How we price a print: machine hours, filament, and failure rate

People assume price tracks size. It tracks time.

Take the Dynojet boost gauge pod. It is a small part, but it prints at a 0.24 mm layer with a full-solid wall and a curved hood that needs slow perimeters to come out clean. The slicer says 9 hours 16 minutes. The Arctic Cat back cover is physically larger, prints at 0.28 mm with 60% infill, and finishes in 3 hours 22 minutes. The small part is nearly triple the machine time, so it costs more.

Our cost per part is roughly: filament weight at spool cost, plus machine hours at a rate that covers power, nozzle and belt wear, and amortized printer replacement, plus a failure allowance. That last one is real. Even with dried filament and a tuned profile, a small percentage of long prints fail — a warped corner, a layer shift on hour seven. Those hours are paid for by the parts that succeed.

Then there is hand time: deburring the aperture, clearing support witness marks, test-fitting the batch reference, hardware kitting, and packing. On a small part that is a bigger share of the cost than the plastic itself.

We do not do rush pricing and we do not run a sale calendar. The number on the product page is the number, and it reflects what the part actually costs to make properly.