Box cost and price calculator
What one living-hinge box costs to make, from the design’s real cut length and sheet use, your laser’s speed and hourly cost, wood, labour and extras, and what to charge wholesale, retail and personalised.
The cut length, parts and sheet use come from the same engine that makes the file. Dense hinges (Voronoi, Lantern, Braid) cost more laser time than open ones; change the pattern and watch the minutes.
Questions
Where do the cut length and sheet use come from?
From the Hingesmith vector engine, building the exact design you set up: the same numbers the Studio shows in its top bar and the same nesting it exports.
What should I charge for my laser hour?
Between $20 and $40 an hour is common for a hobby machine once electricity, lenses, tube or diode life and the machine’s purchase price are spread over its working hours. A shop with staff and rent charges more.
Why is the price divided by the marketplace fee?
Etsy and similar marketplaces take their fee from the price, not from your margin, so the price must be grossed up for the listing to return the multiple you want.
Are 2× and 2.5× the right markups?
They are starting points for a handmade gift item: 2× cost for wholesale and 2.5× for retail cover the time you did not count, returns, and the boxes that crack. Check the price against comparable listings; personalisation is where the margin is, so charge for it separately.