Woodworking Goal

Very similar to your answer, except I'd add this as well. I know that a lot of things I would like to have just aren't around for any price- and while it may be possible to hire an artisan or furniture maker to make them for me, it seems foolish to leave the execution of something I've got in mind to someone who may see it from a different perspective, and create something different than I wanted.

So much of the world seems to be mass-produced and disposable these days, it's nice to think that I've got unique items furnishing my home. While they may not be quite as nice as some high-end gallery quality stuff, everything I've made has been better than it's equivilant at the places I can afford to shop- and I know that I'm not going to see a carbon-copy of it in someone else's home.

Barring some unforseen accident, I don't intend to give up at it- and god willing, I've got another 50 years or better to gain experience and skill. Hopefully I'll be good enough someday to leave carefully protected heirlooms for posterity that people will protect and enjoy when I'm gone. It seems like a good legacy to me.

Being skint and nailing 2x4s together will achieve that much.

I seem to have got to the point where I can make furniture that no-one can afford. In a world where Ikea will sell you a perfectly functional table, how many people are there left who are prepared to pay for anything better than MDF ?

I can make the stuff, and I've got any number of people who want it. But as for _paying_ a sensible rate for hand-work (which is inevitably slower and more skilled than factory, even for modest quality) then where's the market gone? Who _wants_ a table they can leave to their grandchildren, when the current fashion is to paint it pink because that's what Changing Rooms told you to do this week, then throw it away the week after.

I can see a future not too far away, where the only people with really good _new_ furniture are those who are building it themselves, or being given it as gifts from the makers. Quality just isn't part of commerce these days.

======================== Well I have been "shooting" now for close to 40 years.. and to be very honest I have hit the bulls eye almost all the time...

My aim has always been to relax, and to improve my work...

Never built anything to save money... but have build a lot of furniture that I needed ...but I did it for enjoyment...

Bob G.

I have no knowledge of the economy in the area where you live, but there are a LOT of people will to pay a LOT for truly wonderful, custom furniture/cabinetry.

I have a buddy that decided to take the plunge from being a highly successful computer engineer (i.e. making $100K+ per year salary) to being a full-time woodworker for hire. His net income (the amount he pays himself, not the amount the business get's) is abour $140K. This is only his 4th year of doing this and he has work booke with 6-9 month waits, and people don't mind.

I'm no pro - far from it. But I've done the odd job for money here and there, and made a fair bit on those jobs. And they weren't anything special, to say the least.

I think what a lot of woodworkers forget when they try to sell their work is that they have to target a specific market segment, clearly define their "ideal customer" and then SELL to those people. They can't make a museum-quality armoire that took them 500 hours to make, and then HOPE they find someone with $25K to spend. They need to find the customer FIRST. And if they can't? They need to change their business model and either make something else, or search harder for those customers.

You hit it on the head, Andy, in one respect. The people that will go and buy stuff at IKEA are NOT the one's you will sell to (and, I might add, aren't the ones you WANT to sell to). The money is there to be made, you just have to get your message out to the right people: marketing is key.

I don't know anything about Tom Watson's business model, but if you ever looked at his website and the things he made when he was a pro cabinetmaker - I bet you will get an idea of how that kind of business works. And then look at Tom Plamann. 'Nuf said.

Sucks that it isn't just about being really skilled at making furniture, but alas.

Mike

Building furniture for myself and friends from lumber milled from my own trees...its all good!

Schroeder

well, my goals seem to change a lot, Charlie... They used to be things like "learn to build cheap stuff that we can't afford to buy".. Evolved into "if I had the tools, I could build nice stuff..

I got back into woodworking when my wife started law school, figuring that since she was going to be either busy or sleeping 24/7, I could spend a lot of guilt-free time in the shop..

My original goal was pretty clear.. to improve my knowledge and skill, and eventually make very nice jewelry boxes for the wife and friends... with a sort of "maybe goal" of building things like china cabinets, display cases, etc...

After about 4 months of building shelves, cabinets and drawers for the shop, I got side tracked into wood turning in a big way.. My wife has been almost too encouraging, probably because this keeps me home and sober, and has just bought me my 2nd lathe. well, 3rd, if you could my trusty old shopsmith..

I still have the goal of fine woodworking some day, but my present goal is to improve my turning and finishing skills as much as possible, as long as it's fun... I sell a few things, but that's not the reason that I work wood... So far, I've spent at least 4 of every seven evenings in the shop, have a few hundred turnings and not only have not burned out, but still want more time to turn..

BTW: I have a lot more patience and drive to do things right in my late 50's than I did in my late 20's/early 30's.... When I worked wood before, I would either skip a step or "mickey mouse" something to get it finished quickly... now, I'm at the age where I can not only hear the phrase "it's not the destination, it's the journey", but I can know the difference and enjoy the journey..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I work with my great-grandfather's tools - they are all hand tools that do not use electricity. I also have his forge and metalworking tools. I don't use the tools just to be different than, say, the people who shop at Lowe's. I genuinely enjoy working with human powered tools. When I use the tools I somehow feel connected to earlier generations of woodworkers and the escape from the busy everyday overworked modern life helps me keep balanced - it's like finding new meanings in old familiar poem. My goal is to keep enjoying using old tools, learning some more techniques, and making things.

Xopher

Just to enjoy what I'm doing. So far, I've succeeded. I like to improve my skills and try new methods. I make things either I want, my wife wants, or I can give to a friend that would appreciate the item. I'm careful to keep it a hobby, not a job as I already have a good job. I did accept payment for material on a bench I made for a friend but even that was after the fact.

Some day I'd like to build that museum quality piece. Woodworking has taught me patience (maybe age is a factor also) and the sense of accomplishment is very good also. If it stops being fun, it is time for a new hobby. Ed

To be able to afford what Tom Plamnn can buy?

For me it is the exact same, however as much by hand as possible. No table saw, no elecric jointer or thicknesser. But I do have a mini band saw and a mini drill press, an electric hand Skil-drill, and a Makita palm sander and an old Rockwell 1/2 sheet sander.

"Minimal-izm" maybe... but I love the old ways of woodworking at heart. Chisels, hand planes, hand saws, surforms, rasps, braces and handcrank drills, clamps and a woodworkers bench, and so forth. The hardest part are the old molding planes (side beaders?) for doing the original work that electric routers replaced, such as knowing how to choose, use and sharpen them and making my own blades succesfully. I bought an old skew blade dado plane with a laminated blade, has no hardness and grinds down like chalk when sharpening. Rediculous.

Finishing a major project without getting my blood on it :-).

Now you know why I'm building a boat.

Lew

To make furniture, cabinets, and built-ins that look exactly like I expect them to, to my quality standards, in a reasonable amount of time, to the satisfaction of the person requesting the work.

I also would like to have the experience and ability to use whatever tool the task requires, hand, power, stationary, you name it.

Barry

Lew,

When I first started reading this n.g. several years ago you were in the process of building your, iirc, "bullet proof boat." I take it from the tense of your above statement that that project is still 'in-process.' Wow, that gives me hope that some of my long-going projects might eventually be completed.

Regards, Mike

Building a boat is lot like wrasslin a bear.

As long as the bear wants to wrestle, you wrestle.

Building a boat, you are never done, but every day when you leave the boat yard, something is finished that wasn't finished when you got there.

Lew

charlie b wrote in news:429FE963.4C15 @accesscom.com:

You're right. Tom Plamann has made furniture I cannot afford to buy.

Patriarch

charlie b wrote in news:429FE963.4C15 @accesscom.com:

It started out as sawdust therapy. One place where I could not be reached by cell phone, because I could turn it off without guilt for safety reasons.

And to have something, anything, tangible, to show for the planning, learning, struggle and fight that was my life at the time. I've at least temporarily cured the career induced problems.

My wife & I are discussing telling the corporate world that it can do without us, that with our children raised and their educations paid for, and our parents at least fairly well settled into their later years, that it's time to do the artsy, studio-types of things we postponed 30+ years ago in order to have a home and responsibly raise a family. The business plan is taking shape, I'm getting sufficient confidence in a focused area of endeavor, and have put together some network of resources to show, market and install the types of things I can economically make in a semi-customised manner.

And then I'll still do a few exploratory pieces, just for my own enjoyment.

But it's nice to have recovered at least some of my former good nature.

Patriarch, who owes most of it to sawdust...

Building boats is quicker and _far_ cheaper than maintaining them once afloat.

Ask any boat owner. The amount it costs to look after it is more than they expected, in rough proportion to the reduction in the time they actually get to use it compared to expectations.

Sadly the current distribution of income seems to favour those with absolutely no taste! A bureau made from recycled railway sleepers (ties) still with the creosote on them and sprayed with lacquer just to keep the smell in ?

Woodworker or furniture maker ? Things are a lot better for on-site work. If you're buying a competent tradesman by the hour, then you're paying a decent rate for it and there's generally little argument over the time spent and the amount owed. The problem is the invisible work in the workshop - how can any piece of furntiture possibly take more than an hour to make, when Ikea will sell you one for an hour or two's income?