Show the math
- Machine wear
- machine price ÷ working life in hours
- Tube or module
- replacement cost ÷ its rated life in hours
- Maintenance
- maintenance per year ÷ hours used per year
- Electricity
- power draw in kW × price per kWh
- Machine $/h
- wear + tube or module + maintenance + electricity
- Machine $/min
- machine $/h ÷ 60
- Months to payback
- machine price ÷ (average profit per sale × sales per month)
- Sales to payback
- machine price ÷ average profit per sale, rounded up
Worked example: a $5,000 CO2 laser
| Part | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Machine wear | $5,000 ÷ 4,000 h | $1.250/h |
| Tube | $600 ÷ 2,000 h | $0.300/h |
| Maintenance | $200 a year ÷ 800 h a year | $0.250/h |
| Electricity | 0.9 kW × $0.16/kWh | $0.144/h |
| Machine rate | $1.944 ÷ 60 = $0.0324 a minute | $1.944/h |
| Average profit per sale | Etsy profit on the four example products: ($3.65 + $3.70 + $25.68 + $14.84) ÷ 4 | $11.97 |
| Months to payback | $5,000 ÷ ($11.97 × 200 a month = $2,394) | 2.1 months |
| Sales to payback | $5,000 ÷ $11.97, rounded up | 418 |
The four example products are the keychain, ornament, walnut cutting board and tumbler priced in the laser engraving pricing calculator. At 50 sales a month instead of 200, the same machine takes 8.4 months to pay back.
Hours of use move the rate more than the price tag
Two inputs are easy to get wrong. Maintenance is a yearly cost, so it weighs more per hour on a machine you run less. And a working life in hours only makes sense if you'll actually reach it: a laser used 200 hours a year takes 20 years to reach 4,000 hours, and you'll likely replace it long before that.
| Shop | Hours a year | Working life | Machine rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Busy shop (the default) | 800 | 4,000 h | $1.944/h |
| Weekend seller | 200 | 4,000 h | $2.694/h |
| Weekend seller who upgrades after 5 years | 200 | 1,000 h | $6.444/h |
Set the working life to the hours you'll realistically put on the machine before you sell or replace it: years you expect to keep it × hours a year.
Why the machine rate is small next to your time
Even at $6.44 an hour, a job's machine cost is modest. The 2.7-minute keychain uses $0.087 of machine time at the default rate; each extra $1 an hour adds less than 5 cents to it. Its labor, by comparison, is $2.222. Getting your minutes right matters far more than getting the machine rate to the cent, which is why the pricing calculator bills attended run time as labor too.
For a sense of scale on a smaller machine: an $800 diode laser with a 3,000-hour life, a $250 replacement module rated at 5,000 hours, $60 a year of upkeep and 0.3 kW of power comes to about $0.44 an hour. Use your own machine's figures; these are an illustration, not typical values.
What to count as power draw
Add up everything that runs while the laser does: the laser itself, the exhaust fan, the air-assist pump and a water chiller if you have one. The rated wattage on each label is a cautious upper figure; actual draw is often lower. Electricity is usually the smallest of the four parts, $0.144 of the $1.944 here.