Originally Posted by rod1949

With what I've experienced Laser engraving some jobs can be done in a few seconds (after setting up and testing) whilst other jobs that I've experienced can take an hour or so to do. So how does one workout how to charge and what amount to charge ie does one have a minimum charge of say $20 for anything that is less than 30 minutes duration and then above this time say $40 per hour????? Am I dreaming pie in the sky stuff? Your comments suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

some general principles to help you decide ...

your time should be costed at 2x what you want to be paid per hour -- i.e if you want to pay yourself minimum wage then your charge out rate should be a minimum of about $35 per hour (minimum wage is $17.50 per hour?) However, setting up a laser engraver is "skilled" work, so you should be paying yourself much more than $17.50 per hour, perhaps as much as $50 per hour -- which would yield a charge out rate of $100 per hour.

Then there's consumables. How much does the laser cost to run per hour? A 240V, 10 amp laser will be consuming less than $1 of electricity per hour (at 25 cents per kWhr), which is trivial so should be ignored. But consider amortisation. If a $5000 laser has a life of 10000 hours, it costs 50 cents an hour to run, which is another trivial cost. The material you're engraving will be the most expensive consumable and should be costed at cost plus a markup. If you hold the material in stock, a markup of 3 to 5 times is not unreasonable.


My experience with this sort of "work" is that your time is expended in the set-up -- principally developing or converting art work into a suitable format for the engraver.
If a customer turns up with a PDF or AutoCAD file ready for converting into G code then the cost to them should be a lot less than for a customer who arrives with a sketch which you need to scan, trace, digitise, redraw, etc before it can be converted into G code.

lastly
is this for beer money, to satisfy the ATO that the laser is a legitimate business expense, or do you intend for it to become a regular source of income?

Great points above... but it also depends on the power of your machine...
you might take an hour to do a job, because you might have a less-powerful machine than Joe down the road with a you-beaut laser than can sail through a few 20mm acrylic letters in 10 minutes...
and your machine might be the Ebay special at $3k, whereas Joe paid $45k for his...
so 'overheads' will vary, and some jobs are worth porbably a certain amount regardless of how long one or the other takes to do it...

It's a juggling act.

Hi Rod,

This was one of the hardest parts for me starting my business, and it is still to this day a variable factor

Pricing for laser engraving/cutting services is dependent on a few key factors:

• Power/Speed of the machine

This relates to your maintenance cost when you calculate tube & elec cost per min, you need to ascertain how much your consumables are going to cost and then work out your per min maintenance rate, this will influence how much you charge on a /time basis for machine use, power and speed will influence the time to complete each job and therefor influence you cost and sell
We charge on a per/min basis with a minimum, my machines are ceramic tubes so machine maintenance is lower than metal or glass tubes

• Material Costs

Are you providing the materials for the job, if so you need to work out your cost and sell accordingly, don't forget about cleaning and work materials, they are small but over 100 jobs they add up fast
We charge for materials based on QTY, smaller the qty the higher the rate

• Ability to convert graphics into a usable format, Vector Work, will this be outsourced etc?

This is the charge for converting standard JPG, PDF, Etc images and text into a usable format for your laser, you need to ascertain if you will do this in house or have an outsourced company do the work for you.
We charge on a per/hour basis for conversions and do all our work in house

• Additional work required, such as gluing parts together, filling engraved area's, re coating surfaces ETC

Engraving is sometimes more than just the laser work, some projects require filling, or re-coating, you will need to have a sheet ready for these charges if you wish to provide them
We charge on an adhoc basis for this one and do not have a set quote rate

• Minimums and Flat Rates

Some Jobs you will get very used to the cost for yourself and what you need to charge to make mustard, these will become regular items that you can pull a sell rate for straight away and will not require a /time rate to be quoted
We have found that items like glassware, plaques and awards are good to have a set rate for as the clients normally don't want to see a /time rate when they are getting a single item or 1-3 items in the end

As others have said, DO NOT sell yourself short, I made this mistake on a few jobs trying to get the business and although we did the work and the client was super happy I now honor or at least keep the rate within reasonable limits of what i originally quoted then, If I had quoted what I really needed to make it worthwhile on those jobs there may have been a chance I would have not gained the work BUT if i did it would be worth my time to complete it.

If your ever in trouble and need some help just buzz me on here or pm me and I'll chuck you my mobile, happy to help out a new comer to the industry any time

Jack