Cutting table rates... piece or hourly

[PlasmaGuy]

Hello All!

I know I have seen this question posted before but my search found me nothing?

I understand that some shops charge by the hour and others by the inch.

How are you guys billing.

Thanks

Tom

[arelewis]

most shops charge $/hr with a minimum / 10- 20 miniutes. charge this for design time then charge a fee / min for consumables. ex .50 / min cut time.

[Torchhead]

Hello All!

I know I have seen this question posted before but my search found me nothing?

I understand that some shops charge by the hour and others by the inch.

How are you guys billing.

Thanks

Tom

Somebody walks in your shop and hands you a sample of a bracket they need 100 of. They expect to be able to have you look at it and give them a price. Start talking about variables like cut time, layout charges, etc and they just say "I'll be in touch" (they won't) and walk out.

You won't know how long something takes to cut until you lay it out and let the CAM tell you the cut time.

OR

You can use a quicker method and figure out what your cost is to cut things by the square inch (or ft) and just have different rates for material costs (be sure to add in handling and overhead on the material).

Also you have to make it clear what they get. Is it de-slagged, cleaned, ready for paint (mill scale removed) or raw. It's a lot easier to figure those cost by the area rather than time.

I can bid something in 30 secs from a drawing or sample. Sometimes I miss it but usually it's profitable and I spend my time doing art and cutting.

I can see where time & materials would work well for machine shop operations but for profile cutting it may take more time to do the calculations than it's worth!

TOM CAUDLE
www.CandCNC.com

[PlasmaGuy]

You won't know how long something takes to cut until you lay it out and let the CAM tell you the cut time.

Tom, this is what I need help with!

I know how to figure area long-hand as well with Auto-CAD.

CAM is another story. Keep in mind I have a 7+ y/o Microkinetics system running in DOS

I read a post somewhere about a fellow that based his pricing on inches/per/minute IPM .

He had a rate and could quickly price work. I would like to sound more professional than telling the cusotmer that I need to burn/cut one item and then "get back to them"

Thanks,

Tom

[Torchhead]

Tom, this is what I need help with!


CAM is another story. Keep in mind I have a 7+ y/o Microkinetics system running in DOS

I read a post somewhere about a fellow that based his pricing on inches/per/minute IPM .



Thanks,

Tom

Based on IPM???? That is how fast your machine is running on a straight cut and has no frame of reference in the real world since most cutting hardware slows down on tight cuts.

If your CAM software can't give you an estimate of cut time (SheetCAM does that) or your Control software won't provide the actual cut time in a simulation, then you are SOL on getting anything that resembles an actual cut time.

If you want to use the cut time methodology with the tools you (don't) have I suggest you hang a dart board with random numbers and just throw a dart. Then use whatever number comes up multiplied by what ever the day of the week it is minus your birthday in days from the current date (:-)

Sometimes you just can't make a silk purse from a pig's ear.......

[PlasmaGuy]

No kidding! Like I said, MicroKinetics program was big-time 7 years ago and that was what Torch-Mate offered too.

As for sheetcam.... unless one is operating a system that runs on g-code sheetcam is of no use? Microkinetics operates using HPGL.

Thanks,

Tom