Making money with your cnc

[genek]

Friends I may have stumbled up on a good source of income for your cnc.

There are lots of Mom and Pops that make signs, most do not have a cnc to cut out sign shapes and must do it with a jig saw..

as of this morning I will be cutting mdo sign shapes for 7 sign companies..
and will be doing 3d work for them when needed.

you may want to check into this in your area. go around and ask small sign companies if they would like for your to cut the sign shapes for them.. I quoted $50.00 per hour,,, all of them jumped on it.

[SomeSailor]

It might be because you quoted low too. :)

I charge a flat shop rate of $65/hour + layup and tooling (depends on job).

Many sign shops here have Bots too. Mostly for working foam signs.

[CNYDWW]

I had a general fee of $60 hr for machine time and not too many people wanted to pay that. That was for just "tossing" sheet material on the machine and cutting it.

Regards
Randy

[dlcw]

The way I approach it is to offer discounts on future orders. I charge full rate $1/minute for the CNC on the first sign. I also charge for design time and shop labor to do the sign. On future orders I will offer a discount on the machine time. Over time, I will offer further discounts depending on how much the customer orders and how often they order.

This long term discount seems to have appeal over just charging them full rate all the time. The design time and shop labor remain the same regardless of how much or how often they order.

I have one sports plaque shop I do a lot of work for that has a pretty nice discount on the CNC rate and he loves it.

[Brady Watson]

You have to find a pricing structure that works for you & your customers - and possibly different prices for different customers.

$50/hr is dirt cheap. I don't even turn on my machine for less than $125/hr, unless it is a high volume job, and my prices are competitive with my area of the country. Where you live will affect your pricing structure.

Also, doing work for sign companies who don't have a router usually doesn't last long. They eventually get their own machine...so ride the wave while you can.

-B

[Simops]

Wow Brady, I tip my hat off to you at $125/hr......I didn't realize that CNC work can fetch such rates!
I don't use my Bot for direct profit as such, I have a side business to my normal day job and use it to make parts that I need and for prototyping.
My normal day job is as a specialist Helo flight instructor to emergency services such as Night Vision Goggle training and testing, Instrument flight instructing and testing, hoisting, fast rope / sniper training for CT ops, etc. I also conduct police and SAR flight duties. But it has taken me 25 years after leaving the Forces to gain the qualifications and trust from the regulator to conduct tests independently.....it's been a hard slog and the best I can ask for is $120/hr in this economic climate.
So your $125/hr is fantastic......I'd give up my day job if I could get that doing CNC work which I must admit I'm enjoying more than the flying...and alot less risky...oops did I say that...:D

[johnh]

Also if you ever wish to break free from the "commodity" pack... start thinking less in terms of how much you get per hour and more in terms of what is the value of what you are producing.

I don't price things that way usually but if you reverse calculated my pricing it works out to about what Brady quoted... $125 as a minimum, and most times more.

Let me ask you... are you guys charging the same rate to throw a sheet of $11 luan up on the table as you do a $600 sheet of urethane board? Have you ever had a cut file go awry? a power surge? a computer burp? ever screwed up a sheet somehow? This is one example and element of how I think about jobs and pricing.

...and get paid in advance from sign shops. I run a full service sign shop myself but almost none of my customers are in the sign business... any more.

[gene]

Is it better to let the shopbot sit and not to be used or make 50.00 an hour ? is there different rates for different parts of the country?

[Brady Watson]

John nailed it dead on. There are a lot of considerations when you price out a job. How much aggravation factor is there? How much risk is there in case something goes wrong? How good are you at running the machine & programming it?

Gene - It depends...If you are not fully invested in doing CNC (you have another job) and your skills are not up to a professional level or the parts coming off aren't 1st class, then I guess $50/hr isn't bad. Yes of course the cost of running a CNC in NYC is more than in the middle of the sticks. Overheads, market prices and many other things affect pricing. Your area might max out at $50/hr for this type of work (I doubt it). The labor rate for car mechanics around here is well over $100/hr...try $200+/hr near NYC.

The thing that is rarely mentioned, is the owner/operator's attitude and outlook. What you believe you are worth will influence what you can get for a days work. If you somehow don't believe that you are worth more than $50/hr because some feeling pops up that 'doesn't feel right', then guess what...you aren't going to make more than $50/hr.

Order/Buy/Borrow - Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - Read it, and do it. It will shed some light on your old tired ideas about money and get you thinking in the right direction to be successful, while operating with integrity. If you are really good at what you do, and you operate with integrity, you can pretty much name your own price. After all, who's the boss anyway? (It ain't Tony Danza...) YOU are the one that sets the price for YOU to run YOUR machine...Just like everything else in your life...YOU are the boss.

-B

[B. Pile]

This past summer i had a plumber come over and help me.I needed to replace a few long lengths of 1 1/2 copper the company sent over a young guy maybe 25yrs.old. He arrived wasn't sure where to start so I ended up Planning the job
giving him a list of what to go buy and after returning doing 90% of the work myself ! Then receiving a bill for a entire day at a rate $85.00 a hr.:eek:

[shilala]

Eugene lives so far out in the woods that the people wouldn't pay 5 bucks for a value meal IF there was a McDonalds. :D

[larry_k]

one more post and you are at 5000 mark do you get a sticker :}
larry

[B. Pile]

Let me Guess Scott you must be a Browns fan :D We love the browns also
2 guaranteed steeler wins every Year ;)

[larry_k]

chicago fan

[Ajcoholic]

Like everything else in business, you have to price yourself as much as the economy will bear - and that is VERY different all over.

For instance, around here where I live, the going rate for all trades (plumber, electrician, auto mech, etc) is far less than 8 to 10 hours south in the city of Toronto. That being said our cost of living is less too.

My shop rate I charge for my custom woodworking business is $60 hour, going up to $70/hr as of the end of this year. I charge out the same rate when I am running my router.

If I priced my work (custom woodworking) at $125 hr here, I would lose work, I am sure of that. I base my pricing on several factors, after being in business for 20+ years. So far, it works fine for me.

You can always push your rate up, and up - until it starts to mean lost work. That being said, I am making a decent living at what I charge out (and I have a woodworking shop i've invested nearly $600,000 in - probably a lot more than most here on the forum).

Business has to make sense. You have to make it worth while - to put a decent $$ in your pocket after all costs, and incidentals are taken care of. WHat that actually means you have to charge out will be different for everyone.

AJC

[chiloquinruss]

I am not in business but I do some side jobs and yes I charge for them. I know what the folks in the area charge and I also know what kind of quality they can get. The bot and Aspire make me head and shoulders above them quality wise. I know the best of them is several weeks behind and is not well liked in the business community. I charge $75 per hour but that is for each part of the job that I'm asked to do. I also charge extra for materials, the $75 is straight labor charges or machine charges. I also have a very strict policy of telling THEM when it will be done. I will NOT do rush jobs, that is just asking for problems. BTW I paid for my machine within 18 months of purchase doing side jobs and last year was my best year yet (spindle, 48x96 std). I get work by doing samples and by referrals. Without the forum I would never been able to get so much out of my machine. The projects you all do and the complete explainations with linked references give me lots of ideas and ways to do jobs for folks. Russ

[B. Pile]

I agree AJ, if you do business locally you are subject to some extent to the local economy. The larger your market area the better off you are. I do live out in middle of nowhere, but I am fortunate enough to be able to work all over the country or I probably, would not own a shopbot.

[Ajcoholic]

I agree AJ, if you do business locally you are subject to some extent to the local economy. The larger your market area the better off you are. I do live out in middle of nowhere, but I am fortunate enough to be able to work all over the country or I probably, would not own a shopbot.

Sure that makes a difference.

For me, 90% of my work is for customers within 1/2 hour drive. I also live in a fairly small community (well about 50,000 people) but there isnt much around for 3 or 4 hours.

And, I think it has a lot to do with the PRODUCT you are making as well. I am competing with the mid to higher end furniture stores. I think I do well. I am going to raise my rate $10/hr in the new year.. potentially $20,000 more based on my billed hours per year. If I start to lose jobs, I will back it off a bit.

If I were JUST doing CNC, I think I would look at it differently. Probably would charge $120 - $60 each for myself and the machine. But, for me the CNC is just one machine in my shop out of dozens.

AJC

[myxpykalix]

larry, no sticker or NUTTIN' for hitting 5000, it would be nice to get a new hat out of the deal.....:rolleyes:

[Brady Watson]

one more post and you are at 5000 mark do you get a sticker :}
larry

Oh...You meant me...I didn't even notice. :)

-B

[shilala]

Let me Guess Scott you must be a Browns fan :D We love the browns also
2 guaranteed steeler wins every Year ;)
Lifelong Steelers fan, brother. My wife and my whole family except a couple brother in laws who are from here.
I'm a west-central PA transplant, as is my wife and her family. I just got here a couple years ago, they've been here for about 30 years.
I do enjoy following the Browns and we watch them pretty much every week. Despite their lousy record, things are really looking up. A five gallon bucket of stick-em would cure almost all their problems. :)

[B. Pile]

That at boy Scott,It's my understanding there are a lot of native ohio steeler
fans also, it's all in fun anyhow. If you ever get back this way you should look me up sometime.
I do live out in the middle of nowhere but i work in Pittsburgh alot and i would enjoy meeting you.

Kind Regards
Buster