How much would you pay?
 

Me and my brother made a couple of Adirondack chairs for a charity auction and for my grandparents. They are pretty easy to make and we are thinking about trying to sell these to make a little money on the side. How much would you pay for a set of these. They're made out of solid maple and are pretty comfortable.

I've got a buddy that built some last summer and I think he put them up for sale for 80$. To be honest im not sure if he sold one or not.

If I bought one it would have to have the leg extention otherwise I just dont think there all that comfortable. I bet you could get 80-100 dollars for them.

I would agree. Around here most solid wood chairs sell between $80 and $140, but that is with the foot extension.

How much do they cost to make? Based on the ~$80 guess here, maybe go a little lower than that to sweeten the deal. Maybe varnish them too, just to increase the value. The chairs look good though, well done.

Well, so much for that idea. Material alone is about 60-70 dollars a chair. That includes wood, screws, glue, and varnish. It takes about 3-4 hours to make one. I really wouldn't want to sell one for any less than 150 to make up for the cost of material and the time spent on them.

Hard to beat that little guy in China working for $2 a hour. Mass production also makes it hard to compete.

With the Ottoman, they have these at Costco for $300. Those are painted white. I saw non-stained Cedar ones no ebay, though, for $60. It wouldn't hurt to make a few more and throw them on Craigslist or see if there is some sort of consignment shop around you somewhere to give it a try.

I built 2 for my wife out of tight knot cedar. Between the cost of materials and my time there is no way I could make a decent enough profit if I wanted to sell them. I think I'll stick to making a few for friends and family. There is a guy around me that sells them at a Saturday market made out of exotic woods. The single chairs go for $250.

Nice work though.

I made 6 for around my fire pit. IMO, you would be very unlikely to make enough $ to actually make the effort worth the little bit of extra scratch. Unless, of course, you make-or have made- a huge quantity to drastically lower your cost of materials. That sounds like more work and $ than I would gamble on something that can be bought at Wally world for $50-75. If you just love doing the wood work and don't mind clearing little profit, then hammer down-see what happens....find a niche.

Thanks for the compliments guys. I've always been into pretty much anything related to construction, and i've always enjoyed woodworking. It looks like i'll just stick to making them for family and friends. I might throw up an add on craigslist just for funnies and see if anyone would be interested.

you mean $2 / week. :D

Around here, unfinished ones sell for $125 at most places.

Good job though! I've been wanting to make several for the lake house, but too many other projects are higher on the list right now.

Well my brother went ahead and put a craigslist add for 300 a set. So we will see what happens. On the other hand, the set we made for a charity auction went for $450! We were pretty pumped about that.

Brett...what kind of wood are you using?

I made 6 chairs back around christmas for presents to my family and have thought about selling them as well. I was going to ask $125 for mine in NC. That would be for a painted chair. Yours look good, I did mine a little different but they are practically almost identical to yours besides the back pieces. Did you router all the pieces?

We used 3/4 solid maple. After I took the pictures we went ahead and put a coat of Teak Oil on them. I'm not sure how the Teak Oil will hold up, but it darkened them up just a bit and gave them a light shine. The only parts we routed were the seat slats. On the arm rests and back slats we just rounded over the edges with the sander. It probably took a little longer to round them over with the sander, but I think I like that look better than using the router.

What kind of wood is shown in those pictures? Sure about Maple and not Pine?

Yeah, it is definitely maple. I built a couple of these out of pine when i was in high school and I really didn't like working with the pine very much, its pretty soft and doesn't take stain very well.

One more time, are you sure it's not Pine? If you shipped that to me on the promise it was Maple, I would want it exchanged for my money back after an inspection.

I'm not sure what to tell you then, but i can assure you that I am %100 percent sure this is white maple. I don't understand why you find it that hard to believe.

I’ll drop the issue. But you might be aware that, if I’m representative of your shoppers, and I’m shopping for an Adirondack that’s purportedly made of solid maple, I’m expecting hard maple. If there is white maple stock that looks like pine, I would be disappointed.

Nice looking chairs. Good luck with the sale.

wow ... i sort of reviewed my posts and ... i'm coming across as that kind of wakeworld guy i don't want to be.

i'm sorry to doubt.

what i failed to say and i always did think (which is the reason i returned and returned to this thread, and not to be the 'know your grains of wood' ninny) is ... good work. i like. and i'd buy from you when i've got the reason ( ... tho ... i might stipulate the stock material by tree specie ... and willingly pay the mark up for all your extra cost, trouble and bother).

hey brett !!!

i got your thread (this thread) on the front page (in the Forum Snapshot section).

i want points. not david williams points but, make-up points. from you, for me having a jerk friday, and for which i have now apologized.

John,
No hard feelings at all man. I really appreciate the apology (although it's not really necessary, I'm a pretty hard guy to offend) we all have those kinds of days, especially in the off season. As for the points, if Mr. Williams ever decides to hand out "BMcGee Mark of Approval Points" I'll be sure to have him throw a couple your way.

Chairs
 

Purchased a set of 3 lst summer and spent 300$ good luck!