Posting construction plans

Messages
1,521
Location
Austin, Texas
I am trying something new in my woodworking business... I put the "do it yourself" instructions for building a saddle stand (I have sold dozens of them) on my web site. Low cost ($5) to encourage the honor system. We will see how it works out! www.plesums.com//plans/index.html

SaddleSipo.JPG
 
Good Charlie. That is a beautiful stand. I wouldn't have enough floor space in the tackroom for the stands for all of our saddles. I have two rows high the length of one wall (think about 10 saddles or more). But that is a beaut and would be great at horseshows. Anyone ever ask for wheels at one end to make it easier to move, especially distances at a show?
 
My stands are used more for display than utility... for example, this was in the customer's living room: I have never had a request for wheels. I have had several requests to use them as bar stools (I suggest no, since there are only a few screws holding it together).

ThreeStands.JPG
 
Good Charlie. That is a beautiful stand. I wouldn't have enough floor space in the tackroom for the stands for all of our saddles. I have two rows high the length of one wall (think about 10 saddles or more). But that is a beaut and would be great at horseshows. Anyone ever ask for wheels at one end to make it easier to move, especially distances at a show?

We used saddle length chunks of 4x4's with a hook on one end corner that hooked into an eye bolt on the wall for the majority of our saddles. The exception was a couple of show saddles that lived in the living room on stands pretty close to what Charlie has here, minus the fancy inlay :)

Will be interested to see how this goes, I do wonder if there would be higher or lower compliance with the honor system with more complex plans. The saddle plan is just simple enough I could see people thinking "I could have come up with this myself" (even though they didn't...).
 
...Will be interested to see how this goes, I do wonder if there would be higher or lower compliance with the honor system with more complex plans. The saddle plan is just simple enough I could see people thinking "I could have come up with this myself" (even though they didn't...).

My question entirely! I hope for $5 people won't cheat, but the plan is 30K of text, 28 photos, and a PDF file. I am interested in seeing how many takers there are before I put other plans on-line. My bias is that none of my work require plans, since most of the time I sketch a few dimensions on a scrap of paper, and only have formal plans to optimize sheet goods (cut list plus). But you would be amazed at how many people write to see if I will sell them a plan for a simple quilt chest (how do you spell box?)
 
Good for you Charlie! Keep us informed about that.

On a different matter of things, I wonder if there would be people interested in having more elaborated stands, carved ones for instance and how much would they be willing to pay.
 
Toni,

I have had a couple inquiries about fancier stands over the last 7-8 years. At the bottom of my saddle stand page is a stand with a tooled metal front that used to sell for about $600-700. The people who came to me didn't like the tooled metal, but wanted something fancier than my stands. However, the King Ranch (a huge ranch in South Texas, huge even by Texas standards) no longer sells that $700 stand; they only sell a much simpler one for $445 (in line with the cost of my stands - $250-$475). The fact that the King Ranch has stopped selling the expensive stand and gone to one for $445 suggests that there may not be a significant market for a fancier stand.

I think part of the problem may be that people with fancy saddles need multiple stands. The lady with the three stands pictured in the living room, above, is single, no family, no ranch, but loves her 3 or 4 horses, with 3 expensive saddles. The first stand pictured was a set of 2 or 3 for the young sons who were taking over the ranch. My latest stand has a story... bought for the wife, with a Texas inlay with the ranch logo, but when the husband saw it, he claimed it, and ordered a second just like the first for the wife.
 
Random thoughts on the subject...

1) A finished project is incredibly different than a measured drawing. A project is three main parts: design, execution (cutting and assembly), and finishing. IMHO, design provides the smallest value of the three. An excellent finisher can make a poorly designed or executed piece look amazing. I believe finishing adds the most amount of value to a project.
2) Someone who's buying a measured drawing off a website for $1-$5 would not have bought a finished product for $100+. Providing measured drawings of limited items allows a craftsman to make a small amount of money off people who would not have been customers otherwise.
3) I think it goes without saying that only simple projects should be released this way. I do feel design is the least value added portion - that being said, the more complicated (ie Artistic) the design, the more value it adds... that being said too, the more complicated the design, the more value execution brings to the piece because the execution will get more complicated too.
 
Charlie, thought of you the other day while reading an article in my "Farm Show" magazine. It was an article concerning making money off of your ideas. The author was Brian Luoma and he and his dad Gene Luoma developed a website titled, "GizmoPlans.com". It is stated that it is a one stop shop for all types of build it yourself plans. "You can easily list your detailed plans on the website with photos and videos all at no cost to you. Update your plans at any time, its like your own individual web page that you are in control of." "The website collects an agreed upon percent for each set of plans sold. The buyer pays with a credit card and downloads them onto his computer".

The contact information given is: Gizmo Plans, Brian Luoma, 4423 Normanna Rd., Duluth, Minn. 55803 (ph 218-348-1473)

I am not affiliated, nor know them. Haven't even spent time on their site yet. But they claim to collect the money and thought it interesting and might solve your problem.
 
Top