Home made fly box revisited

**Darian** · 03-02-2013, 11:14 PM

I'm with DIJeff. Those boxes are worth quite a bit more than asking price. Love the differing types of wood. It truly makes each box unique. Keep 'em coming.

**bonneville54** · 03-03-2013, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by jbird

The prices I'm tossing out there are introductory prices......Obviously at these prices I will be netting about minimum wage. LOL. But I gotta start somewhere

As a guy in wood products manufacturing, my reaction is your prices a too low. in fact, the idea of "introductory pricing" may not work with a product like this (this isn't a bag of potato chips) ....generally speaking, it's easier to lower prices than raise them. Of course, a whole lot pricing decisions depend on your goals for the products....beer money or a serious business?

Looking at your competitors example. and assuming a decent margin:

Retail Price - $145.00
Wholesale Cost - $70.00
Manufacturing cost - $35.00

Making some assumptions about your manufacturing costs....

Wood cost - maybe a board foot or two in each box @ $3.00 to $12.00 per b/f (and this maybe low as I assume, at this point, you're paying retail prices for material) so...an average material cost of $7.50
Cork or foam - $1.00 (?)
Hinges - $2.50
Finish - $1.00
Labor - At $10.00 and hour (which is low) , do you have 2 hours in each box? For a cost of $20.00...

Using this example (and it's just that) your costs are around $30.00 per box and this does not include overhead, insurance, shipping, packaging, etc...stuff to keep in mind. I'd double your prices and you'd still be underselling the other guys. To me, you're selling art, not utility...price it as such.

In any case...they are beautiful, wishing you much success and, perhaps more importantly, fun...

**jbird** · 03-03-2013, 07:46 AM

Thanks for the replies guys! this is exactly what I was looking for. My apprehension is pricing them out of the market. I dont know if people are really buying those high end wood boxes out there? I would rather sell ten for $50 than one for $150. With that said, believe me, i know the prices I suggested are very low. when I first started thinking about selling these, my mind never even drifted below $100/box. They are not a factory made/assembly line product and folks with some woodworking knowledge know how much goes into these. Tho I imagine the vast majority dont know whats involved. So the question becomes, am i catering only to the afluent? Is there anything wrong with that? Just some bugs Im working out.

so the big question is, who here would buy these at the price Ive listed.... Who here would buy them for double the price Ive listed?

I also want to talk about a new direction Im heading in for some of my boxes... Real burl wood veneer. before you scoff at veneer, let me explain. First of all the veneer available is insanely beautiful and readily available. Please look here...

http://www.veneersupplies.com/catego...t__%28Burl%29/

real wood veneer is extremely stable. Correctly laminated to thin, treated plywood, glued up and trimmed with hardwood (maple, walnut, etc... as shown in my "devine design"), encapsulated in multiple layers of spar varnish will result in a very stable, durable, light weight box that is one of a kind gorgeous. beautiful burls are not stable enough in and of themselves and would eventually fail along grain seams or knots. The veneer solution makes it possible to incorperate the most amazing and beautiful burls, ripples and birdseyes that are lightweight and stable.

**DLJeff** · 03-03-2013, 10:59 AM

I concur with your analysis of veneers vs actual burls. The only way I think you can get the burls to hold up is if you stabilize them. That's a little hard to do with larger pieces. I do that for reel seat blanks with a small vacuum pump and an old pressure cooker.

**Darian** · 03-03-2013, 11:12 AM

Jay,.... Great stuff!!! I plan on buying a 5"x7" box. If you made one, I'd like an even larger box, 7"X10"(?). purpose would be display. I'd like to see the burl veneer before I order, tho.

**jbird** · 03-03-2013, 01:42 PM

Thank you Darian. I'll make anything you want (almost

) I think guys might want boat boxes that could be in excess of 9X12. With surfaces of this size, some marquetry is not out of the question

$$

as far as the burl veneer is concerned, I refuse to send anything to anybody that I'm not 100% happy with. The last thing I want to do is have some questionable work circulating with my name on it. I am still in R&D on this. When I have an excellent, repeatable product and turn out 6 or 8 of them, I will put them in the classifieds here. If you do like what you see, we'll talk about your 7X10.

I have 10 miscillaneous boxes right now that are the product of R&D (including the ones in the beginning of this thread.) that I will eventually part with for low prices. they are kind of random designs but they all have one commonality...theyre beautiful, functional fly boxes.

**Fubar** · 03-07-2013, 06:55 PM

Enjoyed your thread. Just finished repainting, repairing and restringing my duck decoys for next season which gave me some shop time for other pursuits. I also thought about putting together some fly boxes. These are just made of some red birch i had laying around. I wanted to workout hinge and jig issues. Fun project. Here are the results of my R & D.

**DLJeff** · 03-07-2013, 07:37 PM

Wow! Very nice work. Do you do your engraving or do you have a company that does it? Is that lazer engraved?

**Jim May** · 03-07-2013, 07:41 PM

Fubar,
Nice work I think you have way to much free time on your hands soss hinges on your boxes and repainting decoys now!!! you've got 9 months to do that.By the way Joe Dirt is my hero!
Jim May