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View Full Version : Ever have a job that was more like a puzzle than a job?



Stephen Beckham
10-03-2007, 7:23 PM
Had this one to do today - funny thing - I didn't charge him at all.... Well, okay - he did have the gun... Actually - he had several boxes of ammo he didn't want and he wanted to replace the ivory grips with these birdseye maple that he made by hand - so he traded three boxes of 9MM for two handgrips.

There are some imperfections to my eye, but it was a blast putting the jigsaw together and he loved it. He makes grips and wants me to start etching all of them with similar design plus customer's initials.

So - back to the all time favorite question of the Creekers - how much do I charge. I'm looking for thoughts on engraving each set - it literally took less than 5 minutes total laser time to do both grips (minus alignment time + about 30-45 seconds per). So bottom line when this guy walks in - I can have his grips with initials etched in less than 10 minutes total. I consider the setup/graphics costs to be covered already in the trade.

Considering he gave me ~$40 worth of ammo - I made out like the bandit in this ordeal. I'm thinking of $8-$10 per set - so anyone got suggestions?

Lee DeRaud
10-03-2007, 7:51 PM
Did you just do the initials, or were those plain grips and you also did the (pseudo-)checkering?

Stephen Beckham
10-03-2007, 9:59 PM
Lee - they were plain with laquer finish and holes drilled. I vectored the lines so it drew pretty quick and then rastered the initials.

The fun part was drawing all those lines and evenly spacing them for the diamond cut. I also made the lines go just off the sides of the grips except at the bottom. He said this is about the largest one he makes - one other just about a 1/8" larger, so making the lines drop off the edge should allow for only minor adjustments on the next one he brings in.

Steve

Bob Cole
10-04-2007, 12:06 AM
Those look great.

Lee DeRaud
10-04-2007, 1:05 AM
...it literally took less than 5 minutes total laser time to do both grips (minus alignment time + about 30-45 seconds per).If you're going to do a lot of 'standard' 1911 grips, make a jig that references to the screw holes: that spacing doesn't change. (You'll need right/left pairs for the two standard grip sizes, but I think the upper screw is in the same place on both.)

Mike Null
10-04-2007, 7:05 AM
Steve

Nice work. I think I'd be at $20 per pair at a minimum. I might do the monogram only for $10.

A couple of options to consider.

Put the monogram in a diamond. Turn it so it runs the same way as the handles. Invert the monogram so the letters are raised.

Take a look at the Post Script fill tool to do your checkering. it might be easier.

I recently bought a book by Bill Janney on gunstock carving and it has some great ideas which might be modified for use on the laser. (He does Hand carving) His web site is www.billjanney.com (http://www.billjanney.com)

He told me he has done some gun stocks for as high as $5000.

Darren Null
10-04-2007, 7:54 AM
Very nice. I Like the hatching. If it were me, though, I would have lined the monograms up with the barrel, I think. Lined up with the grip makes it look unbalanced somehow. I make it about 33 degrees using this freebie program:

http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Home-Hobby/Other/MB-Ruler.html
(Measures on-screen angles and distances and has a colour picker)

Just my 5 cents- intended as a suggestion for possible improvement to be used or ignored as you see fit.

Doug Dickson
10-04-2007, 10:13 AM
Steve
Nice job! I have played around with laser checkering but never achieved the result that I wanted. In the Jan 2004 issue of A&E magazine there is an excellent article on 3D laser engraving. The pictures show some very nice checkering. I tried to contact Universal to find out how this is done but did not get a reply.
I have spent many hours experimenting trying to imitate the look of hand checkering but was never satisified with the results. There are many different styles and patterns of checkering and I think it could be usefull to laser engravers beyond gun stocks & grips. The link below has some interesting patterns.
If anyone knows the secret to 3D checkering please let us know!

http://home.earthlink.net/~virginiagunstockcarver/pages/traditionalcheckering_pg.html

Darren Null
10-04-2007, 10:37 AM
Postscript fill?

Mike Null
10-04-2007, 11:30 AM
Go to the colorfill bucket flyout and click on postscript. There are hundreds of options for fills and they can be manipulated.

Bill Cunningham
10-04-2007, 10:50 PM
I use a simple jig for most grips (left and right)
I also charge $20.00 for a set...(like the Ruger ones below) The time it took (fun or not) drawing all the lines was still 'time spent' .. If he brought in a box of grips, and said gofer it.. I would probably absorb the time, or spread it out over the number of grips, but until you see the "all of them with similar design plus customer's initials." on a regular basis, it's a pie in the sky.. because I use .40 S&W :D (Actually the ammo more than makes up for the art time..Hey it's 9mil your wife can use it)

Mike Null
10-05-2007, 12:52 AM
This was just fooling around with scrap wood and post script fill. Still a lot of experimenting to do but I think a good 3d croshatch is possible.

Kelly Bingham
10-05-2007, 2:29 AM
Thanks all - I just learned something new - the PS fill!! Im gonna have to find a way to use this...

Stephen Beckham
10-05-2007, 7:18 AM
Kelly - I concur... Now I've got homework to figure out what this PS fill is... I'm sure I'll spend minutes to learn and save hours in the long run...

Thanks all for the comments...

Darren Null
10-05-2007, 10:50 AM
http://www.insidegraphics.com/corel_basics/images/corel_fill_tricks.jpg
It'e the bit with PS on. Squares is good, to save you some time. Fishscale is quite elegant too, but would take longer.

Bill Stein
10-07-2007, 4:22 PM
Very nice. I Like the hatching. If it were me, though, I would have lined the monograms up with the barrel, I think. Lined up with the grip makes it look unbalanced somehow. I make it about 33 degrees using this freebie program:

http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Home-Hobby/Other/MB-Ruler.html
(Measures on-screen angles and distances and has a colour picker)

Just my 5 cents- intended as a suggestion for possible improvement to be used or ignored as you see fit.

I downloaded and installed the program to try it. I decided that I wanted to uninstall it. You can't!!:mad: It looks like the only way to get rid of it is to wipe the disk and start over. I have sent an email to the developer asking how to remove it. I hope that I get a reply. My recommendation is to stay away from this program.

Bill

Mitchell Andrus
10-07-2007, 5:03 PM
I'd take the time to make templates to hold the stocks in the same place each time. I'd also leave the hatching a bit short of the edge and run a line around the edge of the hatching and a ring around the screw holes. Run the initials co-planar to the barrel.

The next step (for more money) would be to use the laser hatching as a start for hand-cut hatching. A really sharp V-groove chisel and 15 to 20 minutes and each set is now worth $150.00 to 250.00. Supply some really sharp exotic woods, offer sets for 20 different guns and you've got a business. 4 sets per month makes your car payments, plus. You can't get too 'spensive, the CNC/'Bot guys are out there doing this already and bring sets to gun shows, cash and carry.

Darren Null
10-07-2007, 5:47 PM
I downloaded and installed the program to try it. I decided that I wanted to uninstall it. You can't!!
Apologies Bill. I tested it, but not to the point of uninstalling it. It did what it said on the tin, didn't blow anything up, and didn't attempt to contact the interweb or do anything suspicious. So I left it on in a "handy to have at your elbow" sort of fashion.

But you're right- there's no uninstall and it doesn't appear in the 'Add and Remove Programs' list, so sorry about that.

Bill Cunningham
10-09-2007, 10:00 PM
Just use windows explorer, find the folder, and delete it.. 'then' down load a super little program called Reg Seeker..
It will clean all the crap out of your registry and allow you to tweak your system.. I've been using it on all my computers for several years now.. When it cleans your registry, you will be amazed at the amount of garbage you've collected.. It makes a backup of eveything first, but I've never had to resort to the backup for anything..

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Registry-Tweak/RegSeeker.shtml