Price Check

[KIDTech]

Part dimensions: 2" x 5.3125" with two 13/16" holes in each plate
500 total parts which comes out to 1.5 sheets of 16 ga cutting in 4' x 8' @ $150 a sheet
I came out to $1,200
Any insight would be helpful.

[tnbndr]

$1200 - $225 material = $975/500= $1.95/piece seems awful cheap to me.
I would charge for both sheets of material and about $3.00 per piece. Take it or leave it.

[Shane Warnick]

I don't know where you are, but that's expensive steel.

I can get them all on a 5'x10' sheet, with room to spare. I would be around $650 for all of them, or $1.30 each. Wouldn't matter if they were 16g, or 14g, I charge a minimum of 3.5 cents per inch for cutting and material for everything under 10g.
There is 1500 pierces, and 10,191" of cutting there, plus a sheet of material.

So, I can cut those in 2 hrs, 15 min or so, MAYBE 2 1/2hrs if the phone rings, or there are a few tip ups etc. For easy math, lets say 2.5 hrs cutting, and for grins and giggles figure 3 hours to clean them all and wire them together (probably tumble them, but I will figure it the hard way for grins). 5.5 hrs total all in.

Now,
1 sheet of material, 60" x 120" $75
1 set consumables (maybe) $20 (no i don't pay this much for them, but it's easy math to just say 20)
1 flap disc $8 (there is a real good chance they would go in the tumbler, but lets just say not for grins)
Electricity,table wear etc $10 (I'm really just guessing here, I doubt it's that much but maybe)

So, cost is $113. That leaves me making $537 profit, or roughly $97 and some change, per hour. I think that's a fair profit, and on production work, I think this is a fair price.

This is being way generous with the time it would actually take me to get it done. I would probably tumble them, and end up with about 4 hours in the job, total. A lot of that time, I would be doing other things while the parts were tumbling.

I think that's a more than fair price, and I doubt I could get more then $1.40 or $1.50 per part where I am located. If you can get more, then I would.

All that being said, I don't know what your competition is, how far it is to go to get someone else to do it cheaper, and last, material cost is obviously higher where you are. I have 3 direct competitors with plasma tables, and two with lasers, and then a couple guys with water jets. All within 75 miles.

At your material prices ($1.87 per pound for steel is pretty damn high), I would be around $1230.00, which is still only $2.46 each out the door. If that's the cost then that's the cost, and I would say you priced it right about where I would have. Remember, when you are costing stuff, you have to factor in other things besides just profit margin. You have to account for risk exposure, and make sure you make enough on each job to cover the one where you screw up and have to eat the material to do it again. Better to do it and break even than lose money. The other thing to remember is it's not what it costs you to do the job, but what it costs to BE ABLE to do the job. At the end of the day, price it fair, make a fair profit, and if the job walks, you didn't need the practice anyways.

Shane

[KIDTech]

Sorry I left out an important detail, the material is 304 SS, I am right around that $70 mark for carbon steel in 16 ga.

[Shane Warnick]

Now that does change things a little. I would probably add $150 to the total, and would come out around $1400 if they wanted clean parts. Gonna have to grind all those, and they will eat up some flap discs. If they just wanted them clean like they come off the table, I would knock about the same off the original price I gave using your material cost, and would be around $1100 out the door, but that's for parts right off the table.

FWIW, I would be right around $70 for a 4'x8' sheet of 16g here as well.


Shane

[bhamer62]

500 pcs..... Sub em out to someone with a laser!! I can cut them for $.85 each, you can mark em up however much you can get for them and make a few bucks .... I ran them thru my quote template. Laser cutting w/nitrogen @ $200/hr. 16 ga 304L SS @ $1.42/lb (today's SS pricing) Now you can cut some fun stuff on your table....

[muzza]

500 pcs..... Sub em out to someone with a laser!! I can cut them for $.85 each, you can mark em up however much you can get for them and make a few bucks .... I ran them thru my quote template. Laser cutting w/nitrogen @ $200/hr. 16 ga 304L SS @ $1.42/lb (today's SS pricing) Now you can cut some fun stuff on your table....

That's pretty much what I do on production work. The price the laser guys will do it for is ridiculous and I know I make money guaranteed, generally on something like that I draw it and sub it out with 100% markup on cost.
Murray

[KIDTech]

My price is actually lower than two local laser guys (local meaning within 75 miles) but I appreciate the insight.