I think that if you want to be able to sell parts, and want to be competitive about it, you;ve got to look at it in the view of how much do you want to get paid, (everyone wants as much as they can obviously).
but how much should you be getting paid, - I believe that there are several roles involved in the design and manufacture of parts.
working as a design engineer might be a lucrative role, but if the work you're doing is assembly line machine supervision, then you probably can't expect as much.
if you try to value your time too little, then what's the point.
value your time too much and you'll never be competitive enough to actually shift anything
I'm planning on selling items, and I believe that the following strategy is both fair and competitive.
(as a note, I'm in the UK, and I've based my wages roughly on what I believe people expect to be paid -loosly based on findings from jobsites, I also have a day job that I effectivly do not plan to give up!)
I want the plastic paid for at cost, (including delivery). etc.
I want my electricity paid for.
I want my design time paid for at a reasonable rate.
my reasonable rate for designing the part, (creating the STL etc) is going to be in the order of £15 - £20 an hour. (up to $30 an hour)
I'm then going to take off my engineer hat, and put on a technicians hat if you like.
my first test runs of the part to make sure that the design in solid I'm going to take a couple of hours, of (not intently) watching the machine and then testing the part afterwards.
I'll want a reasonable technicians rate of say £8 - £12 Per hour (~$15 per hour) you'd be a very well paid technician to be getting £15 an hour.
after the design is complete and been shaken down etc. I'm going to put on my "line worker" hat, and only expect to be paid a minimum wage, which in the UK is about £6/hour ~$9
So...
lets suggest that the part there took 2 hour to design. (£20 x 2)
2 hours to "shake down" (£15 x 2)
and each part takes 2 hour to print, (but you only look in every once in a while, perhaps 1 in 4 minutes, the rest of the time you're watching TV, or designing other parts. (£6 x 2 /4)
and the plastic and electricity costs (Per item is £1)
and you produce 2 items during the shakedown stage.
total cost is
(20 x 2) = 40
(15 x 2) = 30
(6 x2/4) = 3
(1 x 2) = 2
(1 x 1) = 1
total cost for one part = £76 (~$121)
if I'm making 100 parts
(20 x 2) = 40
(15 x 2) = 30
(6 x2/4) x 100 = 300
(1 x 2) = 2
(1 x 100) = 100 = 472 / 100 = £4.72 per part ($7.62)
if I'm making a thousand
40 (design)
30 (shakedown
3000 (line worker)
2 (prototypes)
1000 (materials) = £4072 or £4.07 per part = ~$6.50
the part that you have however, is.
simple, (clearly won't take two hours to design)
doesn't need to be precise -so will need less shakedown time
doesn't take two hours to print, (you say it takes 1 hour)
doesn't use a lot of material, perhaps £0.5 or less possibly including electricity.
so we have
1 hour design (1x20) = 20
1 hour shakedown (1x15) = 15
1 hour print (6 x 1/4) = 1.5 x 100 = 150
1 prototype (1 x 0.5) = 0.5
100 pieces (100 x 0.5) = 50
£235 for a run of 100, or £2.35 each
$376 for a run of 100 or $3.76 each
however, it also seems (since you say that you've bought these before) that you have no design or shakedown time, you've just grabbed a file?
so we're looking at £50 in manufacturing and £150 in labour - you occasionally looking at the machine
£200 or £2 each
$320 or $3.20 each
let's look at the complete costs, the solidoodle is $500.
so stick $5 onto your per part price and you've paid for your time, all materials and the production equipment.
realistically, I think that for myself, I'll be happy to "work" out design files at the rate I currently get paid, and go down from there until I hit the "minimum wage" figure - I wouldn't work for less than that...
the items I'll be making will likely not be mass produced. instead I'm trying to head for a low volume high customisation space.
(I believe that this is the only place where this type of 3d printing will be effective. -especially whilst only having a single machine! -though clearly I may choose to build more machines if I can't keep up with production. -though more likely I'd scale back sales.
In short, your $15 dollar is nearly 5 times what it's actually likely to cost you to make (including paying yourself).
if you try to pay yourself too much then someone else will just come long and take your business.
if you want to make a business, think carefully about the costs. time, skills etc involved - because if you don't someone else will! -then you'll be out of business.
