How much do you charge per hour of printer time?

MakerWorld MakerWorld General
1

I have never sold anything I printed, so I have no idea how to answer the request I received today.

I was asked to print a somewhat large quantity of a model designed by me. It would take about 19 days to print everything, if the printer (P1P) would work non-stop. That would be about 17 rolls (3 different colors used in each part via AMS).

Before I say yes or no, I want to hear your opinion about what would make sense to charge for such a job. I want to help the guy, but not lose too much money in the process. :slight_smile:

2

IMO napkin math for a order like that:

Calculate your actual real material costs for the order, with right-now prices
Double it to allow for production wastage and electricity and maybe a few stray pennies of unearned profit :wink:
Double that to pay for you and your machines time
Wiggle the number whichever way you want

17 x $20 x 2 x 2 = 1360, 1500 for a jerk, 1200 for a nice customer, 600-700 for “at cost”-ish

2 Likes
3

This is a very good question.

4

Maybe this helps: 3D Printing Price Calculator - Original Prusa 3D Printers
It is a print calculator I use.

Sorry @Makerworld for sending people to Prusa for this

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5

It all depends whether you have to write a bill and put that to your income and tax it.
But there are some videos on Youtube claiming to have the best calculation basis for 3D print entrepreneurs.Don’t forget to include the time you have to observe the print, setup the build plate and clean prints. That might be the most valueable part. And it depends on the size of the model whether 24/7 printing is possible. Do not agree on a delivery that may be to tight with the plan. Give some parts for acceptance, not that you print 17kg filament and then the customer has compalints.

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Useful tool, thanks for the link.

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7

19days x 24hours x 2$ printer job + filament

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8

Thank to all of you. All suggestions you provided are converging towards the same number.

It also clarifies for me the fact that this will always be for me just a hobby. :grinning:

9

Increase the markup % and increase the hour rate for your time. Set a number that works for you. If the customer doesn’t agree, no deal.

Two more questions for those who have done similar on-demand projects:

Do you send the customer one sample to make sure it meets their expectation before going into production mode?

Do you require the payment upfront, or at least half of the payment upfront before going into production?

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10

Half upon delivery and acceptance of the prototype, half on delivery of the rest.

11

For a big print like that, I’d make sure to cover more than just filament, think electricity, wear on the printer, and your time too. Some people charge by the gram or by print hours, then add a bit of margin. At the very least, don’t undersell yourself, cover costs and add something fair for the effort.