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Hello all, just starting on my next two repairs, one is replacing a broken tenon with a Delrin tenon and the other is shortening a churchwarden. The work in its self is not difficult but im having trouble on pricing. When i do work on my mill or lathe the rate is 80 dollars an hour with an hour minimum but after looking at some pricing online i realized i cant charge my normal rate. I take pride in my work and do the job the best I know how but I'm having a really hard time charging so little, for example; briarville charges $28 for a Delrin tenon, for me I would charge 40 for a half hour of labor which includes setting it up on the lathe facing and boring out the old tenon and turning the Delrin to fit, I dont figure in the epoxy mix and cure time because it is negligible and i can be doing other stuff in the meantime. So the big question is, what should I do and should I charge what I believe it cost and what my time and machine time is worth?
Thanks
Justin
32*

Sensible thing is not to do repair work.

In my experience, the price pipe users are willing to pay does not often match the price we need to charge to make it worth our time. The old timey pipe repair guys had special machines designed to do the work. Tim West can put a new tenon in a stem in about 10 minutes. It's not perfect, but most guys don't want nor can they tell the difference between a 10 min repair and a 3 hour repair.

There are collectors who are willing to pay, George has a lot of experience in that department, but the average guy doesn't want to spend more on the repair than the pipe is worth.

The "pay scale" in repair work of any kind, meaning cars, wristwatches, fountain pens, air condidtioners... anything at all, is 100% wedded to the value of the item.

Since Swiss watches can cost well into six figures, those guys make a lot.

Any object that's cheaper to replace than repair is the domain of hobbiests.

With pipes it depends. "Tobacco access device" pipes like cobs and basket briars aren't worth fixing. Prime British historical pieces and some contemporary European and Japanese stuff definitely is, but there aren't many in circulation and the people who own them are NOT risk takers. Only established repairmen get their business. The mid-grade pipes between those extremes are not usually worth fixing WELL---meaning invisibly---but merely in functional terms.

So, it depends on what drives you to be a repairman, and what your expectations are. A quick turnaround, "if it smokes it's fixed" type of business is mathematically possible, but only just. And the only type I would recommend a newcomer mess with. (And then only if you have a lot of space to devote to packing, shipping, and etc. plus the Internet often results in all manner of logistical complexities that take a lot of time to deal with.)

.

Trever Talbert agrees with Chris, btw:

http://talbertpipes.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... epair.html

Eeeyeah.

Quick story. There's a guy who lives a couple hours from me and he makes pipes as a steady hobby. I will call him Joe. And one day he announces the birth of Joe's Pipe Repair, International Specialties, Attentions Paid to Gentlemanly Things..... and everybody's all happy for him. So I sent him a quiet message and said "Hey, so... I've looked into this, and I backed out right away, so either you have solved the problems I couldn't solve, or you haven't faced the reality of this yet." And he said "Whaddya mean?"

Well, who is paying the taxes on your importing a pipe when someone sends it to you? Oh, I dunno.
What happens if you break someone's pipe that their grandpa used to smoke? Oh, I dunno.
What are you going to do when you have 11 hours in a repair and the pipe is worth 44 bucks? Oh, I dunno.

And so the reality was, he didn't really do this. Because it's dangerous, difficult, and frankly a little foolish. And Joe just hadn't thought about this, he was just trying to do his brethren a solid.

I'm not saying don't fix pipes, I'm saying be very, very careful what you get into here, because demand is high, prices are low, quality is all over the map, and it's a very rough landscape.

I make about 1 stem or repair something in some way in a year. And that's for friends I know well. I want nothing to do with pipe repair, and have no idea how anyone can make any money at it.

Agree with Chris, George and Sas.
I do some repairs for the guys in my club, and I may make $3 an hour. If I really streamlined the operation I could maybe make $6 an hour. (I’ve also gotten some nice tobacco)
For me this is a hobby and I only do this for friends and on my own pipes that occasionally come back to me.
DocAitch

In regards to pricing when someone contacts me to do a repair, I always quote something ludicrous because I don't want to do repairs for all the reasons mentioned above and I have a hard time saying no to friends and acquaintances (I won't do repairs for complete strangers.) I get really disappointed on the rare occasion when someone accepts my quote. Bottom line: avoid doing repairs as advised above.