Need a little help on cost of work. Bro in law stopped by with a 1/2"x12"x8' plate. Needs it cut into 12" plates and four 1/2" holes drilled. It is for his construction business some how(I think plates for columns). How much is a fair price? Would like fair market prices as I know there will be more and do not want to under cut myself. Please any suggestions would be great. Plasma cut plates already and ground edges. Now started drilling holes.
Thanks
Last edited by TOOMANYJEEPS; 07-19-2003 at 04:20 PM.
Your best source of info on local rates is to call local shops and find out.
The problem with a job like the one you described, is that you can buy those pieces cut with the holes punched from a service center at a really cheap price most times. On small numbers of plates you can compete a little better.
I just ordered 300 base plates, 6" X 6" X 3/8", with four 7/16" holes per plate. They cost $753. That's $2.51 each, material and labor. Impossible to beat that with a drill press, you would need an ironworker with a little jig attached, and someone willing to stand there and punch 1200 holes ; )
JT,thats incredible,surely impossible to compete with but easy to make a few extra bucks with.
I would call a few shops like mentioned.My shop rate is $30/hr which is a little low but thats my market right now.I wouldn't be concerned with fab shops like JT mentioned mainly because guys like us are the only ones who understand what they do.I do alot of custom brackets and columns for local contractors who are completely satisfied with my prices,like i said,most of them are not even aware of these mass poduction fab shops.
If they are a contractor, chances are very good that they do know about the services provided by the service centers, which have branch material dealers that may be your local supplier. They very likely buy their rebar, ect. from the same folks. Contractors are what keep these folks in business. They also know about wholesale lumber, plumbing supplies, paint and on and on. If they are a little local residential type contractor then you may be right.
Shop rates run around $55 to $65 per hour around here.
I'm in the wrong part of the country Where ya from JT?
I'm very rural and the nearest shop like we are talking about is over an hour away so the local contractors would just as soon use me instead of deal with outside vendors.Your right though,bigger outfits probably are aware of the high output fab shops.
Also you can make one and see how long it takes you and start there. As was stated if there were many it could be shear cut and punched but just a few he may be happy with having you do them.
I'm out of NW Arizona, but we are a (small) field welding service so's we work all over.
This is really a pretty low wage area, but the shops are charging around $60 last I checked, our rates in AZ are $57 on junk iron, $65 on pipe, those go up depending on the state. It's been bad slow in industrial & commercial after 9/11 but things seem to be picking up pretty good now.
The nearest service center to me is several hundred miles away.
A service center is a steel distributor that sells to many steel suppliers, these days they are offering services like shearing, punching, sawing, ect. and they are very hard to beat on quantities.
I see.I'm really not sure were the nearest "service center" would be then.About an hour away is a supplier/fab shop set up with all the toys but they aren't really that cheap,i've actually been able to match their prices on a few jobs though they could probably do it a little faster.
SIR,
if you are making many of the same part,
to do it efficiently you must make a setup
to do one operation, and do all of the parts.
then you go to the next operation, make a
setup, and do all of the parts. i would
suggest if you have many plates to drill,
and they all have the same hole pattern,
make a jig. this can be made from a thinner
plate with the exact hole pattern. line up
the part with the jig, and use a transfer
punch. if you have an ironworker this is
even better, because punching is much faster
than drilling. good luck.
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Where ya from JT?
