How to make $423.08 per hour with the Mutoh Valuejet 426UF desktop printer
The Mutoh Valuejet 426UF desktop printer is a tremendous deal at the price- under $20,000 for a professional LED UV printer is pretty amazing – and a profit-making machine when you pick the right products.
Keep in mind that the 426UF UV is a tabletop machine. Its bed size is 13” x 19” and it fits nicely on a 30”x40” table – both of those make it ideal for small space production. Think retail space, mall kiosk, or home-based back bedroom style business.
Here’s one great example how big money can come from small packages:
Printing Custom Travertine Coasters – Competition and Retail Value
A little online research will reveal that most businesses out there are offering these coasters for anywhere from $23 for 4 to $185 for 24 pieces.
Let’s break down the costs involved and use these online prices to see how we get to that $400/hour figure mentioned above.
For the sake of this scenario, we will assume a retail price of $23-26 per 4 coasters.
That price is a bit low because the custom travertine coasters we found available online were NOT the full color. And they were generally done with stamping – adding an extra $1 each for highlight colors.
So not really custom at all.
And certainly not personalized! What you’ll see from the video is simple to do with the Compress RIP software and the Mutoh Valuejet 426UF desktop UV printer.
Mutoh UV Printer Profits on Custom Coasters - Example
How much money can you make per hour?
We chose some really colorful artwork to print on our tiles – full bleed with almost 100% coverage.
The bed of the Mutoh 426UF comfortably fit 8 – 4” x 4” coasters with a 1/16 bleed.
Print time on these 8 coasters is slightly over 4 minutes – meaning a little more than 30 seconds per coaster.
Realistically, allowing for load and unload time we are going to assume that you can print a set of 8 coasters every 6 minutes.
That’s 80 coasters per hour.
Or 20 sets per hour if you’re selling sets of 4 as we described above.
Income per hour:
80 full color coasters printed per hour
20 sets of 4
$23-26 retail per set
$460-520 at retail per hour
20 Sets X $25 each = $500/hour
What are the Costs?
UV Ink cost for the Mutoh Valuejet 426UF desktop printer to print the coasters is between 4 and 5 cents each.
In the samples we ran the number came out to $.0475 each for ink.
Based on 20 full sets of coasters your total ink cost per hour would be $3.80.
Once the coasters are printed you will likely want to place a cork base on them. It keeps them from scratching the surface where they are placed and from slipping as well. These can be bought online for $.30 each or even less in large quantities.
They have an adhesive back and are very easy and quick to install.
Let’s do the math on this, based on one hour of production.
Cost per hour:
4” x 4” travertine tiles for coasters – $4.97 for 9 tiles [Sourced retail from a local tile store]. The 80 coasters we print per hour would cost a total of $44.17
80 Tiles: $44.17
80 coasters uv ink cost: $3.80
Cork bases – $24.00
Total costs – $71.97
Making Money with the Mutoh Valuejet 426UF Desktop Printer
Now that we’ve calculated some realistic selling prices and times (total income) AND the real-world cost of goods, let’s break down how profitable owning the Valuejet 426UF can be!
Gross profit (before labor):
Income per hour: $500
Cost of goods: $71.97
$428.03 IN GROSS PROFIT
In one hour on your Mutoh 426UF.
But it doesn’t stop there.
You can print on travertine tiles for backsplashes in kitchens and in bathrooms.
The only additional costs would be in clear coating the tiles after they are printed to seal them. This opens up a lot of opportunities with contractors who are building or remodeling kitchens and bathrooms or for DIYers who want a customized look to their project.
There are so many different ideas of what you can print on the coasters.
You can market them to affinity groups – people who are passionate about “X” – where “X” might be a breed of dog or cat, a hobby like golf, bowling, archery, etc.
You can market them for bachelor party gifts, house-warming gifts, or as recognition of some event – like graduation or retirement.
The list goes on and on just as in any other sort of custom marketplace. The difference is that most who are doing these are not printing them digitally in full color, which gives you an advantage.
Many companies are marketing these travertine coasters on ETSY currently and few of them are full color. This is another great opportunity to use your Mutoh 426UF to generate a good income!
