I have working agreements with five other companies in my area, so I get to see different techniques and approaches. In addition, I have a business partner that I trade labor with regularly.

He and I bring edgers, saws, and power tools on each other’s jobs as a convenience, but for big machines, we had a rental agreement—if either of us used the other one's big machine on the job, we paid a daily fee for the use of the sander. This seemed like a fair approach, since adding a second machine to the job makes it go faster, and improves the bottom line for the contractor who’s bidding the job.

The owners of the other companies have mixed feelings about this. All of them have been in the trade for 25-30 years, and two of them have no problem with the idea of a rental fee. Two of them don’t like the idea, and would not consider it. The fifth owner regularly used another contractor's sander, and I don't know what kind of arrangement they had.
Anyone have any experience with this issue?

I am a one man operation, own two Hummels and two Clark edgers. I religiously clean, maintain each piece of equipment and check their adjustment regularly. I just had standard maintenance performed on both of my edgers to the tune of $260.00 each. Both of my Hummels are ten years old and performing beautifully.

If someone else used the equipment, increasing it's use say 40-50%, maintenance / replacement would increase at the same rate. With a new Hummel selling for $5,500, or thereabouts, I would think few would offer to pay me 40-50% of the price of a new one if I needed to replace it. Same with edger maintenance / replacement.

The cost for these job 'performance critical' functions is money directly out of my pocket. It seems prudent to share these costs with others who use the same equipment through fair rental fees.

Just the knowledge of how to keep each of these critical machines tuned to the proper settings is worth something. Nothing is more critical to floor sanding than to begin with a piece of equipment is exact tune.

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To be clear, I'm not talking about you loaning out the machine to another company for their job. I think 95% of contractors would say that's fair to get a rental fee, in that situation. Where this question is coming up is when I'm working the job as a journeyman, and someone wants me to bring in my big machine and run it on their job.

I appreciate getting the work, and like I said, I don't mind using my own power tools or nailers to help out on another contractor's job. With the big machine, I feel like I'm bringing in a valuable piece of equipment that not just anyone can provide, and I want to get some compensation for it.

Most of the time, it's not an issue. I'm usually running the company machine, if I'm working for someone else.