Pineapples by Mike

Ok everyone here is the low-down on the pineapple job.  We'll start with the picture of 50 of them which ended up being the final quantity.  They have been finished for a while but have been swamped in the shop and unable to get this to the site.  this one set-up worked well for both directions of milling, left and right hand twist.

Here's the skinny

I charged $50.00 each for these.  After keeping track of the time and setup total was 31 hrs

Here is the time breakdown:
8 min   Board prep, glueup, and centering
5 min   Rough out with radial lathe saw http://www.turningaround.org/Pugn3.htm
5 min   Turn to smooth product ready to mill
12 min  6 min each direction. 
2 min   sand milling shreds and cut and trim end nub
for total of about 27 hours
There was about 4 hrs of getting the wood and all the different set-up times.
 total hours for the project was 31 hr

Money Breakdown:
$2500.00 from the job
Total price of the wood used was 14.85 each = $742.50
leaving 1757.50 profit
divided by 31 hrs
Hourly wage = $58.58

In my shop I like to work at about $60 an hour with a $15 minimum. I was happy with this job and as you can see with the real numbers there is room to make a living. 

If I were to make say four of these I would have had to charge
4 hrs setup $240
2 hrs work  $120
$360 total
$90 each

If I were to make one I would probably peaked at $150.00 and take a bit of a hit to keep a customer.  but you can see how pricing worked with this one.

I'm open for questions, fire away

As in the drawing it is 6.25" X 9''
I ended up with a 8" pitch and 8 starts.
I used a 3/8 ball, long shaft bit. Only deep enough to make a 1/4" wide cut.

Mike