BACKGROUND:
At an estate sale I picked up all the components to make 350 child glider/rockers. The seat is Baltic birch, the rest of the parts are poplar. I need to work out the details, but each rocker will be created from 5 sub-assemblies (base, seat, back, arms). The chairs would look good as wood or painted.
I am a green novice, so everything is subject to change, but I would expect to create batch runs of 10-20 chairs. I plan to sell these at local craft shows or through Yankee Magazine. Target price is probably around $125 with cushions.
FINISHING:
I might try finishing these myself, or I might use a local painter who has proper space for a project like this. I could probably only paint/finish one or two at a time in my workshop garage, so I am leaning toward using the professional. But my essential question probably applies whether I do it or if I farm it out – What are the most practical options? [or tell me the question I should be asking aside from sanity issues].
The Wood Loon
Acton, MA
Replies
Umm, what are you planing on doing with these chairs? That may change the idea of what is "practcal"
Doug M
The first and foremost question is do you have the space necessary to first store the sub-assemblies, second, store the assembled items and finally the space to store the finished items. You are talking about a lot of room to just store things.For production finishing you will have to spray them. Brushing would take too much time. I would probably spray with a waterborne finish as it dries fast, can be durable enough if you chose the right finish and is relatively safe. Of course, one fully dried and cured, any finish is non-toxic.Finally, how are you going to move these items around? Do you have a large enough truck or enclosed trailer?Howie.........
350 of anything is a lot of work.
I guess to some extent, your options for finishing must be based on the profit potential.
I'm thinking that you should get your painter friend to give you a firm quote. Make sure that you and he discuss ALL of your expectations, not just price. Things like quality, timing, delivery and pickup, liability for loss/damage.........
Then you should try to estimate whether or not you can beat that price by doing it yourself. But don't think that you're gonna do that without buying a spry outfit of some sort. And don't underestimate the space needed, which must be above and beyond your assembly shop space and your storage space.
Or, you could just be sure to buy the most durable brush available, and do them by hand. But be honest -- how much time does it take to put one coat on one chair? How many coats does it take to give you the quality you need? Do they needed sanded between coats? Is your shop dust-free enough that you won't have junk in the finish?
Just my thoughts -- good luck!
All good points, but they miss my main point - what finish is the most practical (easiest? cheapest?) for batches of 10-20 of chair parts? Or batches of 2 if I do it myself?
I have a sprayer but I am pretty sure that the professional painter will be the best choice. The batch size is limited to 10-20 because that's as much storage space as I have.
Finishing: Poplar with BB ply seats - seal & 1 coat of paint? 2 coats of Danish oil? varnish?
I will ask the painter/finisher, but I wanted to learn from the opinions here before I talk to him.
THANKS
Doug
The Wood Loon
Acton, MA
"what finish is the most practical (easiest? cheapest?) for batches of 10-20 of chair parts?"
Pre-catalysed or post catalysed lacquer applied with a spray gun in a spray booth is one appropriate answer. The reasoning being that you should be able to spray colour and polish twenty in an eight hour working day, and next day you can wrap them and deliver them to wherever they have to go.
The disadvantages are that you need a spray booth along with, ideally, a spray gun fitted with hoses and a remote pressure pot or low pressure turbine. You would also need a compressor, air lines, air gun or guns and enough space to move the sprayed parts around as they dry between coats and you rub down nibs, etc.
Failing the availability of all the above the thought of hand finishing 350 chairs even in smaller batches of 20 or so at a time would daunt me, and I've been doing finishing work professionally on both small and extremely large projects for over three decades.
Hand finishing using varnish, shellac, Danish oil type finishes and so on is slow in comparison. It might take me four times as long, or perhaps more, to hand apply a really good finish, and that is a major disadvantage. The advantage of this form of finishing is low investment in finishing equipment on your part.
You will just have to weigh up all the advantages and disadvantages for yourself and decide which way you should go. You might find the best solution is to sub-contract the finishing work to a competent specialist that can do a good quality job at a fair price; from what you say you may already know a competent spray finisher that knows how to properly spray furniture. Be aware that applying a paint finish to things like vehicles requires somewhat different skills to those required to colour up and polish furniture. Slainte. Richard Jones Furniture
I am far from a pro but I cannot imagine that any hand applied finish would be economically feasible. Do you have a target price for these.Gretchen
Target price is stated in the original post.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thanks. I'd like to see them. That is a lot, but I may not have in mind what it is.Gretchen
See them at WoodLoon.com - $125 is my guess at what the market will bear.Doug
The Wood Loon
Acton, MA
Interesting pieces. You do need to check your site--the text below the pictures repeats.
Lacquer applied with a automotive type gun is easily my first choice. It sprays easily, is inexpensive and dries very fast. As a finish carpenter I'm often spraying parts outside on someone's lawn. Any junk in the finish is easy to sand off between coats if needed, but if it's hot outside very little of anything will work it's way into the finish since it dries so darn fast.
You don't need the absolute most durable finish so I'd lean away from precat lacquer at first since nitro lacquer is a little more forgiving.
My spray booth is whichever lawn or driveway I'm working on.
A second choice, if spraying inside is required, is one of the acrylic polyurethanes applied with an airless sprayer. It also dries fast and the fumes are much easier to deal with in confined spaces. The finish isn't as forgiving and it will cost more. I've only sprayed Kelly Moore Kel-thane @ $100/gal, and can't comment on lower priced acrylic-poly formulas.
No way would I sub this out to a painter since your profit margins are going to be small as is. The only way any of the painters I use would make sense is to set up a bunch of the rockers and have them siimply show up to shoot them as they stand.
If you called me I'd use three pairs of low trojan saw horses with 16' 2x4's for backs. That's 48' of space, probably about right for a dozen chairs. The sawhorses allow great access to the sides of the chairs and if the sun is out and humidity is low by the time the last chair has been shot in one position the first would be about ready to flip over for a coat on the bottoms. This is repeated for 3 light coats on all surfaces.
In the cold months I wouldn't want to spray lacquer inside without a spray booth.
Best of luck!
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Thank you Slainte and IdahoDon - superb answers that have increased my knowledge and opened me to new ways of looking at the problem. Well Done!Doug
The Wood Loon
Acton, MA
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