How much is your printing time worth?

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elwooddbeauchamp
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How much is your printing time worth?

Post by elwooddbeauchamp »

Hi all,
I have a Rostock Max v2 and when I complete the parts I, or rather, my Partner, purchased it to make, I will be keeping the printer and soliciting jobs to do on it. My customers will be primarily engineering/manufacturing companies and Tool & Die Shops in need of rapid prototype parts. I would like to know what "we" should charge to get the work over the Big Mega-3D Printing companies.

Is anyone doing this? If so, what price range per hour/meter/volume/material etc. are you charging? Do you require the part files in a certain format? Do you charge to convert, and fix, if needed, the part file?

I have dozens of items I will be printing and offering on eBay, friends and neighbors, etc., but I want to make a profit, and, so does my partner (he gets 50%).
Momma told me "You need to work on your Printing"
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JohnStack
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by JohnStack »

Prices, from what I have seen are all over the place. I've taken a few quick prototype jobs to see what the experience of working with someone was and it never came up to an hourly that I liked - primarily due to:

Fiile conversation
Support
Draft Prints
Interaction time

If you're doing many prints of the same thing, it might work out but from what I see, no one wants a tiny prototype for $350+ - which is what I would have to charge to blow half a day making someone happy.

I'm not precluding the fact that I might be the wrong person to answer this. :oops:
Technologist, Maker, Willing to question conventional logic
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Jimustanguitar
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by Jimustanguitar »

Many of the companies that do commercial/industrial stereo lithography prototyping charge by the volume of material or weight of the product. That's another pricing model that you could use since some of the other prototyping processes don't charge by time.

If you had a price per gram, or ml, you could have a flat rate similar to the other services listed on their bid form.
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LASERMAN
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by LASERMAN »

I have been doing jobs for the company I work for. Mostly optical mounts and R&D bread board stuff. My printer makes the same hourly rate as I do. Last week, while my Max was sick, they got a quote for a few simple parts. Turned out to be about twice as much as I charged. That was also with supplied files - I usually get drawings on bar napkins :D

The quote did charge by volume as was stated earlier. They added a fudge factor for the complexity of the parts.

I must admit, they do look nice. I was not surprised - I would hope that a professional company could put out stuff as good as a rookie who has only had a printer since February.

Everyone wants something, but it's not always cost-effective. Like how long it takes to print one of those gear hearts - I don't think you would make a profit on those.
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elwooddbeauchamp
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by elwooddbeauchamp »

LASERMAN wrote:I have been doing jobs for the company I work for. Mostly optical mounts and R&D bread board stuff. My printer makes the same hourly rate as I do. Last week, while my Max was sick, they got a quote for a few simple parts. Turned out to be about twice as much as I charged. That was also with supplied files - I usually get drawings on bar napkins :D
The quote did charge by volume as was stated earlier. They added a fudge factor for the complexity of the parts.
I must admit, they do look nice. I was not surprised - I would hope that a professional company could put out stuff as good as a rookie who has only had a printer since February.
Everyone wants something, but it's not always cost-effective. Like how long it takes to print one of those gear hearts - I don't think you would make a profit on those.
Thanks Laserman,
Here is my Status...I am Retired. Stir-Crazy is my middle name. I have the 3rd of 8 identical parts printing at this moment. Takes 28 hours(+/-) and Stir-Crazy is starting to gnawing at me...lol...
Basically, my time is free. I have an old version of AUTOCAD that does me well enough.
I just do not want to "give away" my time and material on paying jobs.
I know a few ex-coworkers who are now working at other machine building companies and I am going to ring them up and see about some jobs.

Do you use the .5mm nozzle or the .35mm nozzle? I haven't tried the .35mm yet.
Momma told me "You need to work on your Printing"
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Jimustanguitar
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by Jimustanguitar »

elwooddbeauchamp wrote: I have the 3rd of 8 identical parts printing at this moment. Takes 28 hours(+/-) and Stir-Crazy is starting to gnawing at me...lol...
Sounds like you need to build more printers or check out http://www.rotomaak.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Reproducing time intensive parts for small runs is exactly why Mark designed and created the machine! PM me and I can give you his contact info.
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LASERMAN
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by LASERMAN »

elwooddbeauchamp wrote:
LASERMAN wrote:I have been doing jobs for the company I work for. Mostly optical mounts and R&D bread board stuff. My printer makes the same hourly rate as I do. Last week, while my Max was sick, they got a quote for a few simple parts. Turned out to be about twice as much as I charged. That was also with supplied files - I usually get drawings on bar napkins :D
The quote did charge by volume as was stated earlier. They added a fudge factor for the complexity of the parts.
I must admit, they do look nice. I was not surprised - I would hope that a professional company could put out stuff as good as a rookie who has only had a printer since February.
Everyone wants something, but it's not always cost-effective. Like how long it takes to print one of those gear hearts - I don't think you would make a profit on those.
Thanks Laserman,
Here is my Status...I am Retired. Stir-Crazy is my middle name. I have the 3rd of 8 identical parts printing at this moment. Takes 28 hours(+/-) and Stir-Crazy is starting to gnawing at me...lol...
Basically, my time is free. I have an old version of AUTOCAD that does me well enough.
I just do not want to "give away" my time and material on paying jobs.
I know a few ex-coworkers who are now working at other machine building companies and I am going to ring them up and see about some jobs.

Do you use the .5mm nozzle or the .35mm nozzle? I haven't tried the .35mm yet.

I use the .5 nozzle. I have a .35 I'll try once I get going better. You can always send out for a quote to a "real" company to give you something to compare prices with. Once my company did that they were very happy with my rates.
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Generic Default
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Re: How much is your printing time worth?

Post by Generic Default »

It's too bad that all of the big 3d printer manufacturers who make $6000+ machines are charging so much, both for the printers and for the plastics. Companies who buy the big machines now will struggle to pay them off, since the newer hobbyist machines can do the same quality of prints for so much less.

None of the big machines can do 50 micron prints in nylon with a 0.25mm nozzle. Sorry if this post is slightly off topic...
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