I'm working on my item and I have no clue if there's some kind of guideline for determining the CL of an item. I have a planned price for the item in my head. Should I just set a CL to make the math work out based on magic item creation rules or should I just go with what feels right and not sweat the small stuff?
Well the maker needs to be able to cast the spells he uses to create the item, so that affects the CL (a wixard cast fireball at level 5 so that would be a minimum if fireball is used in the creation).
Think also of the power of the item. It might use a 2nd level spell, but the power level is more for level 9 PCs, so the CL could go up.
At which level would you like PCs to make that item? CL is sort of a threshold to keep in mind.
There is also dispel magic. When someone cast DM on a item it uses the CL of the item, so take that into account too (easy to dispel or not?.
I would recommand you do the math for the price before you adjust it to your liking. Prices aren't just estimated, there are guidlines for those. After you adjust according to power and other factors.
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I agree with Goldomark. Do the math first (based on the item creation rules section of the Core Rulebook) and find the calculated gp value and CL based on the spells needed. After that you can feel free to adjust them a bit to match the power of the item (keeping in mind the minimum caster levels).
For example, my SIAC Uber-bomb might be similar to the fireball spell, so that's a requirement. That should make the CL 5... right? But if I determine that this pyrotechnic nightmare is a bit overpowered for a 5th level wizard to craft, then I might bump it up to CL 10. Afterall, it does MEGA-BOOM! (or 10d6 points of damage)
The CL for items is, almost without exception, the minimum caster level required to cast the spells used to make the item. So if you use fireball, a 3rd level spell, the CL of the item should be 5th - unless you want them to be 7d6 fireballs, in which case the CL is 7th.
Don't forget the target price for your item should be based on the caster level, too. I mean, it's far from the only thing to consider, but it does come into effect because a higher CL is more power.
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What about something like Grappler's Mask, though? It has a CL of 1, even though it uses bull's strength and cat's grace, two second-level spells.
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The CL for items is, almost without exception, the minimum caster level required to cast the spells used to make the item. So if you use fireball, a 3rd level spell, the CL of the item should be 5th - unless you want them to be 7d6 fireballs, in which case the CL is 7th.
Don't forget the target price for your item should be based on the caster level, too. I mean, it's far from the only thing to consider, but it does come into effect because a higher CL is more power.
As far as price goes, it seems to me from a cursory glance that there's very little correlation between item price and CL. I haven't yet gone so far as to make a spreadsheet and try to plot it out, but from the looks of it CL seems to have very little to do with price.
Also, I think there's kind of a problem with your fireball example. In the currently-published items, when you have multiple versions of the same item with different power levels, they all have the same CL. A good example is actually necklace of fireballs itself. All versions have a CL of 10, all the way from Type I to Type VII. The price changes, but the CL stays the same. In the case of necklace of fireballs, it appears that the CL is based on the minimum level needed to cast the 10d6 fireball in a Type VII, and then that was applied to the lower power versions as well.
Pearl of power, with its CL 17 for all versions, seems to work the same way. The printed CL is based on a 9th level pearl, but even 1st level pearls still have CL 17. There's an errata on pearl of power that doesn't really clear the subject up much, but it does make it clear that an item's CL is not a construction requirement, so a caster does not need to be at that level to create the item.
EDIT:And it looks like there's even an exception to the multiple-versions-have-the-same-CL rule: bag of tricks. Gosh, this is getting confusing for me.