"Earl Creel" wrote
Like your maple drawers Swingman.

Thank you!

I am just finishing up 17 maple drawer
boxes for a contractor friend of mine. I furnish the maple and build the
boxes, he supplies the drawer fronts, hardware, finish etc. and does the
installation. I charge him $15 per drawer.

For that price, I may have just built my last drawer!!

... where are you located??!


About what should I charge for
a maple drawer box dovetailed all four corners with slide out (removable)
bottoms?

That's a hard one, Earl. So much depends upon the your location, your
market, and your competition.

I really haven't priced these particular drawers out because they're part of
the "custom kitchen package" that I charge the builder ... and in this
particular case, that's me.

Also, I'm liable to spend more time, when I have it, on one drawer that is
just not up to my idea of "snuff", than Michelangelo did on the Sistine
Chapel because what passes for the shop is behind my house.

In this instance, I did spend way too much time on these drawers because of
a problem with my dovetail jig, and rather than waste the material and start
over on about a 1/3rd of them (hard maple is expensive here, roughly $6/bf
.... over $350 in S2S1E in 20 drawers, including the 1/4" maple ply), I had
more time than money in this instance to bring them "up to snuff".

That said, compared to what trim carpenters call "drawers" around here,
these are works of art, and just the 20 drawer boxes, 5/8" hard maple,
average height 4 to 6 1/2", avg width 20", depth all 21", two machine
dovetailed corners, bullnose edged top only, notched and drilled for slides,
1/4" maple ply bottoms, no finish, sanded to 150 ... around here would
probably realistically fetch between $1100 - $1300, more or less, to a
builder of $750K and up homes. ... a good deal more if they were "fitted"
inset and not overlay.

Now you know why I choose to beat myself over the head with a hammer ... it
ain't only because it feels good when I stop.

YMMV ...

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 9/30/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)