Recently completed Cue Case

[BHCustomCases]

Hello everyone,

I have been lurking around and reading tons of information on here. I want to thank everyone that so willingly gives tips and tricks of the trade. You all have been fantastic and I've learned so much just from reading here.

I thought that I would share the case that I finished this week. As you can probably guess John Barton is the reason that I found this site. I can say without a doubt that my work is not even comparable to the likes of him or Jack Justis at this point, but I would like to hear what you all have to say. Hopefully you will be able to see some things that I may be doing incorrectly or that could be done better. All input is much appreciated.

Also, out of curiosity I would like to know a rough ball park what some of you would charge for the amount of stamping (I can't call it tooling after seeing some of the stuff here!) that is on the case. Just to give you an idea of dimensions this case is 31-1/2" tall and roughly 14" in diameter. The pockets when lying flat are 9" x 13" and 9"x22". Thanks everyone!

Front of Case:

Back of Case:

The Big Pocket:

The little Pocket:

[BHCustomCases]

Nothing? Really, any feedback would be great! I'm especially looking for feedback from people that use stamping tools. I don't really care about the application that they are used for, just if anything could be improved in my technique etc.

[MADMAX22]

I think Johnbarton is the guy to crituqe cue cases. Not sure if he has been on lately though.

Construction looks great from what I can see.

One thing I would look into is finishing the edges. A good burnished edge looks more pro imo and just nicer overall.

Have you thought about getting into carving at all? It could be the next step in adding to them. As far as stamping try mixing stuff up and see what looks good. I think stamping looks better in designing a border more then anything else but thats just personal preference.

[rusty521]

I think that this is a great case, do you have any photos showing the inside of the case?

[BHCustomCases]

I am definitely working on my edges. I have had a hard time getting the techniques down well enough to make something that looks decent. However, they look a lot better than they did when I built my first one. I am thinking about getting into carving, but at this point I have very limited time. It will definitely be a while before I have enough practice to make an actual product with. lol

I think that this is a great case, do you have any photos showing the inside of the case?

Indeed I do. I use lined PVC tubing, which is a pretty standard cue case construction. Here are the pics:

Thanks for the replies!!!

Edited October 5, 2009 by BHCustomCases

[MADMAX22]

Have you taken a look at this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=16609

Further down the thread Hidepounder (Bob) gives a good explanation on how he does his. I use a similer method but modified and I do it by hand since I dont have a real workshop lol.

Your case does look good though.

One question for ya, do you cover your pvc yourself or do you pick it up lined. I would be interested in knowing of someplace that supplies them lined like that.

[TheTrooper]

@BHCustomCases

A nice case you have done there. I am also a cue case maker and I know, how much work it is, at the beginning. It could be quiet hard and frustrating sometimes to get the right dimesion for everything and put the stuff together.

From my experiences the construction part was and sometimes still is (when I do something what I haven´t done before) the most time cosuming part.

Keep up the good work and maybe try something with your own tolling. I mean the stamp look also nice, but when you have done some real tooling on your cases then you are maybe even more proud of it.

I also struggle with the pricing of my products, so it would be better when someone else could chime in for a suggestion.

Cheers,

Marcel

[BHCustomCases]

Have you taken a look at this thread http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=16609

Further down the thread Hidepounder (Bob) gives a good explanation on how he does his. I use a similer method but modified and I do it by hand since I dont have a real workshop lol.

Your case does look good though.

One question for ya, do you cover your pvc yourself or do you pick it up lined. I would be interested in knowing of someplace that supplies them lined like that.

Thanks for that link. I will definitely have to pick up some new tools to do the burnishing with.

I actually sew the liners myself. The only place that you may be able to get tubes that are lines already would be John Barton. But I know he has been busy lately, so he may not be selling them anymore. I know he was selling his "pro-lite" style tube lined. This is just one large tube with a liner that is sewn into sections. It isn't something that I currently offer and to be honest not something that I have any plans on offering as I don't really like the option...but many people do.

@BHCustomCases

A nice case you have done there. I am also a cue case maker and I know, how much work it is, at the beginning. It could be quiet hard and frustrating sometimes to get the right dimesion for everything and put the stuff together.

From my experiences the construction part was and sometimes still is (when I do something what I haven´t done before) the most time cosuming part.

Keep up the good work and maybe try something with your own tolling. I mean the stamp look also nice, but when you have done some real tooling on your cases then you are maybe even more proud of it.

I also struggle with the pricing of my products, so it would be better when someone else could chime in for a suggestion.

Cheers,

Marcel

Marcel,

I have seen several of the pictures you have posted of your cases. I like them very much. As for the pricing, I feel like I am as low as I will ever go and people still feel as if it is too high. I think that Jack Justis is really the only case maker that is charging what should be charged for a case and it makes it very hard to break into when the more established makers are only charging $100 or so US dollars more than I am and in some cases not even that much.

Cheers,

Ole

[JohnBarton]

Hello everyone,

I have been lurking around and reading tons of information on here. I want to thank everyone that so willingly gives tips and tricks of the trade. You all have been fantastic and I've learned so much just from reading here.

I thought that I would share the case that I finished this week. As you can probably guess John Barton is the reason that I found this site. I can say without a doubt that my work is not even comparable to the likes of him or Jack Justis at this point, but I would like to hear what you all have to say. Hopefully you will be able to see some things that I may be doing incorrectly or that could be done better. All input is much appreciated.

Also, out of curiosity I would like to know a rough ball park what some of you would charge for the amount of stamping (I can't call it tooling after seeing some of the stuff here!) that is on the case. Just to give you an idea of dimensions this case is 31-1/2" tall and roughly 14" in diameter. The pockets when lying flat are 9" x 13" and 9"x22". Thanks everyone!

Front of Case:

Back of Case:

The Big Pocket:

The little Pocket:

Your composition looks good. I would try to sharpen up the angles on the box pockets, the sides are bulging a bit. Unless that's how you want them to be. From a decorative standpoint I don't feel like the front and back match because of the stamped barbwire oval on the back and the straight rows on the front. That's an aesthetic thing though and probably doesn't bother anyone but me. Edges is the other thing. As has been mentioned Bob's tutorial on edging is the nuts. Since reading it I took an old pool cue and cut off the forearm above the wrap and made us a maple burnisher. I use it three ways now, by hand with just spit and/or gum traganth, attached to a drill, or attached to our drill press. I also use Bob's method of attaching canvas to it depending on how I want to finish the edges.

Edge finishing really adds the final touch that says class and care. It also prevents the fibers from fuzzing up and becoming unsightly or nuisances.

I am not a real big fan of the leather patch method of doing names. To me it seems somewhat cheap like it's an afterthought. I guess Jack kind of pioneered it on cue cases but you rarely see this method of personalizing on any other leather goods. I have always felt that on of the great things about doing leather cases is the ability to carve right into the leather and so I personally eschew the patch method unless there is a damn good reason. And for me "customer request" isn't good enough. I might do an overlay if for example the rest of the case were nappa leather and this was the only way to put on a carved name. I think Jack does it primarily because he can't put the whole case sized piece in the laser. Not sure about that - just guessing based on my own experience with our lasers. My advice would be to do make the patch look a little nicer than just a rectangle. Give it a little more flair somehow if you are going to do them like this.

Now, having said this I do find instances where a "patch" or overlay is appropriate. Recently we did a bunch of Pirate themed leather cases and I chose deliberately to do a waving pirate flag on the pocket as an overlay because I wanted it to stand out as the highest point on the front of the case.

So it's a judgement call.

Otherwise, your cases are coming along great.

For pricing I don't know that I quite agree that Jack is charging the right prices. I think it's more each to his own according to their own sense of what they need and want. I charge based on a formula that is essentially cost of materials plus time plus a little for the design time with no regard for all the other brain cell usage involved in the extra back and forth to get a case order finalized. Our cases come out on average cheaper than Jack's one the ones that could even be compared but it's what I want to charge and what works for us. Pricing will always be a sticky issue and we had a long interesting thread here about it with some really great information in it (besides my posts which were boring). We charge $50 less for the amount of stamping we do that is roughly similar to what you did on this case.

$400 ($325 plus $75 shipping)

$350 ($275 plus $75 shipping)

Well that's my critique. Welcome again to the board and to the cue case maker club.

John

[JohnBarton]

Thanks for that link. I will definitely have to pick up some new tools to do the burnishing with.

I actually sew the liners myself. The only place that you may be able to get tubes that are lines already would be John Barton. But I know he has been busy lately, so he may not be selling them anymore. I know he was selling his "pro-lite" style tube lined. This is just one large tube with a liner that is sewn into sections. It isn't something that I currently offer and to be honest not something that I have any plans on offering as I don't really like the option...but many people do.

I have been struggling with whether I want to sell the tubes with liners or not. Recently I sold 20 pieces to a new case maker because he is struggling to get his orders done. I did cases with individual tubes for 20 years and we continue to offer them today. It's much easier to do a case with one large extruded tube for several reasons but also somewhat harder on several aspects. So it's pretty much a wash. I find that it's just a chore to do lined tubes and for some reason some case makers don't like to do it. What I have always done is spend time preparing a lot of tubes at once. For example liners can be sewn in a daisy chain one right after the other. You can go to any seamstress and have them do hundreds of liners fairly cheap if you don't want to do them yourself. Preparing the tubes is a chore but again do it in an assembly line fashion and do up enough for five or ten cases out and then it's not such a hassle on a per case basis. The good thing about doing cases with individual tubes is that the tubes are always readily available at the hardware store. Doing cases with extruded tubes requires having molds made for different sizes, figuring out which plastic to use, buying the minimums at least, and doing complicated liners if you want then to be padded and durable. Jack buys his from an overseas case maker who already was making them for their cases. We make our own. If I were not in the position I am in now where I can get molds done fairly cheaply and have fairly low minimums then I would not be using extruded tubes. As to which is better, well for me it's pretty much even but I use tubes that are stronger so that the end result is the same as if I were using individual tubes.

Marcel,

I have seen several of the pictures you have posted of your cases. I like them very much. As for the pricing, I feel like I am as low as I will ever go and people still feel as if it is too high. I think that Jack Justis is really the only case maker that is charging what should be charged for a case and it makes it very hard to break into when the more established makers are only charging $100 or so US dollars more than I am and in some cases not even that much.

Cheers,

Ole

I think it's one of those things where you have to charge what you want to get and not worry about what others are charging. You'll find out if you are out of line in the customer's eyes when they comment on it. Breaking into a market however often requires some sacrifice whether it be profit or time. You don't always have to offer a lower price though - you can offer something else like free personalization up to three initials or be more flexible. For example there are case makers who won't change the side of the case that they put the handle and strap on. So by offering that for free or for a small fee you are one up on them in at least that respect.

I will tell you both this. I look at a case in terms of what would I be willing to pay for it if I were the customer. Even though I use a formula to price our work I still look at each case we do and ask myself if I would buy it at that price. If my answer is yes then I feel it's a good price. Forget about repuation and hype and brand name. If you were looking at the case purely in terms of the product itself would you pay what you are asking? Would you pay more? If you think that you would pay more then ask for more. Why would you give up your work for less than you would pay for it?

I sincerely believe that if one follows this principle that the product you make will always be priced right for you and for the customer. I never want a customer to walk away from buying a case rubbing their butt feeling like they got screwed. Nor do I want them to feel that what they bought is "cheap". I like it when they feel that it's a bargain and wise investment.

Ok enough. Back to work for me.