Charging for 3D prints. - Its a question I’ve been grappling with for some time. I haven’t had 100’s of requests but find it hard to give an accurate answer. I usually go with its print time and weight of finished print. Then also CAD time if needed. I don’t really know what the going rate is as there isn’t really one, can anyone give me some pointers on how they have chosen to charge for prints.
The rare occasions I’ve accepted money for a print, I’ve usually just made it up based on how fiddly it was to print, and what plastic I used. A tip from someone who used to do IT and computer repairs: If you see an hourly rate on a workshop bill, it’s unlikely they had a stopwatch going while they were working. The number of hours the technician charges is usually fairly arbitrary, based on how much of a pain in the ass a job was. (That’s the cynical way of putting it, more accurately, it’s more like if something took three hours, but those three hours were spent running tests and scans and generally keeping an eye on it, you’d be billed for about an hour. If something took a solid two hours of undivided attention, the job might be billed as three or four hours.)
My point is, estimate the cost for people. Usually overestimate before you print, and then decide when you’re done what your time and effort was worth. Make sure you make back what you spent on the plastic, but that’s about the only constraint. Consider also that you’re providing a service few others can do or would be willing to do.
Same here. Make sure, though, that you at least cover your filament cost and running time, including the cost of the prototypes…
I don’t base my fee on print time, but I do notice that 90% of my print jobs come out to be about $10/print hour.
What i find is. Client:“Here print this off thingyverse” Me: “fine let me see ok looks like 2 hours to print would probably cost about x” the. Then you check the layers and see something is off. Oh wait half of it is non manifold. So now add 3x the quote for printing in redesign time.