Make The Most From Each Picket. Building a Woodworking Business. | How To

Make Money Woodworking Starting a Woodworking Business projects that sell *MORE FREE PLANTER BUILDS* https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt6iY3F8A61q21Lo_HuvfnfUkTqbJ8GKC&si=U5xLJzwv3ysTWR6D *FREE MARKETING PHOTOS* https://www.whosthevoss.com/product-page/marketing-photos-see-description I have created and shared many plans on making different size planter boxes, and today, I'm sharing my thought process and insight so you can quickly and easily quote custom projects to your customers. An easy way to expand your picket planter revenue is to offer custom builds. And by no means does it have to be a planter box. It's how I landed a $2,000 shed build, and even a nesting box for chickens. no, seriously. for chickens. here is my general rule of thumb. for every picket I use, it costs the customer $10. i buy them for between 3.28-4.99 so my labor follows the general "material times two" rule. for this video, we will stick to planter boxes. lets say someone reaches out to you requesting a larger 3' x 6' raised garden bed. when starting to brainstorm how to tackle this project. you need to be thinking about the projects appearance, structural integrity, and minimizing scraps which helps maximize profits. there is a reason most of my boxes are built to the sizes that they are. pickets are 5-1/2" wide and 72" long. Unless I am building the Planter Bench, I know I cannot use the two inch dog earred section so my pickets usable length is 70". dividing your picket is one way to get an easy answer. take a look at a few of my plans and you will see that the long pieces are cut first, and I fill up the rest of the board with smaller pieces. sometimes I even cut a side piece before ripping that picket down for the legs. and the same thinking style is applied to ripping boards as well. 1-3/4" gets you three pieces 2-3/8 gets you two pieces 1-1/4" gives you four, which is getting pretty thin lets get back to our customer. they are asking for a 3' x 6' box. for raised garden bed quote I ask them how tall they would like it to stand. 32-36 inches is standard counter top height. this will give you the total leg height. and rember: 35" should be the maximum length if you plan to rip the picket down to 2-3/8" in order to get 4 legs from each 70" long picket. every box I have built requires eight of these pieces. so we have the legs figured out. Let's look at the main box construction. starting with the sides. If I factor out the dog ears, and divide the board by two, I get 35". we will need two of these for each shorter side. (but she wanted a 36" side) the additional 5/8 thickness of both legs will make up the distance. (i can go the distance song) soooo two pieces for each side, four pieces total. 2 boards required. the long sides can be 70" long: which is the pickets length minus the dog ears. could you leave the dog ears on there? sure, but I think it makes the project look "pieced together" in my opinion. so two pieces for each side, four pieces total. 4 boards required. now we need to think about the structure of the box. we will need to add a lip so the bottom boards have support. ya know, because of the dirt weight.. I would cut a treated 2x4 down since its the cheapest structural addition we could make. A strip of cedar would work, if the span was shorter like the long box and raised garden bed. my concern is the center sagging and failing later on. one 2x4 is enough to get the strips for the side and the center bracing. you can rip the 2x4 down to 3/4", 3/4" and have the remaining piece be the center support. or, you could rip a 2x4 in half for each side, and use a whole 2x4 down the center. you dont need to add the bracing to the shorter sides. cut the ripped 2x4 down to length and walla. i always run my bottom boards in the direction that they are the shortest. cedar is very porous, and a board is structurally weakest when it is laid down and supported only from the very ends. take your length, 70" divided by 5-1/2, the width of your picket and you get pretty close to 13. so we will need 13 bottom boards to fill the base. we get two from each picket, so we need 7 more pickets. if you wish to add a center support, you can by adding an additional leg to the outside or the center. remember, there will be a lot of weight pushing this box down. this larger box I wouldn't bother with a lip, again, people try to pick them up from those and given its size it would be tricky to line up straight. it would only require one extra picket though. by ripping the picket down to 1-3/4", we get three stripes, two stripes will span the longer side, and the third strip cut in half is enough for the shorter sides. chow