Last Christmas Gift Finally! American Soldier

[dehrlich]

Finally got the last of my Christmas gifts done! Good thing these are for my kids, they understand. Anyway this is for my oldest son who is in the Army Reserve. He did Airborne training this past fall and even though there is not officially an "Airborne mechanic", that's what he calls it.. why not?! He decided to join the Army while a Junior in high school to follow in my footsteps.

This is African mahogany, actually from a single 14" wide board but I ripped in and glued back to help with the potential for cupping. Sign is actually 12" x 15". Made a couple small errors, the US ARMY is too deep, hard to paint. Also I was trying to save material and didn't do a "stay under rollers", so I ended up with some snipe... even though it looks like a carve region around the bottom text.

What would you all charge for something like this (minus the errors)? Material cost would be like $15, took 6 hours to carve and I spent about 4 hours painting. Just trying to figure out how to come up with a pricing structure.

58571

[chebytrk]

Looks real nice. Great paint job. Please pass on my "Thanks for serving our country" to your son for me. I have a grandson who is in Basic right now at FT Bragg. He too is following his grandpa's steps. I hope he can hold out for 20 yrs like I did.
On the charging.... I have a buddy on here that uses a approx. 30 cents per minute rule on the carvings he does. After that he decides on the "other".... finishing and painting. Then you always have to consider the demographics as some places are higher/lower cost living areas. Where I am (NE of Dallas, Tx.) I'd ask about $100-$115. I can't recoup too much on the finishing and stuff.

[lawrence]

Beautiful job, and I love the paint job.

I hate talking pricing as it really varies... but you asked so here goes!

With practice you'll cut down on both your painting time. There are also ways to significantly cut down carve time (feathering, bit optimization, larger bits, etc) and this will help get your "per hour" rate to a level that is around that of other sign makers. I would probably charge around $60 for future similar carves so would shoot to lower your hours if possible. All this being said, it is a great looking plaque and both you and your son should be proud of it!

Well done,
Lawrence

[Capt Bruce]

I would tend to agree with Chebytrk on pricing a piece like that here in the Atlanta market especially given the fine paint and finish job you've added to the carving. Some customers would shy away from it and then you just have to figure you can't give away your skills and move on to other projects. I do find that many projects are appreciated with just a fine stain and gloss finish which saves them the added cost of your painting. Let the carving stand on its own merit but have photos available to show them what a fine paint finish can add.

58576

Note the CERT plaques at the bottom right that were going to be painted but made enough of a statement with just good shadow details showing through. (With my thanks to Lawrence for his kind assistance in developing the pattern)

Beyond all that, please also express my thanks and congratulations to you son for his willingness to serve our Nation

[dehrlich]

Thanks for the comments everyone! He was very happy with it.

As for the painting, I am getting better. Keep in mind I hardly painted anything until I got this machine a couple months ago. My problem is that I am a perfectionist as most woodworkers are. I want everything to be just right so I take a lot of time. Just takes practice I suppose.

[b.sumner47]

Capt, You have really been busy. Nice work !

Fair Tides,

Capt Barry

[Capt Bruce]

Thanks Capt Barry,
It's been a rare treat to have this much time at home between deployments. Sandy may still interupt this for me but I've been lucky as junior staff members keep getting sent forward instead of the old guy. Somebody has to mind the store here down South and I guess that's been me. Have a great New Year.