- Get the part's cut length and pierce count from the DXF
- Price the cutting per inch and per pierce, or as arc time plus handling at your hourly rate
- Add material with a markup, drawing time and your minimum, and compare the two methods
What small plasma shops charge
| Item | Published figure | Who, where, when |
|---|---|---|
| Cut length | $0.10–0.33 per inch | little blue choo $0.10 (2016), Shane Warnick $0.15 (2015), boodog710 $0.20 (2010), Wine Country $0.33 (2009); PlasmaSpider |
| Pierces | $0.15–0.22 each | “Pierce charges (0.15 per) usually cover my plasma consumables” (kb3gun, 2016); boodog710 $0.22 (2010) |
| Material | cost × 1.25–2; a 200 % markup on small jobs | +25–35 % and 200 % on smaller jobs (Shane Warnick, 2015); 1.5–2× (djreiswig, 2020); +30 % at least (rodw, LinuxCNC forum, 2018) |
| Drawing (CAD) | $55–60 an hour, often a one-hour minimum | Wine Country $55 (2009); little blue choo $60, “usually charge a 1 hour min.” (2016) |
| Or: machine time | about $100 an hour | Wine Country (2009), vmax549 (2016); in Australia, hsolve about AUD 220 an hour plus GST, worked out from his overheads (2016) |
These are forum posts from small US and Australian shops between 2009 and 2020: read them as the shape of a quote, not as today's prices. Some shops skip the pierce charge on thin plate — Shane Warnick only charges for pierces over 5/8 in (2014). One shop counted 581 inches of cut and 49 pierces on a 16-gauge stainless part and priced it at CAD 30 for cutting plus CAD 15 for toolpath, loading and unloading, with the material at cost plus 15–30 % (rikduk, 2014).
What a pierce costs you in consumables
A UK distributor sells Hypertherm's mechanised Powermax45 XP consumable kit (851511) at £216.80 before VAT: 7 nozzles and 7 electrodes (3 of them CopperPlus), plus 2 shields, a swirl ring, a cap and a deflector — about £31 per nozzle-and-electrode set (computed). A Langmuir forum user running 65 A on 11-gauge to 1/4 in mild steel gets 2,500 to 4,500 pierces per set and says pierces cause most of the wear: about £0.007–0.012 of consumables per pierce (computed). Hypertherm's own rule for the Powermax65/85 is 3–5 hours of arc-on time per set in mechanised cutting, less when you pierce instead of starting from the edge — £6–10 per arc-on hour (computed). So a $0.15 pierce charge covers the consumables many times over; the rest pays for the pierce delay, the head moves and your margin.
What an inch costs in arc time (Powermax45 XP, 45 A, air)
| Mild steel | Speed, Best Quality | Pierce delay | Arc time per inch at $100/h | $0.15 an inch equals, per arc-on hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 gauge | 129 in/min | 0.4 s | $0.013 | $1,161 |
| 3/16 in | 85 in/min | 0.5 s | $0.020 | $765 |
| 1/4 in | 48 in/min | 0.6 s | $0.035 | $432 |
| 3/8 in | 33 in/min | 0.8 s | $0.051 | $297 |
| 1/2 in | 18 in/min | 1.0 s | $0.093 | $162 |
A worked example
- Ten brackets of 6 × 4 in with four Ø1/2 in holes, in 1/4 in mild steel (example). Cut length: 20 in of outline plus 4 × 1.57 in of holes = 26.3 in per part, and 5 pierces.
- Forum method: 26.3 in × $0.15 + 5 × $0.15 = $4.69 a part, $46.90 for ten. Material on the part's rectangle, 24 sq in at an assumed $0.05 per sq in (a figure from a 2010 post — use your own) × 1.5: $1.80 a part, $18 for ten.
- Time method: 26.3 in ÷ 48 in/min = 0.55 min of cutting, plus 5 × (0.6 s + 0.2 s, the controller lag a Langmuir user adds to each pierce) = 4 s. That is 0.62 min a part and 6.2 min for ten: $10.25 at $100 an hour.
- The gap — about $37 — is what the per-inch price pays for the rest of the job: loading the sheet, setting up the torch, unloading and cleanup. As one PlasmaSpider poster put it, “The material handling takes a lot longer than the cutting.” Time a real job before you trust either number.
- Add drawing time if the customer sends a sketch rather than a DXF, and check the total against your minimum order.
Sources
- PlasmaSpider forum, pricing per cut inch, per pierce and per minute (Wine Country, 2009)
- PlasmaSpider forum, per-inch and per-pierce prices (jimcolt, boodog710, 2010)
- PlasmaSpider forum, pricing? (little blue choo, kb3gun, 2016)
- PlasmaSpider forum, What would you have charged? (2015–2016)
- PlasmaSpider forum, job breakdown and pierce charges (rikduk, Shane Warnick, 2014)
- PlasmaSpider forum, CNC Plasma Cutting Excel Pricing Worksheet (2020–2021)
- LinuxCNC forum, Calculate plasma cost (2018)
- Rapid Welding, Hypertherm Powermax45 XP Essential Mechanised Consumable Kit 851511 (price, contents)
- Langmuir Systems forum, Hypertherm 45 XP consumable life expectancy
- Hypertherm, Powermax65/85 Operator Manual 806650 (cut chart definitions, consumable life)
- Hypertherm, Powermax45 XP/65/85/105 Cut Charts Guide 811300MU (cartridge, Duramax torches)
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