Stainless fabrication charges

Farmer Piles

Farmer Piles

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As per the thread title: I am Just trying to get some idea of roughly what sort of hourly rate people are charging around the place for SS fabrication. Shaping, TIG welding, etc...

Many thanks.

Matt
 
If it's a one off, custom job it would be priced on the project, not on an hourly rate. Probably best to discuss your requirements with a fabrication shop.
 
Thanks but I am coming at it from the other end. I am looking at creating a fabrication business with a local lad in one of our buildings and just trying to get a bit of a benchmark.
 
General hourly rate for skilled work like this based on sub contractors I have used is in the £40-60 plus VAT range. challenge is to maximise chargeable hours with labour intensive custom work.
 
Seems a poor way to start a business if you do not have any idea of your worth. You start with your costs & re investment, then what return you need to make it worth while. That gives you a figure per week/month. You then need to set a target for how many hours you will be producing. That will give you your hourly rate that you need.
No good trying to work for peanuts. You may as well go & work for the other bloke & let him do the worrying.

What others charge will be based on established overheads, material rates & customer base. You will not have all the resources that you need, workshop, transport, machinery etc. . Comparing what you can do against the opposition is not going to work. You will not have established customer base either. So you need to work on that first. Does not matter how good you are if you do not have any customers.

The trick in business is to produce the goods for less than your competitor, but charge more. Normally the only way you can do that is quality & service for the client.

Set your own rate & look for work on that basis.
 
Tranona said:
General hourly rate for skilled work like this based on sub contractors I have used is in the £40-60 plus VAT range. challenge is to maximise chargeable hours with labour intensive custom work.
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About right - then a rough 10-15% for consumable's used ie grinding / flapper discs / welding rods / power / gas bottle rental / pickling paste to remove stainless weld burn marks / then the polishing gear
then to consider machinery ie press brake / guillotine etc depending on what market you are looking to break into.
I know some companies use specialist fab companies to supply any sheet / plate work that needs to be cut and pressed up which you would add a handling rate on.
 
jon and michie said:
Wouldn't get out of bed on them rates - and majority of tradesmen wouldn't either Bearing in mind the average apprenticeship takes 4years - More money stacking shelves at Aldi
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I'd agree....you need to double that rate for a good tig welder and that of course is what the welder receives not what it'll cost the employer.
 
ean_p said:
I'd agree....you need to double that rate for a good tig welder and that of course is what the welder receives not what it'll cost the employer.
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Then you would have to decide what path you want to take ie coded welding work which certification from Lloyds etc is an arm and a leg that requires re certifying per procedure.
Then there's the skill which you cant buy yes anyone can bash a bit of metal - but using triangulation and pattern development is another thing entirely and the problem today is people heavily relying on cad which is good until it breaks down.
 
jon and michie said:
Then you would have to decide what path you want to take ie coded welding work which certification from Lloyds etc is an arm and a leg that requires re certifying per procedure.
Then there's the skill which you cant buy yes anyone can bash a bit of metal - but using triangulation and pattern development is another thing entirely and the problem today is people heavily relying on cad which is good until it breaks down.
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At least double that rate, you wouldn't get labourers working for that rate these days, and rightly so

Try finding anyone these days who can use a manual machine or even just work to a drawing, loads who can use CAD and CNC but few who can actually do or understand the maths and trig involved

Friend of mine reckons if he gets 6 - 8 weeks out of his new staff thats good, they just don't want to do manual / hand work, and he's just taken a 67 year old on who runs rings round them all
 
If you own the business, you will not be getting paid by the hour.., but by the job.

costs of setting up a business needn't be high - presumably you al ready have the skills, an maybe some of the equipment.

i have an in law who built a custom millwork business (maybe 20 employees, with millions in yearly revenue) buying machinery from shops that were closing down. often, they bought new, financed it, and then had trouble making payments.., so it ended up at auction or whatever. This is fairly expensive computer driven equipment. He builds installations for hospitals, libraries, etc.

anyway - as anyone who owns a boat knows.., if you are thinking of buying any custom fitting for a boat, you take your best guess as to the cost.., and then triple it.., and you might be close to what it will cost.

so the hourly rate is only going to become important when you hire employees.

start small, without investing a lot of cash.., and see how it goes.
 
On a positive - you say you have a workshop area so straight away there is no extra rent to pay.
As a suggestion - Dont' just go with being a stainless steel fab shop this requires clean conditions as well as narrowing down your possibilities do both mild and stainless then you could under take doing structural beam work with minimum equipment required ie mag drill oxy-acetylene burning gear and and a grinder.
doing small stuff to start off with and slowly building up
 
Daydream believer said:
Seems a poor way to start a business if you do not have any idea of your worth. You start with your costs & re investment, then what return you need to make it worth while. That gives you a figure per week/month. You then need to set a target for how many hours you will be producing. That will give you your hourly rate that you need.
No good trying to work for peanuts. You may as well go & work for the other bloke & let him do the worrying.

What others charge will be based on established overheads, material rates & customer base. You will not have all the resources that you need, workshop, transport, machinery etc. . Comparing what you can do against the opposition is not going to work. You will not have established customer base either. So you need to work on that first. Does not matter how good you are if you do not have any customers.

The trick in business is to produce the goods for less than your competitor, but charge more. Normally the only way you can do that is quality & service for the client.

Set your own rate & look for work on that basis.
Click to expand...
You're making a lot of assumptions. I have a workshop, I have the welders and tooling - lathes, mill, plasma cutter, pipe roller, sheet metal folder, 2m long folder/press - to list some of the kit. I also have a qualified superyacht engineer that wants to come back home to put roots down. I j ust wanted to get a feel of what rates are like compared with down here. I don't want to under charge or, conversely, sell us short. It will be a joint venture.
We have Rustler Yachts, Cockwells and Port Pendennis - the last being a superyacht yard where you don't get a boat through the door for less than £500K most refits run to £5m plus - on our doorstep. Not to mention all the other yards and marinas. The work is out there.
 
Laser310 said:
If you own the business, you will not be getting paid by the hour.., but by the job.

costs of setting up a business needn't be high - presumably you al ready have the skills, an maybe some of the equipment.

i have an in law who built a custom millwork business (maybe 20 employees, with millions in yearly revenue) buying machinery from shops that were closing down. often, they bought new, financed it, and then had trouble making payments.., so it ended up at auction or whatever. This is fairly expensive computer driven equipment. He builds installations for hospitals, libraries, etc.

anyway - as anyone who owns a boat knows.., if you are thinking of buying any custom fitting for a boat, you take your best guess as to the cost.., and then triple it.., and you might be close to what it will cost.

so the hourly rate is only going to become important when you hire employees.

start small, without investing a lot of cash.., and see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Very much the model here. My father retired from the farm his mid-fifties and started his own fabrication business, specializing in marine work. We have a 60 x 30ft purpose built workshop with an upstairs store, 3 phase power and more kit than you could imagine. My father was a compulsive shopper and hoarder - just glad that he never found Ebay or Amazon. He used to do a lot of casting too, for steam enthusiasts as well as for boats. Every type of bronze, brass and cast iron.
Notwithstanding making a quid going forward, it will be great to put all his gear and his passion to good use, rather than just flogging it all off for it to be shipped to India.
PS He died 15 months ago.
 
Farmer Piles said:
a qualified superyacht engineer
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Have you and the above gentleman the necessary skills to utilise the equipment you have.....It's all well and good having the gear but have you got the necessary 'idea'. Or are you intending employing a welder/ plater/ pipefitter or a combination of the three from the off?
Quality work requires quality workmanship which generally requires a fair degree of experience to do it in a profitable way. We all know of people that spend weeks / months making nice cabinetry or the odd great Bimini frame but in the real world it has to be made today and be of a quality that someone isn't going to give you it back or worse sue you because of losses caused by it's failure....! Is your man above that man? Are you?
 
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