CNC pricing for other sign shops?

[DisplayWorks S&G]

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone had a tried and true simple pricing model I could use to estimate CNC cutting for others.

Right now I am toying around with a spreadsheet that includes the following:
-Number of square feet being cut
-Thickness of material 0.125 to 1in
-Material type
-Number of shapes

In some cases I will be supplying the material but I will calculate that separately.

It's hard to find something that is simple and fair across all materials and complexities.

I don't really want to base my pricing so much on cnc machining time but the complexity of cutting along with a base rate.

 

[StarSign]

Time and materials

 

[MikePro]

sq.ft pricing will only work if you price it to cover the most exhausting routes, and then know how much you can walk it back if you want to be more competitive on a particular quote.
a 4ft square could have a larger sq.ft. area than a 3sqft perforated panel, or a 1'x10' signature, but the time on the table is 3x+ longer

 

[Boudica]

Our CNC guy we outsource to... who only does CNC - has a table fee. It's about $100 per sheet I think. doesn't matter how big, thick or how many shapes are cut.

 

[Gino]

Our CNC guy we outsource to... who only does CNC - has a table fee. It's about $100 per sheet I think. doesn't matter how big, thick or how many shapes are cut.

Yeah, same here. Our guy charges $65 bucks for an hours worth of cutting.

 

[JBurton]

$50-100/hr, when estimating, a sheet is an hour, unless it's trimming 4 sides of acm, then it's $25.
A good way to do it is length of contours X feed rate, but even then, you have to receive the material, load the sheet, unload the parts, clean up, so a super accurate time estimate isn't super helpful if you have to include 15 minutes every single time.
But $100 a sheet is kinda wild, 3" HDU vs .25" aluminum vs 3mm ACM, depending on contents, can go from 6hr, 1hr, 5 minutes.

 

[Boudica]

$50-100/hr, when estimating, a sheet is an hour, unless it's trimming 4 sides of acm, then it's $25.
A good way to do it is length of contours X feed rate, but even then, you have to receive the material, load the sheet, unload the parts, clean up, so a super accurate time estimate isn't super helpful if you have to include 15 minutes every single time.
But $100 a sheet is kinda wild, 3" HDU vs .25" aluminum vs 3mm ACM, depending on contents, can go from 6hr, 1hr, 5 minutes.

Maybe he get's a lot of 10 min jobs and it all averages out to a profit. IDK, or maybe that's just what he charges us, we do have a great relationship with them. Just sharing what I know, there is a lot I don't know though - I'll be quiet now

 

[JBurton]

we do have a great relationship with them.

Then I'll wager you have a consistent 'type' of product, so he's gotten comfortable in that pricing scheme. I'll wager new or non repeat customers get a setup fee plus hourly rate, but that's my backwoods reckoning.

 

[artifacture]

We do laser cutting and have the same issue. As others have said, you can't do square foot pricing on something like this.

In Adobe illustrator, you can open the document info palette and switch it to objects mode, then it will show the linear inches of the paths selected. I worked out a price per linear inch at each thickness that covers the majority of complexity.

I based it on time trials because the machine never runs as fast as you tell it. This is because it has to slow down to turn corners and may never get to full speed in between turns. I describe it to people as the difference between driving zig zag across a city versus taking the highway around. It might be shorter through the city, but you spend very little time at speed before turning. Whereas the highway you can maintain speed longer. The closest I got to the rated speed was cutting a 48" square, anything smaller was less. My 1/8" speed is 2 inches per second, but if I divide distance but runtime, it's more like 0.9-1.2 in most cases.

 

[Ryze Signs]

I've stopped cutting materials for other shops. It's not worth the hassle. It seems I always have to do a bunch of clean up, or redraw their files. Then they want to provide their own materials. For it to be worth my time it would need to be $400-$500 minimum.

 

[artifacture]

I've stopped cutting materials for other shops. It's not worth the hassle. It seems I always have to do a bunch of clean up, or redraw their files. Then they want to provide their own materials. For it to be worth my time it would need to be $400-$500 minimum.

Nothing wrong with job minimums. Ours is $100, a fellow shop with metal cutting ability is $300.

I love doing simple cutting on provided material, but typically it's many sheets worth and my clients (so far) generally deliver decent files. My issues are usually more about rediculous timelines. Some clients get charged a premium as they’re more trouble to deal with (poor files, demand perfection, perpetually short turnarounds).

 

[John Miller]

Keep track of all the time you spend. If a file needs 1/2 hour of tweaking to make it useable, somebody has to cover the cost of that time. Your software will tell you how much time it will take to cut the job. Figure what you need per HR. to run your shop/machine, add it set-up and clean up. Have a minimum to cover small jobs.

 

[pitorro]

We charge $70 per 4' x 8' sheet. It doesn't matter if its acrylic, acm, etc.

 

[WBS]

hourly rate plus tools used

 

[Gene@mpls]

They get charged the same as a customer does. They can then mark it up. It either works for them or we do not have to do it [usually the best outcome]. You worry about your costs/customers, they do the same. Worked that out 25 years ago and have never regretted it.

 

[John Miller]

We charge $70 per 4' x 8' sheet. It doesn't matter if its acrylic, acm, etc.

I can see problems with that scenario. Dear TSM in Phoenix, I have a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" thick aluminum and need 200 6" letters profile cut. I'll bring the sheet right over.

 

[JBurton]

I can see problems with that scenario. Dear TSM in Phoenix, I have a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" thick aluminum and need 200 6" letters profile cut. I'll bring the sheet right over.

I have a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" thick aluminum and need 600 2" letters profile cut. I'll bring the sheet right over.
FTFY

 

[Bxtr]

We tried pricing by time, but it wasn't working out. So we have a square foot charge, it's not perfect but its enough to scare jobs you don't want and enough to make it worth your while when you have a bunch of small items that tie up the machine for an hour. It's about $30/sqft.

 

[spectrum maine]

90$ an hour router time 50$ an hour setup and computer time

 

[netsol]

I have a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" thick aluminum and need 600 2" letters profile cut. I'll bring the sheet right over.
FTFY

what a coincidence, i need almost the exact same thing
here is a sample of my font, can we make it 1-4/8", though?