Pick an "opportunity value" for your time and let it be known. You
might have 2 prices for things you have to buy: total cost (so you
don't loose any $ on it or a 50% mark up.
Retired Friends of mine and I myself have a $20 per hour shop rate for
people we know and about double that for strangers.
At even the $40 we aren't recovering our shop costs and we know it.
The thing is, if you give things away, then they aren't valued anyway.
Note on finish:
I just saw a "How it's made" or such the other day and "they"
apparently finish those faucets with a (vacuum) electro-deposition of
Zirconium!
If you have handled this part with any steel tooling, abrasives that
have been around steel, etc., you may need to passivate the thing so it
doesn't rust. If that finish changes more than the rest of the
fixture, it may not be a happy thing for the contractor.
Pete Stanaitis
------------------
Don Foreman wrote:
I'd appreciate a value check from someone who knows what it might cost
to have one part made in a machineshop. Harold? Karl Townsend?
I was asked to do this by my son's mother-in-law, to help out a
customer of hers who is a contractor with a problem. The contractor
Fed-Ex'd me the fixture my part needs to fit. Cosmetics are important
on this one.
She may be expecting this as a freebie for all I know. If so, that's
OK. If she or the contractor does want to compensate me, which I
think will probably be the case, I haven't the slightest idea what
"fair market value" might be for such a job, and I'm sure they have no
idea either. That's where I need a bit of informed help.
My investment in this is maybe an hour of design time and 1.5 hours
of shop time as a guess. Probably a low estimate, but I'll ride it.
Oh, and 3" of 3/4" 303 barstock and shipping of the whole shebang
back to Florida.
Again, whatever they think is fair is OK with me, but they might want
a clue as to what might be fair -- then I'll give 'em a really good
deal.
A description of the application and the part, with shop print and
photos, may be seen at
http://users.goldengate.net/~dforeman/potfiller/
Thanks, guys!