Saving a lot of money with a little bit of Aspire

[dealguy11]

The customer for this cabinet asked for the glass doors with curved muntins as shown. We priced this from our cabinet door maker and they came back with a quote for $3000 (!) for just the doors because it was a custom size and shape. This would have caused us to lose this job, so we turned to Aspire to cut the muntins, using shaped cutters, small end-mills and simple 2d toolpaths. Since is was being stained and toned very dark, the end grain was not a problem (otherwise we'd have to glue up laminated muntins formed around curves and cut to join the curves where they cross). We also used Aspire to lay out and cut the little legs with the square "molding" profile, which we cut on our 4th axis. Both we and the customer were pleased with the result.

[IslaWW]

Nice Job Steve!!

[esteeme1]

That is a beautiful job! Maybe you undersold yourself and should have added the $3K to the invoice or maybe you are the dealguy. I think I might come to you when I need a shadowbox built. lol

[MarkJohnston]

Really nice job Steve!!!

It's nice having software and hardware and the talent to accomplish that detail.

Mark

[Leo]

It sure is nice to know what others charge for those things we do.

I have had the same experience this week.

A sign I am in process of making is now valued at well above $5,000.

I am at a fraction of that.

Yeah - knowing the value has tremendous value.

I am not going to be so shy next quote time around.

[esteeme1]

yea Leo,

I can stand it when my clients hear the price and don't bat an eye. Then they (husband and wife) look at each other and smile ever so faintly. You just know they're walking out the door with a big $#!t eating grin.

Damn I just need to raise the prices.

Jim

[dealguy11]

I agree pricing this stuff is hard to get right sometimes. I felt a little like Jim on this one.

[martin54]

Pricing is something I have had many issues with over the years, when I first started my own business I did it by buying a franchise & my prices set by the franchise were so high I got hardly any work what so ever, lasted almost a year before having to close the door. I really enjoyed the industry so when the franchise dumped me I set up under a different name & started again, went from one extreme to the other lol, set my prices so low that I was just a really busy fool.
Working 24/7 almost literally I made myself extremely ill & found I was unable to work at all for some time.

Once I started to recover I reviewed my prices & set them somewhere between the 2 extremes, that has worked well for me, I win some jobs, I loose some jobs but I am kept busy enough & feel good about what I am doing. The CNC machine has brought a whole new learning experience both with using the machine & pricing once again.
Really depends what you are looking for I believe, I will quote a job & I am happy with the price I have quoted, if I latter find out I could have charged more it doesn't worry me at all because I was already happy with what I was charging. Will I then bump the price up for the next job that is the same or very similar, sometimes yes & sometimes know, all comes down to the customer, their attitude towards me & how much I want to help them.

Personally I believe there are lots of factors to consider as well as what others charge, the piece Steve has just posted is a good example, I doubt I would have charged anywhere near the same price that Steve did for the same job because I know that at the moment the quality wouldn't be any where near as good. The customer may be happy with the finished product but pretty sure I wouldn't be, that sort of thing how ever will hopefully improve over time. Reputation is quite important as well, people will generally be prepared to pay more if they know you have a good reputation.


Great looking Job by the way Steve, really going to have to make an effort to save up for Aspire, suppose that means I need to be charging more

[ohiococonut]

Beautiful cabinet!

[WoodEraser]

Awesome cabinet !
Thanks for sharing your story and picture.

[donnymcarter]

Beautiful work!

[ckurak]

Steve,

Could you tell us what material was used for the muntins? Solid wood? Species? Other material?

Beautiful piece of craftsmanship! Thanks for sharing.

[dealguy11]

The muntins are solid maple. Had I known it was going to be so dark when we bid on it, I would have picked a lighter walnut as the starting place. The original picture they showed us was much lighter. After several go-rounds on the color (during which we actually constructed the cabinet), we finally had an opportunity to look at a piece they were trying to match. At that point, we dyed it with a alcohol-based walnut dye, then toned it to the right color with tinted shellac and finally top-coated it with flat lacquer.

I should give credit, by the way, to my son for much of the construction and finishing. My job on these things is to create the design, deal with the customer, run the CNC and mix the colors. My son does much of the actual construction work and he is amazing, both in terms of detail and speed.

[scottart]

very well done and an interesting discussion on pricing.. Aspire is a money making machine..

[Claude]

Great job, I love the cabinet!