Had a friend in the neighborhood call me today and suggest since I was "sitting on my ass doing nothing" currently, I make good use of my time and build him an auto detailing cabinet like the one I built myself a few years ago. This is what prompted him to think about this whole thing.

Speed Master Utility Cart from Autogeek that's currently on sale for $120 + tax + shipping.



This is what I built myself a few years back. Its taller, wider, and longer than the above cart, and shall we say, a bit more robust.







I have 'some' of the materials for this build laying around in my shed, I'll have to order primarily the hardware.

So here's my question to the group. I do not build stuff for sale. Never have and am not likely to start anytime soon. I have no idea what to charge for the box if I agree to build it. Should I just charge him what the Autogeek cart would have cost him and call it a day? Or should I really put some effort into trying to come up with some kind of price for my version, though I have no idea how to price something that's half or more build from leftover materials from other projects.

Can you guys who do build and market stuff for sale throw me a bone with some suggestions?

I just want to say I like your cart. Very nice

I should do that too.

At least $150 for For Quality hand made ,over Chinese plastic crap.

That Speedmaster cart is just a flashy plastic cart, likely from China.
Yours is much more labor intensive and if you made more you’d need to purchase the materials.
What would those materials cost and what’s your time worth?

The issue I see is that you can’t use the top.

If I had a few things out and placed on top while I’m detailing...I’d have to clear them all off to open up to get another product.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
What would those materials cost and what’s your time worth?

Yep. A basic pricing guideline would be:


Materials Cost

+

Labor Cost (Your Time)

+

Profit/Extra Compensation to Make it Worth Your While


But you can leave off some or all of the third, since you're building for a friend.

I would not do it for free. At least charge for material cost. Could you change the upper storage to a drawer? Keep the new one for yourself and sell him the old one.

What kind of "Friend" are they and what's his specialty? Some friends take any and all to their benefit. Others share resources and time like a friend does.

As a friend I give my surplus and time away But wouldn't expect to pay out of pocket for material costs.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
The issue I see is that you can’t use the top.

If I had a few things out and placed on top while I’m detailing...I’d have to clear them all off to open up to get another product.

Just leave the top up while in use. Towels in use can hang on the towel bar. Bottles and other items in use just sit in the open upper storage area.

Retired cabinetmaker with 30+yrs during which had numerous request to build things for family or friends . Even with only pricing for materials you would have thought I was trying to bend them over the kitchen table and not use vaseline . Some either want something for next to nothing or just
do not realize what things actual cost. ..........drill sgt.

That cart is awesome!

WANT

I have all the detailing products as I am in the middle of making a new body for my Ducati.

I recignize all of the products....LOL

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Yep. A basic pricing guideline would be:


Materials Cost

+

Labor Cost (Your Time)

+

Profit/Extra Compensation to Make it Worth Your While

The material costs I can probably fudge together something on. As for labor cost, I have no earthly idea what that should be. Again, since I've never built anything commercially, I've never even considered an hourly rate or what my time was worth. And third, if I make any profit at all it will be very small. The guy who asked me to build this is the absolute salt of the earth, and a man I've known for almost 20 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
The issue I see is that you can’t use the top.

Quite the contrary. The lid was built for two purposes. One, when up, it allows me access to all my products without any worry they would fall off the top shelf of a cart. The lid has spring supports that hold it up without fear of it falling down. And two, when the lid is down it keeps all my products dust free and out of the sunlight in the garage (some detailing products are sensitive to repeated sunlight exposure). Also, when the lid is down, it provides a stable work surface. I gave the design a lot of thought before I ever built it.

Oh, and no, you can't really put a drawer in place of what I have now. When loaded and open, the drawer would exert too much leverage on the cabinet and potentially make it unstable.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
As for labor cost, I have no earthly idea what that should be. Again, since I've never built anything commercially, I've never even considered an hourly rate or what my time was worth.

What is your hourly rate during your "day job"? You might be able to use that as a starting point for a rough estimated hourly rate.


Or, since it's a nice guy that you've known for 20+ years, you don't have to be so precise.

Charge him for materials. Donate your time.

Or don't charge him at all, if you so choose.

Think that I'd just charge him for the materials, especially the stuff I have to buy that I don't have since it's for a salt of the earth friend.

However if some guy I didn't know well, or one of those "friends" who are always looking to get something for nothing asked me to build one, then I'd have to work out the price as if I was retailing them. Materials, time, labor, profit...

Nice.

I could see some kind of divider being need. When rolling that cart I can see all the bottles knocked over domino style.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Think that I'd just charge him for the materials, especially the stuff I have to buy that I don't have since it's for a salt of the earth friend.

I think that's the ticket. I think I'm going to charge him for whatever I have to buy...and a good 12 pack of beer.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
Nice.

I could see some kind of divider being need. When rolling that cart I can see all the bottles knocked over domino style.

So far I've rolled that sucker all over my garage, and to date, nothing has ever fallen over. Knock wood.

Just double up or more on the beer.

If pricing stuff like that, I’d start with cost of materials*, my time **, and some profit***.

*Depending on the situation, this could be anything from the total direct out of pocket (stuff I already have is free to get it out of my way) to actual current cost of everything (if I have something laying around that someone gave me that would cost $100 to replace, then even though I’m tired of tripping over it, it adds $100 to the price).


**at the hourly rate I’d want for that kind of work. If it is something I enjoy, that might be less than I think “I am worth”. If it is work I loath doing, it might be a whole lot more per hour than I think I’m worth.

***some profit is also highly variable. If I want to do it, I might be happy with a $0 profit. If I don’t want to do it and/or just want the person to go away, I might factor in serious price gouging CTD style profit.

Were I in your situation, it might depend a whole lot on the friend, my estimation of the friend’s motives, and my financial state. Assuming I’m not hurting badly, the friend is a good guy and it seems like he is trying to help me out (either financially or just keeping me sane by giving me something productive to do), I might be inclined to do it for not much more than my out of pocket costs unless I valued the materials I had on hand highly, then I’d include replacing them. If I didn’t like the guy much, thought he was trying to take advantage of me being affected by the shutdown to score something I built that he envied, that would be a different story. From your salt of the earth comment, he’d be getting a bargain that wasn’t much more than keeping me from going out of pocket.