Still plodding along on this. Here is some initial pricing estimates:)
Firstly Ponoko has something called a Prime Membership. This a monthly plan that costs $39.00 but proves to be useful for larger orders. It reduces making fees from $2.00 a minute down to $1.35; additionally saving you some on the shipping and handling with a quicker turn around on order completion.
On making cost alone you break even at 60 minutes of machine time. I have total time estimate of over 5 hours for cutting out/etching these parts... So the pricing I'm showing below is the reduced Prime pricing @ $1.35 a minute. I'm arriving at time and price estimates from uploading the part sheets to Ponoko's ordering system and dividing the making cost/1.35=minutes.
You are unlikely to get a group discount, as the laser cutter is going to take the same amount of time no matter the number of copies. That said it doesn't hurt to ask; I can when/if we find out the number of interested folk.
Materials: Ponoko has a hardboard 5.5mm/0.217 inches thick. Seems to be a good candidate for this project.
We need 7 of the largest material sheets('P3') $10.50 each. For a total material cost of $73.50.
Etching the part names: As you currently have them I have an estimated cost of $24.40, at around 18 minutes. This is a rough estimate as I pulled all the names off the 7 sheets and uploaded them separately so I could determine a cost of the names themselves.
Might consider doing a numbering system 01, 02 etc for parts and etch a very small number on each part. Or forgo the names altogether and locate parts based on where they are sheets?
Cutting Cost: $388.80, estimated time of 288 minutes. This is with the parts nested but not yet sharing cutting lines. I'm in the process of removing as many lines (like my example file) as possible so this number will drop.
Materials: $73.50
Etching: $24.40
Cutting: $388.80
Prime: $39.00
Shipping: Often Free for this size job.
Handling: Free with Prime.
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Total Cost: $525.70
So, next step is to move the parts together and make them share cutlines and see how much that lowers cutting cost. Could knock off $100 or more, hard to tell yet. Then decide what the best solution is for naming the parts.
