I’m in the works of buying my first CNC and I’ve already had a lot of interest from people wanting things done. My biggest problem is I don’t know what to charge. I make things out of wood all the time but when it comes to using a CNC I’m lost as to how to charge people. Do you charge for the run time of the machine as well as material and design time or are there other fair ways to come up with pricing? Thank you in advance
What will the market bear? It will be different in different parts of the country and world. $50 per sq ft for a starting point
I recommend that you work through some of Steve Cote’s content. I think that he has a realistic view of the small production CNC shop.
David Picciuto produced a good video on pricing your work. You can also look through his channel and find things that you might be able to produce and sell. He occasionally does some CNC projects on his channel and I believe that he has a few projects up on Inventables
First of all, find your market.
Dont sell your work short, ask a fair price and accept that you will be passed down by some.
They would never be happy in the first place.
Raising prices after gaining momentum is HARD.
Rather spend the time on “3 products” with a reasonable return than the hassle of “30 products” with low/no actual return. Ties in with my first point.