production turning prices

[fuzzyturns]

Well, you can work the figures here. 14p from the yanks, but for 25k pieces, that gives £3500. So in essence if you quote him 50p per piece, he can go to the yanks, save 1k and have another 16k pieces to play with. That's a no brainer. As I said in my very first post, most likely the yanks have some kind of CNC machine (probably with a suitable bore going all the way through the spindle, so they can feed long dowels), and once they've set that thing up, all they need to do is watch it work (at a speed and accuracy you cannot possibly match by hand) and change dowels every 2 minutes or so.

I feel for you. It's hard to let a job go, especially if you're not really busy, but it's probably better to not do this rather than lose money, time and the will to live.

[seventhdevil]

the customer only want's 9000 total, not nearly three times the amount but that's the american's minimum order.

[Richard Findley]

I'm with Steve, not even worth the hassel of quoting. I can't make anything for less than £1. I (try to) charge £30 an hour, which works out at 50p per minute. Theres not much can be made in less than 2 minutes - and that's without the wood, finish, abrasives, overheads, blah, blah, blah.

The other thing I would say is, do you have any idea how many items 1000 is? I did a job of 1000 once. OMFG! You really have no idea just how many items a 1000 is until you lay them out on a bench. The stress (deadline) just wasn't worth the money - no matter how much you get. If I wanted a streesful job I'd go and work in the City and earn millions. I don't.

You don't charge enough for your work anyway, so don't undersell yourself.

Richard

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Oh dear! 9000 at 2 mins each to turn is no way 2 weeks work.
9000 x 2= 18000
18000 mins = 300 hours
A long 50 hour week gives 6 weeks solid work just to turn.
As I said be careful costing this job

Wise words as obviously I dropped a clanger or pushed the wrong button on the calculator!!
  I would be inclined to locate a UK company with a copy lathe and get them to quote for the quantity that you require, beat them down on price and then add a percentage. You just might win.

[edbanger]

This job is quite simple really if the customer want's a quote find someone with a cnc machine get a price add 20% and give the customer a quote if you get the job get the cnc machine to do it

[GBF]

I would rather bang my head against the wall for a few weeks far less boring.

Regards George

[John D Smith]

 I am sure I would be Banging my head against the Wall it would be much more fun I cannot even see why you were even considering this

                                                                      Regards John

[Lazurus]

How about getting a co operative of turners to do a batch each, spread the costs, boredom and profit. Worked for the coop.