Tuning guide
Dial in your numbers.
The engine is only as honest as the numbers you feed it. Here's every input that matters: what it changes in the price, where to get your real value, and when to revisit it. See how they combine on the math.
The big levers
These three move the price the most. Get them roughly right before you sweat the small ones.
Labor rate ($/hr)
- Changes
- On small or hand-finished pieces this is often the biggest line in the price. Raise it, the price rises with it.
- Find it
- Time yourself once through a real job (setup, hands-on work, cleanup, packing) and set an hourly you'd actually accept. A local shop rate is a sanity check.
- Revisit
- When your time gets more valuable, or you raise prices across the board.
Target margin (%)
- Changes
- The profit added on top of your loaded cost. It sets the final suggested price directly.
- Find it
- Decide the profit you want per sale. 30 to 50 percent is common for makers; commodity items run lower, custom work higher.
- Revisit
- When demand outpaces capacity (raise it) or you need to win on a competitive line.
Overhead (%)
- Changes
- Spreads your costs with no part attached (rent, subscriptions, tools, idle power) across every sale, so they're not quietly eaten.
- Find it
- Add up your monthly fixed costs and divide by monthly revenue. Even 5 to 15 percent keeps them covered.
- Revisit
- When you add a subscription, tool, or space, or your volume shifts a lot.
Your true cost (material & machine)
The honest floor. Get these from what you actually pay and what your gear actually does.
Spool price + weight
- Changes
- Your material cost per gram is price divided by weight. It's the base of every print's cost.
- Find it
- What you actually paid (include shipping) and the real spool weight (usually 1000 g, but check). The supplier's listing is rarely the number in your hand.
- Revisit
- When a price changes or you switch brands. The bulk CSV import on Settings sets these for a whole library at once.
Electricity (cents/kWh)
- Changes
- The power line on every print (machine watts times hours times rate). Small per print, real over a long one.
- Find it
- Your power bill (total charges divided by kWh used), or type your ZIP into the assumptions form to pull your state's rate. It can be 2x between states.
- Revisit
- When your rate changes. Glance at the bill seasonally.
Printer: purchase, lifetime hours, watts, maintenance
- Changes
- Spreads the machine's cost and upkeep over its life, charged per print hour (depreciation).
- Find it
- What you paid, an honest lifetime-hours estimate (a few hours a week lasts years), the nameplate watts, and a maintenance allowance for nozzles, belts, and plates.
- Revisit
- After a big repair or upgrade, or once you've logged enough hours to know its real life.
Waste (%)
- Changes
- Bumps material cost for what you can't sell: purge, brims, supports, and the bit of spool you never use.
- Find it
- Weigh a few finished plates (parts plus the waste you tossed) against the model weight. The gap is your waste.
- Revisit
- When you change your supports or brim habits, or your material.
Reliability
The cushion for things that don't go perfectly. Mostly self-tuning if you log your work.
Failure buffer (%)
- Changes
- A cushion in the price for prints that fail (still real material and time).
- Find it
- You barely have to guess: log your jobs, done and failed. After five logged jobs on a model, the engine swaps your guess for that model's real rate.
- Revisit
- It updates itself. Just keep logging jobs.
Purge per color
- Changes
- Extra filament flushed at each color change on a multi-color print, charged per plate.
- Find it
- Your slicer's flush volume, or weigh the purge tower or poop. Zero it out if you print single-color.
- Revisit
- When you tune your slicer's flushing, or change your multi-color habits.
Setup minutes
- Changes
- Fixed hands-on time per listing (slicing, plate prep) that per-gram pricing misses.
- Find it
- Time the prep you do once per job, regardless of size. It's why a tiny item still has a floor.
- Revisit
- When your workflow speeds up or slows down.
The sale (fees, packaging, shipping)
What the channel and the parcel take off the top, so your price still nets the margin.
Packaging cost
- Changes
- The per-order box, mailer, label, and filler, added once per listing.
- Find it
- Add up what one shipment's packaging costs you. Buying mailers and paper in bulk drops it.
- Revisit
- When you change packaging or buy in bulk.
Fees (marketplace + processor)
- Changes
- The channel's cut taken off the top (Etsy/Amazon plus Stripe/PayPal), so the price still nets your margin. Applies to the item AND the shipping line.
- Find it
- Use the "Pick a platform" preset on a fee profile, then match your real plan.
- Revisit
- When a platform changes its fees, or you add a sales channel.
Shipping profile
- Changes
- A separate line charged to the buyer (cost over one-minus-fee), so postage never inflates the item price. Free-shipping thresholds model what you'd absorb.
- Find it
- Weigh the PACKED parcel (part plus box plus padding) and set your carrier's real rates. A few grams over a price break costs about a dollar.
- Revisit
- When carrier rates change or you switch box sizes.
Customization premium + Round-to
- Changes
- A per-part handling premium for hands-on customization (charged per plate), and a rounding step so prices land clean (e.g. to the nearest dollar).
- Find it
- Set the premium to what custom handling is worth to you; set rounding to how you like prices to read.
- Revisit
- Rarely. Set once and leave them.
Tune yours now
Your numbers live in Settings, Assumptions. For broader shop advice (packing, photos, growth), see the tips.