New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

Hey Sceptre, Savage, and SeaFari guys...
Check out the completely, brand new louvered cabin door I made. All Teak, Mechanically fastened per original specs. I made special jig(s) to get everything just right. Now that I have all the equipment, jigs, bits, etc. I'm considering making and sell them on a limited, custom ordered basis. I've been woodworking for 30+ years, so quality will be good. Wondering what a fair price would be? What would someone be will to pay to get back to near new / showroom condition??

Check out more info at:

http://louveredproductsunlimited.com/

After pic:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uly2010001.jpg

Before pic:(When I "bought" the boat from my brother in July 2009) http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...y2009018-1.jpg

Previously, The first thing I did, as many of us have tried, was ATTEMPT to "restore" my original cabin door. I had to fix the broken pieces.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...P8170043-1.jpg

Then I sanded and tried to make it presentable. Not too pretty though.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...P8210062-1.jpg

After I did my best, (Not being able to sand the louvers due to the small spaces)this was the best it was going to look. Unfortunately, this is NOT ACCEPTABLE, so I decided to make a complete new one from scratch using the original as a dimentional guide and hardware source (See top picture)

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...PA190002-1.jpg

The Beginning of the NEW cabin door

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uly2010003.jpg

Near the end of production.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uly2010004.jpg

Finished Product, ready for installation

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...uly2010002.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

i need one. tell me how much??? how much you spend on materials?

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

I have a friend that would like one also. I recommend pricing the materials to make a dozen along with labor and offering them for sale and taking orders. Once you have committments for at least six, manufacture. I have seen alot of members looking for these items over the years.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

Looks Great! Nice before and after transformation.

I think I'll start looking for a project Tsunami/Sceptre now :D :D :D

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

Sounds like a good idea. There is a lot of wood in these things. Fair amount of scrap too.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

I went to a lumbar yard the other day and they quoted me $39.00 a board foot for teak :eek: so I bought some mahogany instead.

strick

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

that's CRAZY!! I got a "deal" on mine then.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...1/Scrap001.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

Down here, $39/bf is insane. On the other hand $10.25/bf is an exceptional in fact unheard of price, especially if at least S3S. $15/BF is about as inexpensive as it gets, and some yards will ask upward of $27/BF.

I'm a big fan of mahoganies for a number of reasons, including: price, finish ability, glue-ups, anti-decay properties, weight-to-strength ratio, and much less wear and tear on your tooling.

Of course at 10 bucks a board foot you can't beat bulletproof teak... Great score on the teak and a great job!

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

I have done a fair amount of WW projects for spare cash. Since I am retired I look at my time factor different.

When pricing out a job I take the cost of materials and then add how much I want to make on the project. Now this is not a way to run a "real" business but for specialty stuff I think this is the only way to go.

After making 10 or 12 doors you might get real bored and say I really don't want to do this any more, and raise the price.... :D

By the way excellent job.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

:eek: :eek: :eek:
There IS no scrap Teak!!!

A good friend of mine in the specialty wood
business corrected me 30 years ago about that. ;)
He was right....

Nice work, See ya, Ken

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

Okay, after more analysis:

Material:

Bought 12 board feet of teak (one board 2-1/4" x 6" x 128")

Extra very usable teak left over = 1.75 BF

Strips and shorties of Teak = 1.00 BF

Board Feet of teak in the door = 9.25

Labor:

Took me approx 30 hours to complete. Probably about 5-8 hours of that were jig making and learning / studing to determine the best process and making trial parts using pine for mock up and testing before I used the expensive wood (teak). After a learning curve, it will probably will take around 20 man hours per door. Remember, I'm a craftsmen not a production shop w/ special CNC tools, etc. My tools are good, but not set up exclusively for mass production of one type of part(s).

I have to determine what my time, aggervation, and effort are worth? $___/hr.

This is VERY custom, VERY complex work. Dove-tail joints, router slots and louvers that must be within .005 inches. (a dime is 10 times thicker at .050 inches), etc.

Just curious....What does an experienced woodworker / craftsmen get paid per hour in a shop? Assume non-union.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

When you figure out a price, I am very interested.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

If this was going into a Grand Banks that cost a million or so. You could get your labor rate of $40-60/ hour.

Going into a 10-20k boat owners are very frugal.

Ask yourself what would you be willing to pay for that door?

Throw a price out there. If you get 20 orders you under priced [img]/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] If you get one order you over priced :D

Ken you are so right. I have a piece of teak from a board I bought back in 1975. Just looking for the right place to use it on the 21 :rolleyes:

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

I would be interested also- doors look awesome!

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

sceptre, if you havent been yet, go to wurth wood group for any and all your hardwoods. if youre making doors like that, i bet you have a thickness planer. i buy rough sawn sapele, mahogany, and walnut from them all the time for between 5-10$ a board foot. takes a little while to plane it down but if youre doing anything production style its worth it. i think there is one in the upstate somewhere, if not i know the one in charleston delivers; worst case its worth the ride to save a few hundred dollars.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

Price is $465. That is using your hardware.

Who wants one?

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

You mean hinges and hardware to the connect the boat. Does not seem like a bad price.
ET

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

Yes, that is correct.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

As you can see, the 25 Seafari has a single door, 21" wide by 52" high, give or take. Any Idea what you'd charge for one of those? I can do the hardware part, but you've done a nice job setting up the jigs, and I'd rather not reinvent the wheel.



http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/u...9/IMG_2519.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

Let me do some math & figuring. I'll let you know.

Yes, my louver & slot jigs Will work on that too.

Jim

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

25 SeaFari door, based on 21" x 52" single door (Appr measurements):

32 louver panels design(1/4" x 1.5" x 17" on 1-1/4" spacing)
70 Degree angle w/ 3/16" overlap

2-1/2" wide .250" router slotted rails both sides. 13/16" thick finished stock

Dove-tail joint mech. fastened center pieces as req-d. Appr 5" header & 10" footer.

You supply and you install the hardware.

Price is $435

Jim

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - $465.
 

Thanks, Jim, seems reasonable for custom work. I'm just starting on the restoration, so I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet. I'll get back in touch when I'm farther along and see if you're still up for it.
Dave

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Update
 

Update on the Cabin Doors:

I've picked up some local teak cabin door work. I've also bought ALL the Teak wood from my local supplier. The teak is genuine burmese teak. The picture at the begining of the thread is Burmese Teak. I bought my suppliers remaining 28 board feet at $ 11/bf, which is an awesome deal! My current project commitments will probably exhaust this teak supply.

The bad news: My supplier is getting out of the teak wood part of the business. That is why I bought all he had at a "close out" price. I can get teak from another somewhat local supplier, but at a much more expensive price. $21/bf for "Burmese" Teak. Ouch! Another option is African Teak (Iroko), it runs about $11/bf and has a lot of the same wood charactoristics as burmese teak.

So for the near future I will be busy with the projects that I have already committed to. After that, I'll see where things are with regard to Teak prices and my workload both at real work and at home.

For a comparison of "African" Teak vs. "Burmese" Teak, see the below link:

http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...hlight=african

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

I have (1) Louvered Cabin door for a Sceptre or Savage "In Stock" at a Special price of $365. This is $100 off the normal price.
First one gets it. These are custom made and very limited production. See the below picture. Thanks, Jim

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...3-20-11004.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

:( :(

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

Huh?? What does that mean?

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

I scraped and glued and sanded on mine for a full weekend to get them looking decent...... that said, I doubt the glue will stay together, never does.

If your not in a big hurry (2-3 weeks) I will take them. I need to get out of this monster house I am working in now though.


:mad: :mad: :mad: JUST WHEN i THOUGHT i WAS DONE SPENDING MONEY ON THIS BOAT FOR THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :( :( :(

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

A couple of pics showing how it's constructed. (Dove-tail Joints) just like the originals.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...21-2011005.jpg http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...21-2011007.jpg http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...21-2011016.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

My door has cracked thru at the bottom of the dovetails on both sides at top and bottom. I glued the cracked pieces with epoxy, but also installed a couple of 3.5" SS screws at 4 locations from the sides and covered with teak plugs. Seems to be holding up ok so far.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

Jim,
What are the overall dimensions of the door?
Dave

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - IN STOCK!!
 

36-1/2" Tall

23-1/4" Wide at the top (Can be up to 23-5/8" if fiberglass inner liner spreads, and that is pretty common)**

20-1/2" Wide at the bottom **

** Remember, the SST hinge to the boat accounts for about an additional 1/8" to 3/16" of the door rough opening.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -Order Now.
 

Floorboy has claimed the Louvered Cabin Door that I recently made.

If anybody else is interested while I have time to make another, speak up now. Boating season in South Carolina is coming soon and I will be on the water and not in my shop.

The wood shop is now "open", orders welcome.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -Order Now.
 

Thank you, talk to you soon.

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -Order Now!!
 

I agree, thats a good idea. I also use SST screws (see below) and plugs in addition to the Dove-tail joints on my "new doors" to keep everything firmed up. It also reduces the chance of the dovetails starting to crack and open up in the future. Once they start splitting is hard to stop them....

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...3-27-11024.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...3-27-11025.jpg

New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -In Production
 

A couple of Pics of "Blue Herons" Custom 25' SeaFari Cabin door that is in production now. http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...4-15-11001.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...4-15-11003.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...5-2011a001.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -In Production
 

Got a lot accomplished this weekend due to the wife and kids being out of town.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...16-2011005.jpg
http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...16-2011009.jpg http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e...16-2011012.jpg

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -In Production
 

Looking good, Jim. I can't wait to get it. But I have one last request. I noticed there's some nice variation in the grain of the wood. If it's not too much trouble, could you arrange the louver slats so the grain forms a likeness of the Virgin Mary, or maybe Elvis? But only if it's not too much trouble... :eek: :D :D

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale - Maybe.
 

custom high end wood work should get paid no less than $35 hour from a business standpoint. as for wood, try buying from a wholesale place instead of surfaced 1x4 (or 6 or 8). i buy all wood from wurth wood group, they are all over the east coast. it comes surfaced or rough, in 4/4, 4/4, 6/4, and so on. you generally get one semi clean edge, and can rip the other one, then plane both to get clean sides. if you are building doors like this, you have all the tools to do this. doors look great by the way, i considered building a set for my console locker, but for all the reasons you illustrated, i didnt.

New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale-in production
 

Boy, am I getting Underpaid!!! :)

At that rate these should sell for $850. :D

I think I'll stick with around $400, and make them affordable to all that need and want them. ;)

Oh well, back to the woodshop to work on Blue Heron's door....

Re: New Louvered Cabin Doors for Sale -In Production
 

Dave, after conversing with Jim today, he said as hard
as he tried to honor your wishes the grain still came
out with the likeness of Obama.. :eek: :rolleyes:

The "Seafari" will have that authentic look...

See ya, Ken

Jus' kiddin' guys...
Keep up the good work Jimbo!!