Critique Request Testing the waters, templates and such.

[Ghrrum]

After seeing a couple of the quick and dirty coin templates I ran out for learning a bit about engraving John messaged me and suggested I should consider knocking out a couple templates for firearms.
I've taken a bit of a shine to the idea and have ripped out a template for the slide of a Ruger LCP as an example to test the waters.

So, take a look, this is a 1:1 scale template based off the overall measurements of the handgun, so in theory it should be good to use as a direct template for laying out scrollwork.
I'm thinking that popular guns like this one I'd probably ask $25 for a full digital copy of the template (slide left and right, grips, heel, clip), $10 for an individual component set (slide with left and right sides, grip, etc) that you can print out and custom/rare guns would be around $30-60 depending on what you need.

I'm asking if this seems like a service you would take advantage of, turn around would be about a week for complex or larger (+1 sq ft) custom stuff and require photographs and measurements of the piece for me to scale the drawing to. Background grid is also something I can scale to preference or leave out entirely.

 

[John B.]

Thank you Marc,
I think that price range would be very fair and would save a lot of time.
It's important to have an accurately sized template when making overlaid preliminary designs.
Personally, I would build the cost into my customer quote if it involved a gun that I did not have previous drawings of.

 

[Ghrrum]

For simplicitiy's sake I'll probably use something like Etsy to do the actual transaction.

 

[monk]

if you decide to sell the template sets, please do so on the buy & sell section of the forum, good luck

 

[JJ Roberts]

I was giving my templates to the Cafe members. J.J.

 

[Ghrrum]

I was giving my templates to the Cafe members. J.J.

I'm not quite following what you're attempting to communicate here. Can you please clarify?

 

[DKanger]

JJ's templates are available in the tutorial section. There was also a thread years ago where people submitted theirs.

http://www.engraverscafe.com/gun_templates/

 

[JJ Roberts]

Member of the Cafe I would not pay for any templates I did a tutorial on how to make your own templates with Vellum a translucent paper for tracing see if you can find my template tutorial you'll it easy to understand. J.J.

 

[John B.]

Member of the Cafe I would not pay for any templates I did a tutorial on how to make your own templates with Vellum a translucent paper for tracing see if you can find my template tutorial you'll it easy to understand. J.J.

JJ

Have to disagree with JJ on this one.
Many times I have been asked for a price quote and ideas for engraving a gun of a type
with which I have no previous experience.
And no sample gun from which make my own template.
Paying a few dollars to buy an exact template showing the lettering and other details would be a worthwhile business expense. I would include the cost in my price quote for the job.
Like many of you, I have an archive of templates from past jobs.
But there are new or revised models of guns being introduced constantly.

 

[Goldjockey]

Would be nice to have both options. Basic layouts - Free, and highly detailed layouts -$$. That way your prospective customers could start developing an idea with the basic templates, and move to higher tiered $$ layouts if/when they want to take the work to the next level.

 

[Ghrrum]

Member of the Cafe I would not pay for any templates I did a tutorial on how to make your own templates with Vellum a translucent paper for tracing see if you can find my template tutorial you'll it easy to understand. J.J.

JJ, thanks for the clarification and sharing your method for making templates. I understand why you'd share the method and means to create templates and I greatly appreciate it. I'm not doing anything terribly different, I simply use a couple pieces of software to either trace the flat portions of an object from several pictures, or create a 3d model if I have enough pictures to render it from and make sections of that into flat templates. My way can create a model of the entire gun. I'm not offering this service thinking anyone on here is less or incapable. I'm offering it so they can add to their portfolios and present their customers with mock ups of what their guns and objects could look like before the gravers touch metal.

I know from other custom work I've done in the past that half of selling what you can do is being able to make your customer understand it, understand the value, and then you being able to produce it.
I'm aiming to make that easier.

 

[Ghrrum]

Would be nice to have both options. Basic layouts - Free, and highly detailed layouts -$$. That way your prospective customers could start developing an idea with the basic templates, and move to higher tiered $$ layouts if/when they want to take the work to the next level.

The question I have is what detail would I remove to make a difference in price valuable? Both scale and dimensional accuracy are critical to seeing if your design would fit the media, scaling down the images isn't really a realistic option as it's VERY easy to scale them back up.

 

[Goldjockey]

If I'm just developing an idea, I don't necessarily want to pay full ticket (or anything) for a basic layout I can make for myself without too much trouble, but once I'm confident with the Idea I'm working on, I'm also lazy (or smart) enough not to want to spend the hours that it would take to measure and place every last technical detail into a layout for something I might only cut once.

Bearing in mind that anyone with a digital camera, a ruler, and photoshop skills can make a template for just about anything, what I might do is go ahead an do the full detailed layout, then turn off or strip out the layers with things like, text, and text position, sights, and any other detail that is not the just the basic shape of the firearm, and make that available as a "free" or nominally priced download. On basic PDF image I would included a link with a way to pay for and download the full detailed technical drawing at a reasonable price, with a single user license for that drawing only.

Once I've invested my own time working with your "free" or nominally priced layout, the highly technical version becomes valuable enough to me to purchase (at a reasonable price) rather than investing that time to do it myself.

I doubt you'd make a fortune with something like this, but it would be a valuable service I know I'd probably take advantage of if it were available.

The other thing I'd do is copyright as a technical drawing my detailed layout, of which the basic layout is a part.

 

[Ghrrum]

"All the smart words"

That actually does help a fair bit with regards to my question. Thanks.
Now I need to ponder on what guns to choose for the initial release. Recommendations are welcome there too. I think a generalized drawing for $2 that would give the basic of the shape would be reasonable.

 

[Ghrrum]

I think I'll finish out the LCP and cross reference with the templates on here to make sure I don't duplicate stuff.

 

[tdelewis]

I make my own templates. I have used a smoke pull as well as pencil rubs. I then scan them into Illustrator and vector them. Without doubt engravers will be asked to do something that is uncommon and it will be necessary to make your own, or design directly on the item. Currently I working on an 1885 low wall. I haven't checked to see if there is a template out there but it just seemed easier to make it myself. Vectoring an outline doesn't take much time.

 

[Ghrrum]

I make my own templates. I have used a smoke pull as well as pencil rubs. I then scan them into Illustrator and vector them. Without doubt engravers will be asked to do something that is uncommon and it will be necessary to make your own, or design directly on the item. Currently I working on an 1885 low wall. I haven't checked to see if there is a template out there but it just seemed easier to make it myself. Vectoring an outline doesn't take much time.

I'll see if I can find enough photos to make a model of it, nice looking gun.

 

[tdelewis]

I'm almost finished with the 1885.