Remaining Laser Questions

One of the last remaining questions before we can make a post for the world about the laser cutter is how much we want to charge for the laser cutter’s usage.

TL;DR - Do we charge $0.25 / minute or $0.50 / minute?

After looking at other hackerspaces and other places that provide access to laser cutters we can see there is a very wide variance in rates. The Dallas Makerspace charges $5 / hour while the Columbus IdeaFactory charges $120 / hour ($2 / minute).

We have all but decided that the best and most fair way to fund the purchase of a laser cutter is that when you are contributing to fund the laser cutter you are buying time on the laser at a discounted rate.

Now for the costs. We are looking at the 60W laser from Full Spectrum Engineering, it has a base cost of $5124 (including shipping). After adding in other items we will need to purchase, the final total for purchase comes to around $5,353. The laser tube is rated at 1000 to 1500 work hours before it needs to be replaced, the tube will cost $625 (shipped). When planning for costs we also have allowed for $300 in maintenance. This means that we are allowing for about $950 additional costs within the first 1250 work hours.

To help sort out these costs we have created a Google Spreadsheet document. We also have a google document with details about the laser itself.

Salient Details from the current spreadsheet:

  • We are assuming the worst possible tube performance at only 1000 hours.

  • If you fund the laser you will be buying time on the laser at 50% the cost of time after the laser is funded.

  • We are looking at a cost between $0.25 / minute and $0.50 / minute.
    Now more information about what the different costs per minute:

  • At the bottom $0.25 / minute

  • People who help fund the project will be buying time on the laser at 1 hr of run time for $7.50

  • Regular usage of the laser after your funding time or for people who are buying time after we have the laser will get 1 hr of run time for $15

  • The purchase cost of $5,353.00 with the discount for project funders will allocate 713.73 hours of laser time.

  • We will then need to sell 63.33 hours of time in order to have raised $950 for maintenance and buying a new tube.

  • This leaves us with 222.93 hours of time which will raise $3,344.00 for the organization.- At the top $0.50 / minute

    • People who help fund the project will be buying time on the laser at 1 hr of run time for $15
    • Regular usage of the laser after your funding time or for people who are buying time after we have the laser will get 1 hr of run time for $30
  • The purchase cost of $5,353.00 with the discount for project funders will allocate 356.87 hours of laser time.

  • We will then need to sell 31.67 hours of time in order to have raised $950 for maintenance and buying a new tube.

  • This leaves us with 611.47 hours of time which will raise $18,344.00 for the organization.
    We could also sell time in chunks, aka 15 minute increments, which would make odd $ / minute a lot easier. For now I stuck w/ monetary amounts that are easily divisible into individual minutes to make the math easier.

Any additional ideas? Any additional input on the 0.25 to 0.50 price range?

Errata: Columbus IdeaFactory is $35 / hr, NYC Resistor is $2 / minute ($120 / hour)