I calculate a per second cost on the laser and then bill per minute. I also work out two surface areas to calculate the material cost. Cut cost is calculated as follows; the drawing is layered into colors that define different cut speed. My software gives me the cut length of each layer. That length in mm is then divided by the cut speed in mm/sec which gives me the number of seconds per layer. All the time is added up and converted to minutes. We generally charge R300/hr which equates to R5/min. The actual material are is calculated and the rectangular area is also measured. A call is made on how the material will be nested and billed, Perspex costs 10x as much as MDF so we tend to be careful with such materials. If there are multiple parts it may be worthwhile to nest the parts with as many edges butting up against one another as possible. I've been able cut machining time in half through proper nesting.
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Originally Posted by adrianh
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