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True Trade Cost

Laser Engraving Cost Calculator: Price Logo Orders by the Set

Updated

50 closing-gift sets of four engraved slate coasters come to $1,314.91, or $26.30 a set, at a $63 break-even rate with 15% on blanks and 25% profit. Change the yellow boxes to your own job and the price per set follows.

This laser engraving cost calculator prices the order from setup hours, minutes per item and blanks, not from laser minutes alone. Its starting numbers are a pared-down version of the credit union coaster order in the Laser Engraving Pricing Calculator spreadsheet, so you can watch a real order come together before you enter yours.

1. The order
hrs

Logo file prep, proof, test burn, building the jig, settings and paperwork.

min

Loading the jig, engraving, wiping residue and boxing, divided by sets.

$

Four slate coasters and a gift box in the example.

2. Costs that come with every order

The ones owners leave out most. Put 0 if it doesn't apply.

$
$
$
3. Your rate and profit
$/hr

What each labour hour has to bring in to cover wages and overhead.

%
%

Don't know your break-even rate? Work it out in two minutes with the true hourly rate calculator.

50 sets$1,314.91 · $26.30 each

Why the laser minutes are the smallest part of a coaster set

A per-minute laser price only counts the time the beam is firing. On the example set that is a slice of the 6.6 minutes the set takes. The rest is loading four coasters into the jig, wiping off residue, fitting them in the gift box and closing it.

Then there is the work before the first burn. The example carries 3.25 setup hours: prepping the logo file, the proof the customer approves, a test burn on a blank, building a jig for this coaster, dialing settings and the paperwork. At $63 an hour that is $204.75 of the price, and none of it shows up on a laser timer.

Timing a set from jig to box

Time five full sets, not one. Start the stopwatch when you pick up the first blank and stop when the fifth box is closed, then divide by five. That catches the small waits, the coaster that sits crooked and the box lid that sticks.

Slate, wood, tumblers and acrylic all handle differently, so time each blank type on its own rather than reusing one number. Count the setup separately and only once. If your files usually need fixing, or customers ask for two proofs, put that time in setup. The laser pricing guide shows how the same example prices out step by step.

A reorder with the jig and logo file already done

When the same customer comes back for 50 more sets, the logo file, proof and jig are done. Take 1.5 hours off setup and lower the jig and test box to $10 for test blanks and packing. The order drops to $1,186.78, or $23.74 a set.

The break table under the price shows how quantity moves the original order: $56.07 a set at 10, $33.74 at 25, $26.30 at 50 and $22.58 at 100. Those are the numbers to put in front of a customer deciding between 25 and 50.

What the quick laser estimate doesn't charge for

The $63 break-even rate belongs to the example shop. Yours comes from your space, insurance, software, equipment and billable hours: work it out with the free true hourly rate calculator. The 15% on blanks is a markup, so it is not the same as a 15% margin; markup vs margin explains the gap.

The spreadsheet also charges the CO2 laser by its own hourly cost, puts a markup on outside freight, adds a 5% cushion, keeps a price list of blanks and boxes, prints a customer quote with three quantities and tracks whether each order made money. Its version of the same 50 sets comes to $27.79 a set rather than $26.30.

The $75 minimum stays in place. A quick one-off name on a customer's own item, with no jig or proof, still pays for turning the laser on.

How the math in the Laser Engraving calculator is checked

Every version of the laser engraving spreadsheet goes through an automatic test before it ships. The test rebuilds the file, recalculates it in a separate spreadsheet engine, and fails the release if any of these is off.

  • The example's break-even rate, $63.07 an hour, is worked out a second time outside the spreadsheet and the two have to agree to the cent.
  • At all four quantities on the quote, the price each times the quantity has to equal the order price, the price each may never go up as the quantity goes up, and the customer quote has to show the same four prices.
  • The example quote ($27.79 each (50 pcs)) has to earn more per labour hour than it costs to run the business. It earns $107.61 an hour against the $63.07 break-even.
  • Then the test tries to break it: every yellow box on the quote emptied, nobody on the crew billable, a material price 400 days old, an order of zero. No cell may show an error, and the checks box has to flag the missing customer name and the out-of-date price.
  • The formulas only use functions that work the same way in Excel and Google Sheets.

Last test run: Laser Engraving passed, along with 39 of the other 39 trades. The example job and the list of easy-to-miss costs come from research into 9 videos of laser engraving owners explaining how they price. More on how the calculators are built.

Questions owners ask

How do I calculate laser engraving cost per item?

Add the blank to the minutes one item takes from loading to boxing at your break-even rate, spread the setup hours over the order, add freight and one-off costs, then profit. The example comes to $26.30 a set of 4 coasters on 50 sets.

What does a set of 4 engraved slate coasters cost to make?

About $21.04 a set before profit in the example on 50 sets, and $26.30 with 25% profit on top. The blanks and box, with markup, are about a third of the $26.30; the rest is setup, hands-on minutes, freight and profit.

Does the laser engraving cost calculator count machine time separately?

No. It prices every minute at one break-even rate, laser running or not. The paid spreadsheet adds the laser's own cost per hour on top, for the tube, power and parts, which is one reason its price is a little higher.

What should one engraved item cost with full setup?

About $391.04 for a single coaster set in the example, because 3.25 hours of logo prep, proofing and jig work lands on one set. Charge a setup fee you show on its own line, or quote it as the order minimum.

Why do 10 sets cost more each than 100?

The setup and freight are the same for both. Spread over 10 sets that is $56.07 a set, over 100 it is $22.58. The break table under the price shows all four.