If you do laser welding.
Laser welding is a boom to our industry in addition to the customer.
It’s far better to have something laser welded than using a torch.
The reasons:
95% of the times adjacent stones don’t have to be removed when using
a laser welder, whether as using a torch you would.
There is no seem and therefore the item is as it was before being
cut. Ring sizing is a perfect example. It was a size 7, now it’s a
size 5 and it is as though the factory made it a 5. No seem.
Being no heat is sued other parts of the object aren’t susceptible
to being ruined, burned, stressed or weakened.
It’s a win win situation.
The caveat? The machine to do this costs nearly $30,000, about $30 a
day over 5 years. So you need to take in more money.
You take in more money by either producing more work per hour, and a
laser machine will do that.
You should also get more money because you CAHRGE more, which you
should.
My suggestion is this:
If there is no advantage to the customer, don’t charge more. There’s
no advantage to laser solder/welding a jump ring closed. But it does
save you time.
If there IS an advantage to the customer, charge more. There is an
advantage to sizing a ring with a laser. It was never cut. So my
suggestion is to charge 50% more for the simple things if done by a
laser. It’s an advantage to the customer. And for those weird ones,
charge what you like!
In our price book a simple laser weld is $45 and each additional
laser weld is $25. More complicated laser welds are $75 and each
additional welds are $35.
I met a fellow who retiped a woman’s platinum prongs using my book.
He charged $630 to retip all of her prongs and she said “O.K.”.
It took him 20 minutes.
On many occasions a customer will have to decide whether to have a
piece of jewelry laser welded or soldered with a torch. How to
explain the advantage to the customer? They probably can’t tell the
difference when it’s delivered. Here’s how:
Ask them this:
“Mrs. Jones I want to give you an example of the difference between
a solder using a torch and heat and using a laser. If I was to give
you a chocolate bar and break it in half, how would you fix it to the
best of your ability?”
Here you’ll get answers like rubbing the 2 pieces together, using a
match and melting the pieces together, all leaving a less than
desirable end product. Here’s the answer to give-I love analogies.
"Mrs. Jones, one way of fixing your chocolate bar back like new
after it was broken in half is to go GET the actual mold the factory
used, lay the chocolate bar in the mold, heat it on the stove until
it’s melted and let it sit. Voi La! It’s just like it was back from
the factor, one solid piece that has never been broken. Although we
don’t melt your ring, the end result is exactly the same.
So which way would you rather have your ring sized? Your way or our
way?"
I love visual words.
Buy a laser welder, it’s a no brainer.
David Geller