Custom Beer Sampling Serving Tray

[SteveNelson46]

I don't do commercial work so I have no idea what to charge for this order. Especially since custom made craft items usually don't sell for what they are truly worth. The owner of my favorite pizza shop just got his beer and wine liquor license and ask me to make some serving trays for craft beer sampling. He sketched out a design on paper and this is what I came up with. They will probably be cut out of Oak for that old time pub look and the dimensions are 11" wide by 17" long (including the handle) and 3/4" thick and will be finished with urethane for durability. The estimated carve time is 4.5 hours on "best" and 7 hours on "optimal". Anyone have any idea of what I should charge?

[lynnfrwd]

Looking online, I would say at least $50. each.

[Bigtyme]

Steve,
I do a fair amount of commercial work. I usually charge material cost + carving ($7/hr) + labor ($30/hr) + finishing ($10/hr, if any). I recently did some sampler paddles for a brew pub that carved in an hour each and charged $50 a piece plus tax...

[SteveNelson46]

This is called a "beer flight" in the shape of a pizza peel. By now I had hoped to be able to post a completed project but Murphy's law is working against me. The machine started to sound different around the 50% mark and the RPM sounded like it was slowing down. 92% into a 7 hour carve it stalled with a Z axis stall error. Easy fix. I replaced the cut motor brushes and was back up and running in 15 minutes. However, the carving was ruined when I restarted it with a 0 depth carve region over the finished carved parts. The tracking was off just enough to render it unrecoverable.

I restarted a new carve this morning and after the flip from the back to the front side the crank torque plate split in two halves when I cranked the head down. Again, it was my fault. I should have dissembled and lubed it when I first noticed an increase in resistance in the crank handle.

Anyway, here is a picture of the prototype carved in Oak. I made a few minor changes and I plan on staining the finished project with a medium walnut stain. Now if I can just get Murphy to look the other way for awhile...

[oscarl48]

Steve,

If I see Murphy I'll punch him in the back of the head. I owe him a few as well.

Looks awesome by the way.

Oscar

[carrothers]

I would charge a round of craft beers for at least a month.