Our hourly rate is 250$ with a 250$ minimum regardless of how long it takes (includes consumables and use of scrap/drops) its our consumables cost.
A 250cf bottle of argon was 38$ at the beginning of 2022. By june that bottle was 57$ just got notice jan 1 they are 78$ and now there is a 60$ delivery fee (truck was free for orders over a certain $$ not anymore)
a box of 25 3” roloc scotch brite disks was 25$ today its 58$ 80 grit cubitronic sanding disks more than doubled too. Everything has more than doubled.
then there is state and local govt
the state now wants us to have a permit to have a restroom for employees ontop of the permits we already have for, sandblaster, air compressor, watershed certification, recycling certification, rainwater-shed permit, etc.
we just got a new landlord who thankfully is dumping alot of much needed and neglected money into our complex, but im sure that will Come with rate increase when done.
stainless steel tube has in some cases gone up 20x’s in cost in the last year and its once again coming with a 200$ delivery fee we were never charged before as well as order minimum contracts. We have to buy so much of each diameter and thickness per year and sign a contract or they just wont sell it.
We tend to price our parts 5-10% below industry average. Me alone im producing (and these are going out the door not sitting on the shelf) at minimum $3k per day. Just me. A good day is around $10k. We have only 2 employees. Me and my brother in law. He probably averages around 4-5k$ week average (he does the “custom” applications i run production products).
We cannot survive on less than 250$/hr we are still the most affordable in our industry. I dont know how the small shops do it (i know we get hit with 10x’s the regulations because we have “aircraft” in our name)
the offroad shop across from me is 200$/hr
