Pricing help on my first backlit sign (photos and numbers inside)

[motoguy]

Ok, I'm looking for some help on this one. I'm curious what market rate would be, in your opinion. This is my first one, and it took me forever to complete. As such, hourly doesn't really apply here.

It's 48" x 24.5", 2 layer, 14ga. There's a layer of diffuser acrylic behind the front panel, and LEDs as well.

Cut 14ga material is 48.25 x 47.20. 65 pierces, 1204 cut inches. Using the handy dandy plasma estimator app, I come in at $125 for cut metal alone. Paint / patina work at $70/sq yard comes to $123 (which equates to 2 hours shop rate at $60/hour).

Customer supplied vector graphics, so most of the work on his logo was stenciling letters, creating offset 2nd panel, mocking up LED strips to make sure offsets/standoffs would miss, etc. Panel creation and alignment issues.

LED strip was $25, charging $50. Acrylic $20 my cost, charging $40.

So, $125 (cut metal) + $123 (clear/patina) + $50 (leds) + $40 (acrylic) comes to $338, before drawing time/labor.

Labor includes face grinding/swirl marks, welding 5 standoffs, making tubing for 5 standoffs, cutting and mounting acrylic panel, welding hanger on the back, cutting splicing and mounting LEDs (cutting/splicing is a time sink!), etc. Those are the biggies I can think of.

I've got a number in mind, but that's based on guesswork for how long I think it should take, now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing. For those of you who are efficient with these, what would YOU charge for this sign?

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[Capstone]

That looks tight Moto. Nice job. I'd probably charge between $600 and 700 easy. Sourcing the lighting takes time to get it cheap direct from overseas sellers so how soon the client wants it is the $100 slide.

But, without all the lighting, which not every client wants or needs, I'm come in at around $525.

[motoguy]

That looks tight Moto. Nice job. I'd probably charge between $600 and 700 easy. Sourcing the lighting takes time to get it cheap direct from overseas sellers so how soon the client wants it is the $100 slide.

Thanks! I'm not really happy with the hot spots, and / or lighting mid-letter. Kind of dark there. The dark rust background really sucks up the lighting, but that's what the customer wanted. I could probably remedy that with vertical lights between the letters, or (if the customer can lose the dark background in the middle) cutting a bright, reflective plate to place between the LED's and the back plate. As it is now, I'm calling it good.

But, without all the lighting, which not every client wants or needs, I'm come in at around $525.

Would that be with acrylic panel and no LED, or no acrylic and no LED?

[tnbndr]

Did you try lighting it without the acrylic panel, not sure that helps with anything. Just roughly for the sign alone, no acrylic no lighting I'd be at $575 add in all the goodies and easily $800+.

[motoguy]

Bare sign you guys are saying $525 and $575. That's a 10% variation, so pretty stable. With lighting "$600-$700", and $800+.

The number I had come up with (lighting included) is $640. That included the numbers mentioned above ($338) + 5 hours for drawing time and labor. Again, that was just a guess. I think I had about a billion hours in this one, figuring out how to cut acrylic (cracked it first time), cut/splice LED's (removing the rubber coating, learning to use the extension plugs), applying acrylic (peeling the coating off the VHB is a a PITA!), etc.

Sounds like I may be leaving some money on the table.

I may have found a reason to use the router mount/router I have, as well. I used a jigsaw, circular saw, "vibrating saw" https://www.amazon.com/PORTER-CABLE-PCE ... B008V4NFC2, and a hole saw to cut the acrylic. Broke the first panel I cut, and had to do some "trimming" on the 2nd. Cuts aren't as professional looking as I would like.

[Capstone]

Moto,

I cut ABS and Acrylic using my Plasma Table that I converted for use with a Dewalt trim router. It would be a natural and likely profitable use to consider.