A little diversion thats now snowballing out of control

[Vinny]

SWMBO wanted a couple of planters knocking up for the "the front", so i duly obliged and knocked up a couple. decided on going down the "decent" route and used no screws, its all M and T (with a bit of room for the inevitable "movement") and dowels. It was all soaked in preservative before assembly so should last a while.

couple of the neighbours saw tehm out the front and knocked on my door - orders for 4 more

had one in the back of the van to show someone at work who is interested - orders for 11 more - all varying sizes

one of my colleagues told the landlord of our local - orders for 7 more including one of multiple levels

I'm at work now and the missus phoned last night when I got on shift and said that 2 other people have knocked on the door enquiring about them

At this rate I'll have to take some holiday just to fulfil the orders before "planter season" is over.

the originals


Cheers for looking

Vinny

 

[Alex]

Cool planters. What have you used for panels?

 

[Blister]

Vinny

Next time put them in the back garden :mrgreen:

Look nice though , I can see why people like them :wink:

 

[Vinny]

the panels are made up of lengths of tile batten, with an edge profile routed in, then given a dunk in a can of green preservative.

 

[woodbloke]

Nice Vinny...I hope you're charging the commensurate rate for each one! :lol:...apart from SWIMBO's that is - Rob

 

[TheTiddles]

the panels are made up of lengths of tile batten, with an edge profile routed in, then given a dunk in a can of green preservative.

How does that work then? Won't the soil come out the gaps?

Aidan

 

[Vinny]

they'll get lined with weed barrier - or you can just stand a plastic pot in them.

The gaps really aren't that big perhaps 1/16 beween each batten to allow for a fair degree of movement through the seasons. the battens are loose in a rebate cut under the top rail and on top of the lower rail. theres also 4 drainage holes from the base of the rebate right through the lower rail.
The profile is only routed on the front edge - not all the way through, the photo may be a bit misleading.

 

[walks]

Very nice looking planters there Vinny, very similar to something I've been considering knocking together.
Can I be cheeky and ask how much you sell them for?
Cheers.

 

[Vinny]

Walks

no problem, the frame is made up from CLS which costs around £2.80 for a 2.4m length.
The smaller of the 2 planters in the pic use 2 lengths
The panelling i've started to make from relaimed wood from pallets - free
the preservative is from wickes, £25 for a 5 litre can - I reckon I'm using about a £1.50's worth per unit
the weed barrier is about £15 quid for a roll from TP
throw in the glue and dowels and the unit cost is slightly less than £10
I can make 2 a day at the mo (i'm in the process of making some jigs for cutting the 16 tenons required per unit which should speed things up) .

I'm charging £20 for the smaller one, £24 for the larger one, I've also made some others to order - price is pretty much dependant on how much CLS is used.

I had a look round the sheds and they are knocking them out at £25 per unit for something that is just screwed together and wil probably need replacing next year. The local garden centre has some of slightly better build quality than the sheds, but they are typical garden centre prices £30-45 depending on where you look.

HTH

vinny

 

[walks]

Cool, Thanks very much for that. I'll definitely have a go at these at some point.
I hadn't expected the details but they are very useful! I thought it looked like cls but wasn't sure.

Thanks again.

Walks

 

[knappers]

Go on then.. I'll show my ignorance.. Whats CLS?

Si.

 

[Steve Jones]

Canadian Lumber Sizes

Steve

 

[knappers]

I'm no less confused...

Si

 

[oakfield]

It's the 3x2 or 4x2 normally used for building stud walls.

 

[knappers]

Gotcha. I know the stuff.

S.

 

[chunkolini]

If they are that popular put the price up.
If I make an item that sells lots like that I put the price up in 10 percent increments until I find a happy balance.
If people want rather than need something they will be willing to pay for it.

Chunko'.

 

[Vinny]

I'm pretty confident that the price is correctly pitched for my target market. I'm going to take a few down to a local sunday market/boot fayre in a couple of weeks. Its a big one - over 400 pitches and theres already a couple of people selling similar (but imho not of the same quality) One of the sellers is charging £25 each for his, he always seems to have a lot left at the end of the day, whereas another seller is priced pretty much the same as me and he always goes home by 1030 with an empty trailer.

Vinny