Not an easy way to URN a living

Rennie Heuer

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The first four of a run of 11 urns are complete! However, when these 11 of this design are done I believe I will discontinue this model. There is just too much hand work involved making them a poor choice for mass production and offering at a reasonable price. A conservative estimate would be around 10 to 11 hours for each urn. In order to remain competitive, they need to be priced in the $250 to $350 range. After materials, that leaves next to nothing for the time invested. Pity, I like the look and I enjoy working in this style. I'll just need to work on some other designs (including a few sent me by a friend here on the forum)

Woods are, ambrosia maple, brazillian cherry, bubinga, and walnut.

As always, comments are welcome!
Pasadena - AM Front.jpgPasadena - BC Front.jpgPasadena - BU Front a.jpgPasadena WA - Front.jpg
 
Those are really something else Rennie. Fantastic job...


Bill, Ah yes, manufactured burl. That would surely bring the material costs down...:rofl:
 
They do look nice..

It might be interesting to break down where you are spending the most time? From your previous posts it seemed that you had the process pretty streamlined so I'm curious what ended up killing the design?
 
Beautiful work, Rennie! But, seems like you're dealing with the "Gosh that's nice, but I can get the same thing at Walmart for $19" crowd. :dunno:
 
I would keep an 'elite' line available. Not only are they good to sell off of when showing styles available, they will appeal to a higher end clientele. My brother established his business nearly 40 years ago by NOT working on Mercedes or Porsche. You can get those fixed or restored anywhere. He targeted the elite and weathered the rise and fall of the economy with relative ease. Why? His customers didn't really care if gas was $3 or $5.

Go ahead and work on your more economical lines, that's just good business. But, don't ignore those who want the best.
 
They do look nice..

It might be interesting to break down where you are spending the most time? From your previous posts it seemed that you had the process pretty streamlined so I'm curious what ended up killing the design?

Thanks to all.

The machining portion I was able to streamline somewhat with some jigs and the new DP table. Where I'm losing a lot of time is the hand forming/sanding of the fingers. I spent a 9 hour day just working on the fingers for the 11 boxes. There is more than 2 days involved drilling and in making the 220 ebony plugs that go into the 220 holes that take a 3-step process to complete, milling the 1/4" material for the tops can get interesting. Add it all up, and it's a lot of hours for the return.

I like Glenn's idea. Maybe knock out a couple of these once in a while and place a premium price on them.
 
They sure do look nice Rennie. I'm curious though as to whether or not you use a router and a 1/16" or 1/8" round over bit to do the majority of the work?

I do know that once I die I'm ending up in one of these. Norma says thats all I'm worth!
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Not sure but couldn't you use a 1/8" roundover on the fingers to get close to the same effect?

I don't have any good suggestions on the plugs, getting that nice pillowed look is hard to do fast... and that's a lot of the time so..
 
Not sure but couldn't you use a 1/8" roundover on the fingers to get close to the same effect?

I don't have any good suggestions on the plugs, getting that nice pillowed look is hard to do fast... and that's a lot of the time so..

The majority of the shaping is done on the router table with a special 3/16" round over that has a very small bearing. I reviewed it here some time back. I'll have to search for the thread.

Even so, I don't care for the look right off the table. It lacks that "come and touch me" look that the G&G style communicates so well.
 
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