A 68 year old finisher in Dayton showed me his check for a face frame job and I almost dropped my coffee

Noah Chen · 2026-10-11T12:00:04.584374+00:00

I was picking up a load of maple ply from a shop outside Dayton when the owner, a finisher named Ray who's been at it 68 years old and still works six days a week, slid a check across the counter to show me what the cabinetmaker paid him for spraying face frames on a 40 door kitchen. The number was $3,400, just for finish work, and I stood there doing math on what I'd been charging for the same job. He said the trick was he quit bidding by the door and started bidding by the hour, then added 20 percent because nobody ever beats a spray schedule. I've been doing finish on the side for 3 years and never once tracked my actual hours. Anyone else switch to hourly on finishing, or do you still bid by the piece?

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A 68 year old finisher in Dayton showed me his check for a face frame job and I almost dropped my coffee | Cabinetmakers - HW Forums