Deposit Received . . . Balance This Saturday

[William Young]

At last Saturday mornings craft sale I had a request for a few name signs and because the names are unusual I took a 50% deposit and will deliver them this coming Sat morning.
About 95% of my sales now are turnings from my lathe and I am averaging $250.00 every Saturday morning in the three hour small town farmers market/craft sale . All my items fit into three banana boxes because pens are small and bowls fit into one another with just a paper towel between them for transporting and the dozens of other turned items are also quite small. It is a nice change from when I used to pack up a lot of fragile fretwork clocks and shelves and baskets and portraits which not only took up a lot of packing boxes but also took a lot of room on my display tables.

These are in solid red oak . I have had relatives visiting from all across Canada so have had very little shop time but I made these after supper last night.
W.Y.

[JohnB]

G'day Bill,
Good to see you knocked the dust of the old scroll saw.

The names look good too.

I'm with you 100% when it comes to collecting upfront payments on name items etc.

My wife wont take an order for one of the custom name puzzles that I do until the full payment is in her hand.

I've only been bitten once or twice, and still prefer to trust people, but I suppose that's why she controls the finances, and I just build

Good luck with the markets mate

[William Young]

John.
I have been very lucky over the years with not taking any deposit at all but last year a fellow from out of town asked me at a craft sale if I could make him three pocket watches on my lathe and he would be back for sure the next week . We agreed on a price of $39.00 each which he thought was very reasonable and he even gave me his name and phone number.
Turned out he was a jerk and had no notion of buying anything and the phone number he gave me was just as phony as he was . I sold one of those watches at last weeks craft sale for a discounted price of $29.00 and will hopefully get rid of the other two within the next few weeks because they are not something that I would make for stock anymore than a desk name sign with Mammalou or Lux on it. .
Last year I did two separate orders of desk signs with no deposit . One with six names and one with eight and had no problem collecting for them the next week but they were both right in town .
There was one each of honduras mahogany and teak and black walnut because those were the woods he chose . .

Since then I will not do custom work for anyone without a minimum of at least 50% in cash up front. I have dozens of different fast selling items without stocking old fashioned pocket watch replicas. Even though the watches are extremely easy to make on a lathe they don't strike me as something that the average person would be interested in buying.
W.Y.

[greatdane2]

I would think you will sell those quickly, the look really good.
Alan.

[turningnut]

William,

I really like your watches, where do you get them, and what finish do you use on them, they look great.

Mike

[will8989]

People will be buying for Christmas soon, put a large SALE sign of $49.00 marked down to $39.00 and they just might go!

Betty

[JohnB]

Whoooooooooo, Betty you are devious

My kinda girl LOL

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

Wow!! I absolutely love those watches!! Since I got my first pocket watch about a decade or so ago, I haven't even considered going back to the strap around my wrist. I would so love to be able to get my hands on one of those watches. Some day I will have the experience and tools to turn out stuff like that.

Rev. R. Farrier

[William Young]

I really like your watches, where do you get them, and what finish do you use on them, they look great.

Mike

I buy those 1 7/8 inserts with glass lens and spring clips to hold them in rather than plastic lens and the useless rubber ring like a lot of suppliers have gone to . The supplier I got those from doesn't sell the good ones anymore . I thinks Sloans still has the good ones.

I have all but quit making clocks of any size both scrolled and fretwork or turned on my lathe because most suppliers are selling cheap China ones at too high a price without the proper mounting clips on them and then the ones that sell the good ones are higher priced again and it just cuts into the profit margin too much.

The finish on the wood part that I turned on my lathe is lacquer.

W.Y.

[turningnut]

Thanks for the info William, they really look great. Keep up the good work.

I turn pens and since I got my Excaliber, I haven't turned the lathe on...

Mike