Pricing Planer/Jointer/TS work

Before I got a planer of my own, I would give my neighbor a 6-pack. I have always been amazed how much work he’ll do for a cold Bud!

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

In my neck of the woods, there are a couple dealers who will surface both sides and bring it down close to nominal demisions (i.e. 4/4 down to 3/4”) for $0.25 a BF.

Call around and see what the charges are at the lumber yards. You don’t want to stick it to your friend, but you also don’t want to become a “critical” supplier for him without him understanding that critical dependability isn’t free. Also try to figure out why he wants you to do it rather than another shop…. you may find out he knows the job will cost $$$ and he only wants to pay $.

as for materials depends on how long you expect a set to last (in BF terms), and how expensive a set of new one are…. If you think it might be a ongoing thing, rather than a one off, you might think about rolling in buying a new set right up front.

as for time…. only you can decide that. We each have different shop rates, and we each have different tolerances for certain types of work…. me I charge a heck of a lot more for things that I don’t really like doing. I call it my “damn it, I have to go to work” rate. remember $10.00 an hour annulizes out to less than $21,000/yr. And then technically, you have to pay taxes on that… you are really working for around $8.00. (And if you don’t plan on reporting that income, don’t let them know!)

One lumberyard near me marks up lumber 10% to plane 2 sides and give one straight edge. So this way it depends on what type of wood it is. The more the BF price, the more for the work.

-- Matt - http://breakingboardom.wordpress.com/