Custom Laser Cutting - Time and Costs

Basic Costs.

Laser cutting is charged at $1.00 per minute cutting time (see below) plus material costs. In addition there is a setup fee, which incurs a once only charge of $25 per job.

Other Costing Issues.

1. One time, custom orders

These have a minimum charge of $33 (includes setup fee, cutting time and materials only). This does not apply to re-orders once an item has already been cut. Note that correction of mistakes in drawings supplied by the customer are the responsibility of the customer. If an obvious mistake is noticed the customer will be informed for either the customer to make the correction or for us to make it at a minimum cost of $10.

2. Setup Charges

A minimum of $25 will be applied to all new jobs.

3. Charges for producing drawing for lasering.

We no longer produce the artwork for laser cutting with the only exception being a hardcopy scale drawing annoted with the dimensions required in mm. A charge of $44 per hour for producing the artwork will be applied. See the

4. Handling Charges

These will be assessed on a case by case basis, depending on how much extra effort your job entails. Extra effort can be defined as time to establish power and speed settings for customer supplied material (if different from material routinely cut by Brunel Models), or time required to tape down or handle your work, time to clean up pieces and surface area, etc. If your project involves many small pieces which need handling and cleanup (such as small coach components) there will be an extra charge. Repeat customers can expect significantly reduced setup charges. If the laser cutting time is very short (eg: cutting a few holes in a number of sheets of styrene) then costs will be based on the total time including handling (in this case operator time is significantly longer than cutting time). As a general rule you can assume that a handling charge of $1.10 will be charged per sheet of material provided most of the parts cut out are reasonably large.

5. Minimum runs

There is no minimum run requirement. However all prototyping costs will be charged (eg; cutting time, material, etc).

6. Laser Cutting of Paper & Card

Smoke may adhere to some types of paper (such as glossy) much more than others. When asking for a quote, be sure to send a small sample of your paper to us if your using anything unusual.

If you have a job of between 20 to several thousand items, or have extremely complex images that need cutting, laser cutting may be the way to go. If you have a simple larger job, the expense of cutting the items on a laser may be too high.

7. Some Typical Costing Questions

What would the set-up costs be for a 10cm x 20cm x 0.5mm thick styrene sheet? I produce vehicles and require the detail for a master model so would require only 5 or so sheets with 2-3 different supplied vector graphics files?

Assuming that your files are totally ready to go, the will be minimum setup cost of $25.

Does the cost go down if I order more then 1 item?

Laser time is charged at $1 per minute regardless of number of items. If there is substantial setup or drawing work required this will be charged above the $25 setup fee. The main thing is to minimise costs by providing a vector graphic drawing preferably in CorelDraw 9-X3 format.

Time to Process Order.

Normally about 2 weeks. This assumes, however, that you artwork is OK and little or no extra effort is required for making it suitable for cutting and that the material for lasering is available. If you supply a hard copy drawing then it will take longer (depending on the accuracy of the drawing and if a test cut needs to be produced for your approval)and you will be charged for the drawing work.