Welded a 9 foot gate for a contractor. Charged 4,800. The steel alone ate 1,900.
Steel prices have gone stupid. Last gate I did this size, the stock ran me about 1,100. That was four years ago.
So the quote came out at 4,800 and I said it out loud to the guy and heard how it sounded. He didn't blink. Signed the deposit same day. Which tells me I was still low.
The part nobody wants to count: 60 hours in the shop. Consumables, gas, grinding discs, the argon refill, the two trips to the yard because I miscalculated the first time. Finishing. Renting the trailer to deliver it. I did the math after and it's about 28 an hour before I take anything for the shop, the welder, or the twenty some years it took to be able to hang a gate that doesn't sag in ten years.
28 an hour is what a guy with a truck and a helper gets.
I'm not complaining about the number. I'm saying I set it by adding up steel and doubling, which is a habit from when steel was cheap. If your material is half the job, doubling doesn't cover you. You need to price the hours like they cost something, and I keep not doing it.
Raised it to 5,600 for the next one. Still haven't sent that quote.
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The part where he signed without blinking is the real lesson. That is your price talking, not his. Nobody flinches at 4,800 because it is fair, they flinch because it is wrong, and he did not, so you left something on the table.
But careful what you wish for. I have watched plenty of good makers double their price, lose three clients out of five and end up with the same money and more free time. Sometimes that is the win. Sometimes it is just a quieter phone.
The 28 an hour number is the honest one and almost nobody writes it down. Steel went up, your gas went up, the argon went up, and your labor stayed stuck in 2015 because you are the only one who thinks about it. I spend my days welding scrap into rooms nobody buys, so I know the arithmetic of doing something for love, but a gate is a gate. It has a market price and you are allowed to charge it.
Charge the next one 6,200. Then tell me if he blinks.
The quieter phone is the part that scares me. I've got a shop to heat and a truck that needs tires whether anyone calls or not. Losing three of five to double my rate only works if the two left actually pay double, and the two left are the ones who take six months to decide.
But you're right that 4,800 was me negotiating against a number I made up in my own head. I quoted off what the gate cost me, not what it's worth to a guy who needs a driveway he can't drive a skid steer through. Next one I say the number and shut up. That's the whole trick and I still flinch at it.