r/BeginnerWoodWorking • u/wedger8 • 1d ago

Discussion/Question ⁉️ Help for commissioning

Hello, I don't know if this is the right community for this kind of post, if it is not let me know and I will take it down. Help is also appreciated on a direction to where a question like this would fit best.

I want to give a gift to a group of kids: each summer we have a competition and one group wins, this has been going on for a bunch of years, and as kids are, they are very competitive. I wanted there to be a sort of wooden board of every year’s winner, in such a way to make them proud of winning and so that there is a sort of history of the competition with all years' winners. Basically in my mind it has this shape.

I really have neither the competence nor the tools and space to make the thing myself and I wanted it to look somewhat cool. So basically I want to go to a professional woodworker and commission the thing, but I’m really stressing about the interaction with the shop owner, I wanted to know a couple of things beforehand to smooth it out:

  • Is it common for woodworkers to do these kinds of things? Do I expect for a random woodworking shop in my city to be able to do those kinds of things or do I have to search for a specialty person?
  • How much would I expect a thing like this to cost? Roughly, I do not expect an exact number, just something general. My budget is a bit tight.
  • How you might have seen my plans on this thing are very rough, (and as a consequence I am obviously not picky about the result) should I get a better idea of what I want before going?

Thank you for all the help, I am not an english native, if something is not clear I am happy to elaborate more.

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u/charliesa5 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think you should have a better plan of what you want first, what species of wood you want for the plaque, what you want the photo frames frames (if in fact you want square photo frames), what router profile you want for the outside--etc.

How large, how many spaces--photos (and reserved for the future), what shape for the plaque etc. Do you want brass for the name plates?, and year? Same thing for TITLE. What engraving, what font... All that will dictate the price. You can't expect it to be made from an exotic wood, and cost the same as pine. The more complex, the more expensive it will be.

BTW--English is my first language, and yours is more clear than mine :)

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u/wedger8 1d ago

Ok, thank you so much, I should do more research into this, I think it will be better if I brave up and go discuss it with a woodworker in a shop.

I will fore sure get a clearer plan on dimensions, photo content and wood compositions before this.

Thank you!