A saw leaves a kerf: a thin path of waste that is no longer part of the board. Side work has the same path. Platform fees, payment fees, software, travel, and the hour spent writing a proposal before anyone pays are all kerf. A rate that ignores that path is a number that will not sit on the trestle after the week is cut.
Write the waste first
List the costs that leave every time a job is taken. Then divide what remains by the hours that actually sit on the beam, including the unpaid hour. The result is the rate that stays. If that number is below what the day job pays for the same hour, the leftover work is buying time from the rest of the week.
Figures in any example on this desk are only there to show the shape of the sum. They are not typical earnings and they are not a forecast. Sawbench makes no earnings promises.
What the trestle refuses
A quote that hides the kerf, a “test task” with no end, or a rate that only works if every weekday night is used, will not hold. The board looks long on the floor. On the beam it is shorter than it first appeared.
Keep the rate next to the weekly record. Hours used, money in, costs out. If the leftover rate shrinks for two weeks in a row, the offer has wandered. Put it back on the floor or cut it shorter.
Also read: leftover hours on the sawbench and boards that do not belong on the trestle.