Im thinking about opening a business

[g21]

Ive been wanting to start a business making wood stocks for the ak47 . Using birch wood, what price do you guys thing would be good to charge. Material cost is about 55.00 and related expenses are about 15.00 without taxes office expense ect. Probably want to get around 90.00-100.00 each? keep in pp. mind that these will comply with 922r.

[Noobert]

It depends on the quality. Got any examples?

[todd2968]

Don't stop there try ruger 10/22 stocks

[Desert_Rat]

I suppose it will depend on how labor intensive it is for you to make them. If it takes 5 hours to make a set, then You are going to go broke quick. If it takes 5 minutes to turn a set out, then maybe you have a chance.

[gravedigger]

Rather than trying to sell an inexpensive stock and competing on price, you should go the other route. Make a really good one, and sell it for a huge premium, with a "No Questions Asked" repair/replacement lifetime guarantee.

I have a Pelican 7060 rechargeable flashlight. It is the best and brightest light I have ever owned. I have had it for over a year now. I dropped it a few weeks ago, and the end cap with the push switch cracked. DANG! I thought, "This is going to be expensive!" The flashlight sells in the neighborhood of $200.00

I contacted the company. They asked me for my name, my address and the model of the light. Two days later a new end cap arrived in the mail at no charge. Their website proudly displays their slogan: "You break it, we replace it... forever.™ " I will be purchasing another one of these fine products from them soon! Pelican is a company that has earned my loyalty!

[Matt C]

22% markup? Not worth it.

[E Pluribus Unum]

22% markup? Not worth it.

What he said.

If I can do 0 work and mark it up 22%, that's fine... but 22% and I have to build the thing.... just not worth it.

[damndave]

I agree with most. For a 22% markup not including labor, it isn't worth it. Ironwood Designs sells theirs for $120 and their quality is great.

http://ironwooddesigns.com/IWDsite/IWDHome.html

[SanPedroShooter]

How about refinishing for people? There's a lot of ugly wood out there...
I've thought about it myself, just as a sideline. I have the tools, the shop, the know how. Maybe some parkarizing and other finishes, gun kote and the like...
You couldnt charge as much, but you could do more and all you need is the material, the tools, and a place to work (not cheap in LA), i dunno.... If iron wood can turn out a beautiful product for 120, its hard to compete with that..

[Rob454]

Most likely you are gonna have to invest in a wood mill in order to turn them out quickly and with the same quality and a assembly line type of finish where you dip them in stain they dry and then dip them in a varnish. I would personally sell the bulk unfinished and let the owner do the finish. the ones you do sell finished do a basic finish one color stain. So its either this or you DIY. If you wanna do it I would look more into doing a custom set of wood stocks. But if you are gonna do it all by hand its gonna become cost prohibitive for you to actually make them. you will need the person to either send you their stock or get the rifle to fit it in the stock. not saying you cant but you're gonna charge accordingly and considering you are gonna charge what is gonna be a decent amount to pay for your time they better be perfect. i made a wood stock for my Saiga 12 and it took me about 20 hours and Im still playing with it.

If you know how to refinish wood stocks do that. i would personally start buying stocks and then taking them in on trade so the turn around is fast. There are a ton of wood stocks and people who have no idea how to refinish them. While I can and have refinished my own wood stocks i would absolutely have no problem paying to have someone else do them for me. has nothing to do with me being lazy. I can go out and do something in that time that i would do the wood stock refinishing and either make money or do something fun with my family or work on some project that is more important or necessary to me. I do a lot of projects for work so that takes a lot of my time. I can easily use a rifle that has a stock that needs refinishing.

Good luck and if you decide to do refinishing post some pics. All my rifles have wood stocks.

[Jeff L]

I suggest starting small. Keep your day job and start producing them in your spare time. Don't make a lot of investments in equipment until you have solid sales over a period of time. If you know someone who has a commercial wood shop, you might be able to rent time there. Experiment with different woods to see which ones work best and work within your production specs. You could sell the versions based and the type of wood and respective cost. Looks at what others are selling to see how you can differentiate yourself from them (color, style, shape, cost). If you can increase your sales, you can expand your operations. Good luck.

-Jeff L

[jazman]

I suggest starting small. Keep your day job and start producing them in your spare time. Don't make a lot of investments in equipment until you have solid sales over a period of time. If you know someone who has a commercial wood shop, you might be able to rent time there. Experiment with different woods to see which ones work best and work within your production specs. You could sell the versions based and the type of wood and respective cost. Looks at what others are selling to see how you can differentiate yourself from them (color, style, shape, cost). If you can increase your sales, you can expand your operations. Good luck.

-Jeff L

This. Good advice, well stated.

[fabguy]

I suggest starting small. Keep your day job and start producing them in your spare time. Don't make a lot of investments in equipment until you have solid sales over a period of time. If you know someone who has a commercial wood shop, you might be able to rent time there. Experiment with different woods to see which ones work best and work within your production specs. You could sell the versions based and the type of wood and respective cost. Looks at what others are selling to see how you can differentiate yourself from them (color, style, shape, cost). If you can increase your sales, you can expand your operations. Good luck.

-Jeff L

Excellent advice Jeff L,
Remember also that friends/ family will want freebee's. Although when times get tough for you, you will find who your friends are by who offers to help you out for free and those will also be the people who will pay you retail from the start. Marketing will be the key to your success. Your business can fail 1,000 times, but you only need to succeed once and that makes it worth it.
Also remember to try not to spend more than 5% of your annual PROFITS on tooling unless you can make that money back (with that tool) within the first 12 months after you purchased it, and do your best to hold onto 75% of it for the long haul. Small businesses these days are surviving on the money they saved during the good times (Pres. Bush era). Paying your vendors on time is very important.

[offrdmania]

Unless you have a CNC mill to turn them out quickly then there isnt enough gross in them to make a business last