Costing a Printing Job

I know this topic has been addressed before, but I can't find the thread that I had the weight of a metre of filament which I need to work out the cost of material. Does anyone know this value for 3mm filament?

I'm also interested in finding out what price people are putting on machine time and set up.

I've got a job that will take 2 hours print time; 4750mm of filament (which costs me $50 per kilogram), plus about half an hour of my time to prepare files.

I usually charge my time out at $60 per hour (minimum 30 minutes).

Old Man Emu

ABS density is 1.04g per cubic centimeter. A cross section of 3mm would yield 106.10 mm of filament per 1.04g, or 102.022m per kg / 9.80g per meter. My math be bad, so feel free to correct.
PLA density is 1.23-1.25g per cubic centimeter (call it 1.24). 3mm cross section = 85.57m per kg / 11.66g per meter. Again, my math be bad.

Densities come from Wikipedia.

Ah! Good Karma!

Anyone like to suggest a way of costing the machine time?

OME

Emu,

Costing of machine time should take into account wear and tear on machine, power used and maintenance.
I certainly wouldn't think it would be less than $10 an hour for machine, but perhaps this costing is better off factored into your hourly rate as it can then be explained as part of the overall costing involved. IE : At $70 an hour this covers all material used, maintenance and monitoring of printer during the print, power usuage and last but probably more importantly your design skills in bringing the particular concept to printable format. I probably say that at my own peril but I believe the programming part to be the most valuable skill set that an individual needs to be compensated for, and for the client well its simple, I can print it for much less if you provide me with the completed file in ready to print format...Cant see many individuals complaining with that point.

Anyway these are just a few quick thoughts that came to mind.

lycan

it seems that most people i have seen charge by the cubic centimeter. prices here vary from $.50-$1.00 per cm3. my slicer will tell me the volume of a model so it makes it easy. depending on the model though that price can be cheap or expensive. small items might seem not even worth it so there really needs to be a min or a setup fee to make the pricing work.

Take a look at 3dhubs.com and search for printers local to you. You can get an idea of the competitive market for pure printing costs. Importantly, they have a fixed price per job (startup cost) as well as variable ($ per cm3).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3dkarma

Take a look at 3dhubs.com and search for printers local to you. You can get an idea of the competitive market for pure printing costs. Importantly, they have a fixed price per job (startup cost) as well as variable ($ per cm3).

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I just looked at 14 hubs in my city (Sydney, Australia) and the Start up costs range from $5 to $21.50. The average of the 14 hubs is $12.90. The cost per cm^3 for ABS ranges from $0.30 to $3.00 with an average of $1.39.

Exchange rate today: $AU 1 = 93.4 US cents.

OME

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3dkarma

ABS density is 1.04g per cubic centimeter. A cross section of 3mm would yield 106.10 mm of filament per 1.04g, or 102.022m per kg / 9.80g per meter. My math be bad, so feel free to correct.
PLA density is 1.23-1.25g per cubic centimeter (call it 1.24). 3mm cross section = 85.57m per kg / 11.66g per meter. Again, my math be bad. Densities come from Wikipedia.

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Weight of ABS = 1.04gms /cc = 0.00104 gms / mm^3

Cross-sectional area of 3mm filament = pi*r^2 - pi* (1.5)^2 = pi* 2.25 = 7.07 mm^2

Therefore a 1 mm length of 3mm filament has a volume of 7.07 mm^3

Thus 7.07 mm^3 weighs 7.07 * 0.00104 gms = 0.00735gms

The length of filament in a 1 kg roll is 1000/ 0.00735 = 136054 mm = 136 metres.

Cost per mm = (Price of 1 kg roll of filament cents/mm in roll)

eg I pay $50 per roll, delivered. 5000/136054 = 0.036 cents per mm


Old Man Emu