Whats a fair price?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

When you are considering a fair price, make sure that is fair to both of you.  There isn't much more depressing than building a rifle, knowing that you are being taken advantage of.

[Cody Tetachuk]

When you are considering a fair price, make sure that is fair to both of you. 

Thank you Taylor, my point exactly. This is why I won't build for anybody. I know that my abilities won't produce a rifle of a value that will support more than about $5 per hour. To work for that is not fair to me (I have better things to do) and to charge more would not be fair to the customer, therefore, I just won't entertain the idea.

[Acer Saccharum]

Cody, if you can hold that $5 per hour price, I'd love to have you build me a gun.

Tom

[jwh1947]

Wow, Stophel's last paragraph is on the mark.  I am more comfortable starting with a blank.

I also agree that it is an insult to offer a builder less than he is asking for a gun.  If the price is too high, walk away.  A man worked for many hours on that piece and a bean counter has the audacity to try to beat the price down for a chunk of his life's work.  It is not the same as trying to knock a few bucks off of an antique deal; that's expected and we who occasionally sell a gun are ready for the standard game.  If you wish to keep a builder as a friend, do not demean his efforts by offering him less money for something that he made. 

Regarding shows,  I stopped doing most of them for three reasons in addition to the cost and time commitments. First,  most passers-by don't have enough money to buy a rifle.  They will usually tell you up front and have a decent conversation, but they are not there to buy.  They are to be expected but there is no payday there.   These people can sometimes be cultivated into a future customer, but that is most rare.  Then, there are the regular collector/trader/dealer types who share one thing in common...they are cheap.   Some combine this fetid personal characteristic with aggressiveness and are really obnoxious.  Third,  there are the self-appointed experts who will offer unsolicited critiques, often when you are in the process of selling a piece to another person.   I keep busy, not due to shows, but rather due to customer service and word of mouth.  I don't know for sure, but would wager that the the normal gun order within the cartel is not made at a show.  Good work sells itself. 
 

[Cody Tetachuk]

Cody, if you can hold that $5 per hour price, I'd love to have you build me a gun.

Tom

It's about time you admitted that I'm right!.

[Acer Saccharum]

Guffaw!

Yeah, you got me there.

T

[Daryl]

Building a gun from parts or a kit?  I don't know what would be a fair price - re-finishing a gun - I do know.

For a modern rifle with checkering, I charge a flat fee - $400.00 - that's strip the old finish and re-finish - anything but Brownings that is - $1,000.00 for those. I don't get many re-finish jobs and that's just fine with me.

To actually have the skill to build a rifle worth the total parts cost - well, that's beyond me.

[JTR]

Hey Dr Tim!
Since you don't want that $3000 a day job any longer........ Do you mind giving it to me!

John

[b bogart]

And if Mr Robbins gets tired of it I'm good to go for 1/2 that!

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

You can have it..... My rate at GA Tech is a lot lower, but I don't have to spend all my time in airplanes and hotels!!

[Dphariss]

Dphariss, parts changers? I wish you could follow a mech. around for a day while he is at work, see what he does, the equipment he has to use, and the money he has invested in tools. As for gun building, I reallly don't see how one can make a living building guns, takes real talent.  chuck

 
Parts changers.
Do they make or rebuild tie rod ends? How about brake master cylinders?
I do some maintenance of my own to the point of changing internal parts in manual trannies, assembling engines etc etc.

My kid was a diesel mechanic, about 50 grand worth of education. You want me to ask him? He worked on the North Slope and also for the company you see in "Iceroad Truckers" at times and before that while on breaks from school for a local shop here. Parts changing. He mostly hated it as a result. He joined the Marines last year. I have his roll around tool box in my shop right now and yeah its big and full of tools.
So you were telling me about auto mechanics?
There are exceptions but mostly parts changers.

What about my spending over 40 years off and on learning gun making? My 24x32 purpose built shop? The various tools and equipment I have acquired or made over the years?

I have a pistol in the works right now. There is not one part I have not made or heavily modified on the gun. BECAUSE I CAN'T BUY WHAT I NEEDED or what is available is marginal or unsuitable. I had to weld and redrill/ream the tumbler hole in the lockplate since it was FAR out of line, recut the stop on the cock it was over 1/8" from allowing the cock to come to the proper point. Have rearched and retempered the mainspring, so far. The steel ramrod or piano wire which I only had to polish, upset on one end and finish the small knob, drill and tap, then turn and silver solder a shop made "button" on the other. Made all the rod swivel parts from scratch, machined 3 of 4 sides of the under rib. Made the set trigger from scratch, the TG from scratch, the breech plug from scratch and machined the barrel from 1 1/8" to 1" octagonal. I will make the sights, escutcheons, thumb piece and the vent liner as well. Because the stuff I buy is often junk, or the part is not available and because I am building it for someone who is not interested in store bought anymore than I am and is a very good friend.
If I charged $50 per hour it would be worth a bunch of money. The steel entry pipe I just made from sheet would total, installed, would likely be about 200 alone.

Dan

[Artificer]

What's a fair price?  Boy is that hard to answer. especially when you are starting out.  You want the work to refine your skills, gain experience, become "known" for your work; so you think you should not charge too much and to a point that's correct.  However, don't sell yourself short.  If you charge too little, it will become a burden and may well turn you off from doing more work OR from doing the work of which you are capable.  If you do good work, you should at LEAST double the price you were considering of $150 to $200.  Personally, I would not suggest anything less than $400 to $500 (depending on the type of patchbox and other work) - even on your first commission, as long as you do good work.   You have a LOT of time you will be putting into the rifle.  Give the man at least his money's worth (if not more) on the rifle and you both will be pleased. 

I used to make hand sewn copies of musket cap boxes.  I included the wool liner and pick and pick loop.  I used dug orginal studs that I "remanufactured" for use.  I sold them for $18.00 at the time.  Then a person I knew began making machine sewn boxes without the wool liner, pick and pick loop and sold them for $ 12.00.  They weren't exact reproductions on the inside, but they were "good enough."  About 6 months later I actually thanked him for making them because I figured out I was working for about 50 cents an hour when my actual hourly wage was 20 times that much.