Custom Coaster & Cutting Board FAQ
A lot of people are asking questions regarding CNCROi.com‘s custom coaster and cutting board solutions, I hope this helps answer some of them.
Before we jump into the questions, please review these two videos to help you understand a bit more about the process behind their production. A coaster is really an undersized cutting board for our machines so these two items have essentially the exact same options.
Alright, now that you are an expert regarding how these items are made, let’s answer some questions!
What material can you make my custom cutting board or coasters out of?
Anything except vinyl, yes, we can safely cut vinyl using our CNC router as well, but it just doesn’t last and looks junky very quickly, especially when exposed to in the outdoors or used as a cutting surface. Anything else is fair game, granite though stainless steel, wood though acrylic (ok for coasters, not cutting boards).
What are your minimum order quantities?
The bigger question is what is your budget, getting ONE of anything made will cost you a lot more than getting a hundred done. So, if your budget is 5$US for ONE coaster, best you head to the dollar store as you will save yourself time and money.
I don’t know what I want, how do I go about getting a price?
Somewhat related to the above, CNCROi.com is a custom CNC shop, not your regular retail shop. What this means is we design and build a custom solution for you based on your budget. So, you need to decide what your budget is and then we can provide solutions tailored to that budget.
Don’t worry, if you are being unrealistic, we’ll let you know right away. It goes without saying that something made out of stainless steel will cost dramatically more than the same item out of wood. Volumes also play an important role in pricing as well, the point that there is some deviation between items (each coaster same or different with unique personalization) also plays a role.
I really like XYZ but I’d like it made out of X and the others out of Y material in these Z different shape quantities. Can you do this?
CNCROi.com is a mass personalization realtime company, what that means is that we make your product(s) on demand. Put another way, there is no inventory, so getting things custom to your spec whether it’s 10 or a thousand isn’t a problem for us.
What design files do you need from me?
We can work based on sketches through to CAD, it’s up to you. Generally, cutting boards aren’t complex items, just like coasters. As for branding with your logo, send the file as an EPS file and if you have a specific font you’d like to use in your design, again, no problem, send that through as well.
I would like you to make me custom coasters branded with X (copyrighted) logo. Can you give me a price?
If you own the copyright, it’s not a problem, but if you want us to mass produce Mickey Mouse coasters and you aren’t Disney, we have ZERO interest in helping you. We take copyright extremely seriously, the owner of CNCROi.com publishes books on design, sells files through CNCKing.com and respect copyright.
Designers work incredibly hard to come-up with their designs, what you may think of as “simple” may have taken hundreds of hours to accomplish using thousands of dollars of software and the like. There is so much awesome creative potential out there, there is no reason to be copying other people’s designs.
Can give me a price for 100 units using Maple?
It’s surprising how many times we get a question like this, 100 units of WHAT? Send your design and then we can figure something out, the unit count and material isn’t very useful without some context. Maple plywood, raw maple? How thick? What species of Maple? What do you consider a unit? A design file with measurements will go a long way towards getting a quote and production started.
How intricate a design can I send to you?
You can send us something as crazy as you can come-up with, make this video round and you have really neat coasters for instance.
Inlays and other fine work are also possible, material depending, we have up to a thousand DPI resolution when engraving and 5 nanometers accuracy.
What do you need to generate a quote for us?
- Design file (sketch through CAD) and be sure to include measurements and thicknesses
- Quantity (how many and what do you consider “one unit”)
- Material preferences (the more flexible you are material wise, the more options we’ll shoot back to you at different price points)
- Environment (where will your cutting board or coaster be found in?)
- Timeline (due date?)
- Budget
I realize you don’t want to give us your budget because you are scared we’ll take the whole thing up but we run an international business, you don’t visit a house without knowing the price and it’s tough to work with a customer who won’t tell us what they have an idea of the ideal spend possible. We generally offer quotes both above and below budget to give you an idea of what’s possible.
How do we get started?
Contact us using the pop-up on the bottom right or call through, it really helps though if you send us information by e-mail first then we can talk options, otherwise, we’ll tell you over the phone to email us the design files so we are all talking about the same project.
