what actually drives the price of a laser cut part?
Four things: the material, its thickness, the total cut length and the number of pierces. Material sets the cost of the sheet, and thickness sets how much laser power and time the cut takes - thicker plate cuts slower, so it costs more per metre of cut.
Cut length and pierce count are the machine-time side of the price. A part with a simple outline cuts quickly; the same size part covered in holes and slots takes longer, because every hole is another pierce and another run of cutting. Two parts that weigh the same can price very differently for exactly this reason.
why do small batches cost less than you might expect?
Because small batches are nested onto shared sheets, so you are not paying for material you do not use. Your parts are arranged alongside other work on the next appropriate sheet, and you pay for your parts, not for a whole sheet of material.
This is why the minimum order at OneLaser is £75 and one part is a job. Nesting is also why there is no meaningful per-metre rate to publish: the same part can land on a different sheet with different neighbours from one week to the next, and the quote reflects the actual material and machine time it needs.
Skip the theory. Upload your file and get the real number back within one working day.
upload your fileshow do quantity discounts work in laser cutting?
They fall out of the physics rather than a discount table. More identical parts nest more tightly on a sheet, setup is shared across the batch, and the machine runs continuously - so the price per part drops as quantity rises.
There is no cliff edge where a discount kicks in; the per-part price simply improves as the nest gets more efficient. If you are weighing up 10 parts against 25, ask for both quantities on the same quote and compare.
how do I get an actual price?
Upload a DXF, DWG or STEP and you get a firm price within one working day - no site visit, no back and forth. State the material, thickness and quantity with the file and the quote covers everything.
Once approved, lead time is 1 to 3 working days depending on the complexity of the job, with turnaround from 24 hours. You are welcome to supply your own material, and deburr, folding and powder coating happen in house if the parts need finishing.