Charge what the market will bear, if the market gets below what you want to charge, stop doing it.  That's how I'm looking at it.  You can use shapeways as a good indicator of where you're at too.  I think you can upcharge shapeways a little because you can print in any color and faster, but that's just me.

cmetzel,  I think most of us agree with what you're saying.  I myself do things as a hobby because I think they're fun, not to make a profit.  If I make a buck off what I'm doing, that's just gravy to let me keep doing what I want to do.  Once something becomes "not fun" is when I have to re-evaluate whether it's worth doing.

Again, what I'm warning here, if your only selling point is price, then you'll son be priced out.
offer complete services, sensibly priced and you should have a good business...

For me personally I'm not looking at it as a business.  I bought the SD primarily to prototype without having to protect my intellectual property until I'm ready.  The side printing would be a bonus, but I don't think of this machine as a production level quality machine.  I'm just hopeful that I can sell enough to pay myself back the cost of the machine, and then my prototyping is "free". 

Charge what the market will bear, if the market gets below what you want to charge, stop doing it.  That's how I'm looking at it.  You can use shapeways as a good indicator of where you're at too.  I think you can upcharge shapeways a little because you can print in any color and faster, but that's just me.

why wont that work ?

of course it'll work, feel free to charge whatever you like.

but don't forget. you can be as professional as you want in your pay. but you're still 1 guy in a spare room with a printer.
people like shapeways are a much larger company, with lots of printers, lots of experiance etc and can offer a fast turn around.
the point here, is that nobody in the spare room of their house has a professional outfit. if you're going to try to charge professional rates, I as a customer would just go straight to the professional outfit.

I have no knowledge of your life career etc.
but it is fair to say that you will be operating out of home spare room/shed etc. right?

I think that we're on the same page here.
for example, I could spent a solid month designing something for me.
I make it and it's all great.
if someone in the street asks me to make one for them, I can do that fine. but I'm not going to recover those development costs. (e.g. I won't charge them for the month of my time used to develop it, because I was doing it anyway!)

And just like you, if someone wants a design that's not something that I would have been doing anyway, then they can pay for that!

that's exactly my point.
the computer work is top dollar, (and fine, charge top dollar for that).
but assembly line machine watching is not top dollar work. it wouldn't pay top dollar anywhere else.

Again, what I'm warning here, if your only selling point is price, then you'll son be priced out.
offer complete services, sensibly priced and you should have a good business...

C.ideas

I have a buddy that builds suspension components for cars.  Right now, he designs then, then sends them off to a prototyper that puts them out in nylon for him to do test fitting (here's a sample post, just search for "nylon" and you'll find where he talked about doing it: http://www.vorshlag.com/forums/showthre … ost57170).  IMO, he should have a printer... but let's say he doesn't want to do the fiddling.  My competition then becomes these rapid prototyping services (which aren't cheap in my understanding).  So I either offer better/different service (local, faster, etc.) or a lower price (undercut).

I still don't think it would be a full time thing with just *one* machine.

I think the OP's case fits this.  Right now they pay X for a low volume production effort.  If he can get the business by either a) being faster/local/nepotism or b) undercutting, then he knows to either price it the same or lower (respectively).

Determining a price is easy if you know the price you need to beat

Another thing that I've seen mentioned here in several spots is that you want to charge for the trial and error of printing it once incorrectly, or if the print shifts in the middle, or making it to the correct size.  I don't agree with that.  Again going back to what I'm trying to replace.  Machining centers don't get to charge for trying and failing, production 3d printing houses don't get to charge for learning how to use their equipment, and neither should I (we).  I can't expect someone to pay me for training on my SD, I'm selling a product they have to believe I can make it over and over again without failures.

of course they charge fro that, it's just bundled in with other stuff.

you could say that training only comes out of the companies profits.
but then again the profits only come from the sale of products.

it's not an explicit charge, it'll never appear on a statement, but it is charged for!!

$50 = £30 per hour (whether it's USD of AUD) (assuming 8 hour days etc) that suggests a salary of £58,000 a year.

that'll never work.
the OP already said that the part can be bought from others for less than that, and each part takes an hour. and that doesn't include material, or running costs, or trying to make the machine pay for itself.

I get that time away from wife and kids is valuable.
but that's exactly why I won't be spending time that I would have been spend doing stuff with the wifey, or the little one printing stuff.
I'll only be printing stuff in the time that I would have been watching TV, or playing on the internet or otherwise.

and as I said, I'll only be looking at it for a few seconds every five minutes or so.

the problem still stands though, you're not willing to work for less than £30 per hour. you'll be undercut as soon before you even finish this sentance.

lets face it, reprap forums already have the I'm  maker/I'm a designer forum, people can get decent designers at decent prices already... the actual engineering skills needed are very much reduced in this game now!

If someone comes along and makes it cheaper, great, I will buy it from them. I am making parts I cannot buy currently.

If it takes you away from the missus and kids, put one in the corner of the loungeroom. The kids will watch if for you I am sure. hell, you could pay them to watch it.

I don't think that I've offended you, but if I have, I offer my apologies...

Nah I think we're on the same page.  I've seen some of the cookie cutters on thingiverse and was considering making some custom ones for the play-doh for my daughter.

That being said, I've been an avid 3d modeler for the past 12 years or so.  Designing in 3d was something that I did to create virtual objects that I could admire on screen.  Now I will have the ability to bring these objects into the real world and that excites me. 

Etsy bottle openers... *grin* Think it's being done, but that's not what I got into this for.

Background... in addition to working with computers (in all manner of ways except designing components) I'm a modeler (as stated above) and a cook.  I love to bake, especially around this time of year.  I just can't seem to find the right cookie cutters/presses that make what I want.  When I started looking into 3d printing, it came to me that I could design these things in 3d and print them out so I could have just what I want.  I went and ordered the sd2 because it was cheaper than most repraps and came out the box able to print.  In the intervening time I paid someone with a printrbot to print a design I created and had him ship it to me... at that point, I fell in love.  The look, the feel, the weight, the solidity... The piece came to me exactly as I had imagined it and it made cookies the way that I wanted them to look (at least from one model standpoint).  I've been busy designing my Christmas line for baking this year so that when I get the machine I can start producing a quality product.  May take a few tries to get it right and calibrated, but once the gCode is there, if I break it, lose it, or just otherwise destroy it, I can reprint it in a couple of hours.

Which brings me to my research.  I've seen cookie cutters all over the place as well as etsy.  Most are mass produced chinese product, but I think that my designs are more quality than theirs.  I can't compete with their pricing (most sell 3-4 pieces for about $5) as they are mass produced, but in research most of the original ones that I see on the web are being sold for ~$5 a pop.  There are variations in the pricing, but on average, that's what I see.  With the chart macmod provided, I've revised the estimate on the plastic to about $.40 a piece (based on a model that I use that has 40% infill), so $4.60 is the remainder cost.  But the pricing is immaterial, because I'd be using this primarily for my benefit.  If someone else likes and wants my designs, I'll print them one and sell it to them at my price.  If I make money on this, then I'll be putting it toward the cost of plastic, and mods/upgrades (I REALLY like the idea of the panel that lawsey posted).

I don't disagree with your pricing... I just think that if it were to a consumer market, it would be more than your average consumer will pay.  Now that I know what it's for and your audience, then you could be spot on for pricing.  I know that if someone wanted me to design and print a one-off custom cutter for them, my pricing would be a lot higher to factor in my time to desgin, test and produce (probably about 5-10 time higher depending on the complexity of the model).

I don't think that I've offended you, but if I have, I offer my apologies...

I bought my machine to prototype my inventions and it is doing a wonderful job of that, if I make money on the side for a little while it's just a sweet bonus.  If I learn a technology that I beleive will be very valuable in the future job market, even better bonus. 

I think each marketplace is different, I don't think I could sell bottle openers on etsy using the same pricing strategy, but in my line of work and knowing that machining costs won't go down, I think I can get away with it for a while.

Maybe it's worthwhile to give a little of my background and my experience with pricing machine time.  I work in the tool & die industry and have over 15 years experience designing steel components for metal stamping tooling.  Over the last several years my role has shifted to more oversight and management to where I'm exposed to the pricing aspect of the business much more.  I literally wrote the program we use to price our products, and I'm using that model to come up with my thoughts on how much my time is worth. 

Most shops use a rate of $50 - $60 per hour which covers lights, machinery, rent, salaries, etc etc.  This rate unfortunately has stayed the same for the last 15 years but nonetheless that is what the going rate is in my area.  Now once the mill / lathe / CNC machining center are paid for, the company charging that amount becomes much more profitable than they were when they were making payments. 

I have come into 3d printing in a different way than I imagine many of you have.  I was a consumer first, then an admirer, then a hobbyist, and venturing into vendor status.  I have been buying 3d printed parts of simulated metal stampings for use in setting up assembly tooling, gaging, testing measurement programs, fit and function, prototyping, etc.  This part that I attached to this topic was literally purchased over the weekend for $50 each.  Now if I buy in volume I can get that down to $30 each, but that's buying 50 a month or so.  That is not out of line for the market on 3d printed parts off of the objets and dimension printers that are out there, and is from a vendor that we give a lot of tooling business to and are very friendly with, so this is probably discounted a little as well because of that. 

In this respect I'm looking to replace some of the steel or aluminum pieces that are non wear items with plastic printed items.  It only works in some situations, but as long as you're less expensive than one off machining or even assembly line machining you're saving money.  If I can make them for $40 each from aluminum, and $30 each from plastic.  I'll buy the plastic all day long and the company pockets $10 each in savings. 

I can't look at it in terms of what does it cost me to print them.  Electricity plus plastic = not worth it.  I'm looking at it like plastic is free (less than $1), electricity is free (not worth charging for), but my time away from my wife and kids is valuable to me.  For every 1 hour that I'm not spending with them, I want to get $25+ in return or I would rather not do it. 

Designing a part this simple from start to finish in Solidworks literally only takes me about 3-4 minutes including making the STL.   But like I said I've been doing it professionally all of my adult life.  I don't even really factor that time in unless it's something complex. 

Another thing that I've seen mentioned here in several spots is that you want to charge for the trial and error of printing it once incorrectly, or if the print shifts in the middle, or making it to the correct size.  I don't agree with that.  Again going back to what I'm trying to replace.  Machining centers don't get to charge for trying and failing, production 3d printing houses don't get to charge for learning how to use their equipment, and neither should I (we).  I can't expect someone to pay me for training on my SD, I'm selling a product they have to believe I can make it over and over again without failures. 

My simple formula is going to be:
Time invested in design+
Time to setup and start printing+
Time to check on print+
Time to clean and prep print after completion+
Running time / 3 (or some factor TBD)
----------------------------------------------
Total Hours * $25 per hour = cost of print

Danny,
I like the breakdown and it really adds credence (in my own mind at least) that I'm doing the right thing.  I plan on making sure that I have good gCode before I start producing.  Once I have the code, then I store it and use it when the part is being ordered to make the parts on demand.  I don't intend for this to be a full manufacturing business, just enough to pay for the parts, plastic, upkeep and any tinkering that I want to do, so I don't impact my family budget.

cmetzel,
You can sell all you want at whatever price you deem fair.  If someone else produces at $5 and you buy and re-sell for 15, that's enterprise!  Still, I have some novel ideas for some product and I've done my research on what the parts would sell for and the price I end up with is fair and would generate sales.  If I go off my product lines to produce an exclusive one-off, the price would be significantly higher as there are design costs for time and materials.  THAT is where my time is worth the most.  If it's just for me and what I want to sell, then I should already have designs made (I do) and only have to set up stable gCode to produce it when my SD comes in.  Once that is there, then I have a piece that is proven (provided I don't crash and burn the SD) and can be reproduced on the fly for the fixed cost.

Just my 2 cents...

I still believe that it is fair to slightly undercut somewhere like shapeways and that you can be competitive that way.  If they don't get it from shapeways, and they don't get it from one of us, where are they going to get it from?