How/how much should I charge this guy?

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Had a guy stop by my house the yesterday asking if I could make him an entrance sign for his ranch. Basically, he wants "4 STAR RANCH" cut from in 1/4" diamond plate, letters 12" tall x 10" wide spaced evenly over a 13' long 2" OD galvanized pipe with a rocker shape over the top like the crude paint picture I posted below. He wants the four stars welded in a diamond shape to the left of the pipe frame , and the cowgirl holding the flag to the right. Stars would be 6" all around and the cowgirl roughly 12x12.I have no idea what to qoute this guy. I want to price this fairly for both of us and do not want to undercut the guys who do this for a living (I weld/fabricate/black/coppersmith for fun and for extra income). I usually make branding irons or decorative furniture for customers and have a good idea usually what time and labor is in store and can set a price easily. I typically do not charge a flat hourly rate as I am still honing my skills. From my description, is this something I should charge hourly or by the job? If by the job, what do you think is a fair price? Material is customer supplied. He also says he will install it himself. So basically I am just cutting the letters/stars/cowgirl and fabricating the A shape for him to weld to the top of his pre-set posts. I will be assembling the letters/graphics to the frame as well. I will not be painting any of this, just cleaning all steel so it can be powdercoated (to be handled by customer). All cuts will be free hand w/ plasma, and all welds stick.I would appreciate any and all input, I am to call him today to give him a number. Thank you so much,Last edited by gd85; 09-02-2009 at 08:49 AM.Reason: typos
Reply:I'd estimate what it's going to cost you in consumables, and how many hours you think it should take.  You say you are still honing your skills, so I'm assuming that you work a little slower than someone who does this for a living... you need to take that into consideration and price your labor accordingly.Work HARDER, not smarter! ------------------------ Miller Bobcat 250Millermatic 251Lincoln Precision TIG 185Hypertherm PM 600Hobart 135 HandlerOxweld 400 FlameMaster
Reply:My biggest concern would be the art work. If he is supplying the full size art work and letters that you can use as a pattern, I'd say a day, day and a half, to do it all. I usually ask $350 for a day plus materials / consumables for construction. If I had to print, copy, enlarge etc the art work and get it all approved, I'd want more, just because of the time required to do all of that layout etc. I'm thinking it would take me a good 2-4 hours to trace and lay out the full sized patterns on the plate, then maybe an hour or so to cut it all out. Then you still have to clean it all, space it and weld. Over all I might say $500. If I could get all the letters and art work CNC plasma'd I'd take that price and add $250 to assemble it. That would probably be the way I would go if the plasma cost wasn't outrageous as it would save me all the hassle of layout / tracing and I'd get real nice cuts, plus I've got a guy with a CNC plasma I like to try and throw some work to to help him out.One thing to think about. How are you going to attach the letters? Looks great in the sketch, but there's no way to hang the letters as drawn. Will he have issues with bars on the bottom of each letter for support or a pair running horizontal to support the letters? Can you just weld to the back of the letters, or does he want it clean on both sides? If it needs to be clean both sides, will you have to do 2 sets of letters and weld them on each side of the supports? On the diamond plate, will he care about the location of the pattern? You will most likely want to keep the orientation the same on all of them, but do you need to work out just how all the individual parts fall on the letters? Don't laugh, I had one guy want all the diamonds on a tool box to match on all sides, top etc. Not at all practical as far as materials and so on and layout for that was a PITA to get laid out and approved..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:I had about $275 in materials and two days labor in this sign.  It was expensive, but the customer was happy. Most of the time was in the copper plating a real PITA  Attached Images
Reply:I just typed it up real fast in the waterjet software, to cut all the letters its about $150 then I'd guess another $150 for the stars and horse lady. So we are at $300, then I would add a fully day of fab work on it. I would say you can probably get it out the door for around $650If you cannot convince them, confuse them.         Harry S Truman
Reply:Do you have a plan for the gas given off when welding on galvanized materials?
Reply:First off I'm not the technical guy more the business guy so my approach is a bit different. Why is he coming to you ? To me I would want this done as good as I could to show my pride in my property and so I would be ready to pay a bit to get something like 74 Highboy did.Why would he go to a guy like you who does a different line of work? Is there something he is not telling you? Is the Diamond Plate Galv ? It's gonna kill you if it is. That design of the Cow girl looks pretty intricate, who is going to do the art work? What kind of deposit are you going to get on this ? What if he doesn't like the finished product? You will have all your labor and brain work into it so better think about that.Don't ever sell yourself short. This man wants something from you that he can't do himself, so he is going to pay for it.He is paying for all the time and experience you have put into it.If you think that is worth nothing then charge nothing. If you are not up to the job then turn it down.You are in a business don't fall in love with a project because it would be good for experience or it would be fun to do.Do it for the money,because that's what feeds the kids.