phila3

How do you price something that requires a lot of weeding?

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I am struggling with pricing for a customer who wants 24 different signs that have 9/16" high letters out of vinyl on multiple lines each sign with different text. I had done this same type of thing for this customer two years ago and I reviewed what I charged him and I was too cheap.The image area is roughly 6"w x 2"h and I have timed the time it takes to weed a few of these and it takes me on average 14 minutes. I just need to cut, weed and apply app tape. It seems to take an inordinate amount of time to weed these since the letters are so small. Could folks share how you would price something like this and what would be a fair price for the customer where I can make some money as well. I would be interested in your whole thought process and in what instances you would consider an up charge for small letters. Thanks in advance for your help. - Phil

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What kind of cutter are you using? For small stuff like you describe I use a higher grade vinyl and then it weeds easier. Being able to buy 751 or 951 by the foot now you can bring in a smaller amount than you used to and it's amazing to weed IF YOU HAVE A CUTTER CAPABLE OF FINE CUTTING DETAILS if not then those little tiny unfinished cuts and inaccuracies make weeding a PIA even with better vinyl.

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9/16" Does not seem too bad to me. I'm with goose wondering what cutter you are using.

 

Ultimately, you need to make sure you are making a fair hourly wage after all expenses are accounted for. Whether or not that makes sense for the end user is a different story.

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I have a Laserpoint II. Good advice concerning the better quality vinyl being easier to weed. Never thought about that. Thanks!!

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lots of weeding means more time and higher price here.  I know that I can weed things easier and tend to sell the same thing cheaper since I got the graphtec - with the p-cut or mh it was a bigger factor

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I usually mark up my material cost by 65% to start.

This makes up for the cost to run my "process" to produce the decal.

Labor cost vary, and should based on the difficulty of the work.

I pay my kids to do the weeding, based off difficulty I charge .25 to 1.00 a decal depending on the job.

I have not had anyone complain yet.

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20 hours ago, RDR Grafix said:

I just print stuff like that

I agree with RDR, if it's too small to be weeded quickly we print it.  On the other hand 9/16" letters should weed with relative ease.  Maybe you could post the file and some of us could try it on our cutters with our vinyls and let you know the results?  I know for me, a decal with letters that size should never take more than 1-2 mins too weed, and even that sounds excessive.

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I print and cut = pick the right media for the job - too many people buy a printer and get lazy on jobs that should be cut.  now to be fair without seeing this one none of us know what the best option is, I am just saying that once people get a printer they tend to try to justify it by doing every job on the printer even if better suited to a cut vinyl job (remember that cut vinyl colors go all the way thru and not just top layer so if damaged tend to hold up very good

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