How to define costs for High and Low resolution?

[3DSolid]

Hi Ultimaker guys! I made a complex calculation to determine my costs with 100 microns resolution - equipaments cost, filaments cost (each), energy and time spend. I would like to know how do they set the cost for high and low resolution in percentage. Im thinking to work with 60, 100, 150 and 200 microns, and I suppose to go around if I feel its suitable for some projects. High resolutions is much more challenging and prone to errors and I`m thinking how to set it… and low resolution the opposite, am I right with my conclusions? Any tip? Cheers!

[Alex_Akass]

I have found that my calculations are always off no mater what, there are too many variables, so I basically work out an average cost, then add on x percentage to cover the failures and unexpected costs. You might have to tweak it again and again to get the sweet spot. You have to think, if one in 10 prints fails I need to add 1/10 of the cost of that print to all my other prints to cover that cost as an average, if you then fail at print 20 your winning and can afford 2 failures in a row.

All in all, your not going to get it right first time, make sure your making money, enough for a failure or two between a good few prints and then adjust as and when material or other costs go up or down.

[reputech]

I also try to calculate the costs, but its not so easy… An example:

ABS prints: When i use thicker layers I have more problems with cracks and warping. So, to reach a good quality print with big parts I have to set thin layers at about 100 um and I also have to reduce the speed to less than 30 mm/s . To print a big piece that fills my ultimaker (nearly 190 x 190 x 200 mm) I therefore need about 100 to 150 hours… No joke!
Just to say: My strongly modified Ultimaker has a heated bed, a heated build chamber and I think I have a lot of experience with ABS.

What I want to say is: Thicker layers are not really cheaper if you produce rubbish. So we need to calculate the rubbish too…

[Sydney_Makers]

I’ve run an ultimaker hub for nearly 2 years, the startup cost for me is X for 100 micron and X/2 for 200, basically the overall print time will be halved and my electricity rates mean I’m mostly in the green for about 9/10 orders, it’s less than a dollar profit for electrical cost vs startup. Filament for me returns about 4-4.5x profit per spool cost, and yet my prices are lower than many other hubs. I think the real trick is to find the sweet spot for equipment and electrical (5-10% profit to counter against failures wasting money on said supplies), look around at other local hubs and check their prices, if you can beat another hubs price and provide same or better quality, then you should return a profit and hopefully repeat customers. The rest is just experience with your 3D Printer and experience with 3DHubs.

[3dprintingguy]

I base my costs on print time, if I spend time printing one job then I cant be printing another job. Average your costs vs revenue per day and then divide by 24 to get the hourly rate

[3DSolid]

That`s what I started to do before join to 3D Hubs, price per hour, per filament. To adjust for “cm³” I started to remake everything. I will try to find an average of both methods. Thank you paeonius!

[3DSolid]

Great, awesome informations! Let me know if I understood, your startup cost is based in eletricity vs. printing time, just to cover those costs without profit, and your honorary, equipament cost and filament costs return to you with this 4-4.5 spoon price? There is also a fee for the hub inside it, right?

I actually set my startup cost based in my equipament cost (recovery at 3 years) + electricity. I will make some calculations to check about those spoon price parameters. Thanks a lot!

[3DSolid]

Yeah, that`s true, need to insert lost partially on every printing service. Thanks for the advice!

ABS looks tricky for me at the moment, but have your application in some cases. I still need more time to feel comfortable with it.

[3DSolid]

You are right, I dont need to put the right price at the first try... it takes time but I also want to stay close to dont lose money, thanks for the tips!

[3DSolid]

I use top quality filaments that arent sold in my country, its hard to compete with local hubs in price when they use a poor quality filaments and consumers doesn`t know the diference. Maybe I should get a chinese filament as a cheap option. I also have an opportunity to sell my differential: the highest resolutions (below 100 microns) that no one around me has.

[3DSolid]

Im still having a hard time calculating variations of resolution but things are becoming clearer. Dont know if I insert higher costs (more electricity, more time printing, more risky) for high resolution in startup cost (exemple below) or in “material cost”

Explaining a little bit more… my based calculation for 100 microns is:

*Capital recovery cost + filaments cost (each) + operating cost (energy/internet/phone) + honorary + 3dhubs fee

*Capital recovery cost = Investment (equipments cost + interest rate + 3 years amortization).

I used to set my startup cost for 100 microns as capital recovery and operating daily rate​ = 10$ + thinking to add for high and low resolutions… %honorary + %energy

Filament cost + fixed honorary + 3dhubs fee = included in each material cost.

Cheers for all the community, hope this help someone else