Building a bartop for a friend of my brother...

[HaRuMaN]

I sent him a raw material estimate (building supplies, computer, arcade parts, etc.) to see if he was serious enough for me to think about labor and shipping costs.

He seems like he wants me to move forward... any advice on how to charge labor for something like this?  It's not going to be something I can whip out in a weekend.  Also, anybody know the weight of their bartop?  I need to estimate the weight so I can figure out a shipping charge.  (I'll be using an LCD, not a CRT.)

Thanks...

[zaphod]

You might have hosed yourself by giving him a number for the material costs.  Check out some of the bartop sales on ebay and the web and work down from there.  It'll at least give you some support when he complains of you "overcharging him" on the labor.  We all know how many hours go into these things; the lay person does not.

[ChadTower]

I've started custom builds like that for people several times - and halfway through they either decide that they don't really want it anymore ("you can just sell it to someone else") or the price was too high ("Sure, I agreed to that price, but it sounds really high now and I'd like it for half").

zaphod is right, people tend to think it's a simple cabinet and a game console without any thought to how much effort goes into designing a good CP and the software stack to make it user friendly.

[ahofle]

Definitely make him pay in advance (for the parts at least) if possible.

[Goz]

Har,

 If you build it and he backs out there are tons of people in Phoenix who'd buy it. They sell like hotcakes on craigslist.

-G

[HaRuMaN]

Har,

 If you build it and he backs out there are tons of people in Phoenix who'd buy it. They sell like hotcakes on craigslist.

-G

Interesting...   I'll have to check that out.  I plan on getting money up front, we'll see how that goes.  On a side note, I did a search on eBay, seems like there is a guy on there selling bartops that seem to be nothing more than a Jakks 5 in 1 and a 13" color TV.  He's charging $549 for those...  hmm.

[chopps]

Interesting...   I'll have to check that out.  I plan on getting money up front, we'll see how that goes.  On a side note, I did a search on eBay, seems like there is a guy on there selling bartops that seem to be nothing more than a Jakks 5 in 1 and a 13" color TV.  He's charging $549 for those...  hmm.

WOW!  I just saw these on ebay... $550 and he doesnt even change the joystick.  Just a jakks 5 in 1 and a TV in a box 

[mountain]

Interesting...   I'll have to check that out.  I plan on getting money up front, we'll see how that goes.  On a side note, I did a search on eBay, seems like there is a guy on there selling bartops that seem to be nothing more than a Jakks 5 in 1 and a 13" color TV.  He's charging $549 for those...  hmm.

WOW!  I just saw these on ebay... $550 and he doesnt even change the joystick.  Just a jakks 5 in 1 and a TV in a box 

Check his feedback. He advertises them for $550, but he doesn't have any feedback on any.

[spacies]

Jeepers!

Those are...uummmm...eerrrrrrrr.... CRAP!

You could almost buy one of mine for that! 

Back to the original post, for custom builds I take a 50% deposit before any parts are ordered or before I even buy the wood. Something you just gotta do.

[leapinlew]

Build it first, build it cheap and you'll be ok. Even if he doesn't want it - you can sell it to someone.