The first project I've gotten paid for

[Adam Cruea]

About a month ago, I decided to get some padauk and play. I needed something to hold my writing utensils at work, and I wanted to practice dovetailing with my new BA 10" dovetail saw. So, I made myself a little pencil cup that turned out like crap. Learned a lot, though.

Well, today I can say I finished one for a friend that saw mine at work and wanted one. Here's a couple of pictures for viewing (dis)pleasure.

269925269926

The first one I made (no, I will not post pictures) was a disaster. The poly had sags and runs everywhere, the dovetails weren't well made, and to be honest, it just sucked. This one, however, I learned some things. It has 6 or 7 coats of a 4:1 poly/mineral spirits blend that was rubbed on with a rag. After the 2nd or 3rd coat, it was sanded with 600 grit sandpaper; just enough to get the nibs off and remove any sags that had occurred or any running.

The 4:1 poly/MS blend was a delight to work with, almost as easy as just slapping BLO on something, but it cured much faster. I found it seemed to thin the poly down to where it cured within about 3 to 4 hours as opposed to what it was taking with 100% poly.

I realize it's not as great as some of the other projects you guys make, but hey. . .it got me $20! And it's the first piece of woodworking that will be sold under my wife's new company. :-D

[Tony Wilkins]

Looks like a nice job to me and if the customer was happy then win-win. Gonna frame that $20 ;)

[Stanley Covington]

Nice work, Adam!

Stan

[Brett Robson]

Looks good! You've made $20 more with your woodworking than I ever have!

[Judson Green]

Nice! What's the bottom? How is attached?

[David Weaver]

Looks good! You've made $20 more with your woodworking than I ever have!

$20 more than me, too!

[Jim Matthews]

Waitaminnit....

You can get paid for this?

[Lance Mirrer]

Nice Job! and smart already having a company set up. Almost ready to quit the day job?

[George Bokros]

Very nice. Great grain and craftsmanship.

George

[Chris Fournier]

A slippery slope indeed. Once you make money woodworking you can justify buying tools that you could not if you worked only for yourself. Then one day you look up and realise that you have a well set up shop where you do work for other people and not yourself. Selling multiples of a project isn't a bad way to go. Don't spend that $20 all in one place!

[george wilson]

I have purchased the equipment I have with paying work.

[Matthew N. Masail]

I also fund my shop by doing work on the side, often it's woodworking related but lately I reupholstered a set of 8 chairs! lol take what you can get and do it as well as you can. of course I've turned down more than I've taken (but that's changing)... got offered 600$ to build an entertainment unit... after someone saw the one I made for my father.. but he wanted it fast and I had a full time job... should have tried harder on that one! truth is I was a little scared too. well.. live and learn

nice pencil holder! most people don't look for perfect dovetails, they just love the hand made look and feel.

[Jim Koepke]

It is great to get paid for what you enjoy doing.

For me, dovetails are almost mesmerizing.

jtk

[Joe Tilson]

My wife usually get my stuff before I even think about selling it!

[Jim Matthews]

Yeah, but you know what you're doing.

I'm still reading those adverts in the back of Popular Mechanics,
wondering how I can turn a profit from my hobby in all my spare time...

[Adam Cruea]

Nice! What's the bottom? How is attached?

The bottom is a block of hickory that's sapwood (so white-ish) and an inch thick. That way you can drop something in and it will *probably* bounce off the bottom without any damage to the wood. It's just fitted (3.75" square) and glued up into the 4 sides. That, and it adds some heft to keep it on the desk and help it not tip over quite as easily.

And I wasn't looking to make anyone anything; the guy at work picked it up and looked at it, said "I like the color and the dovetails. . .how much?" I just said "Uhhh, $20 okay?"

Thanks, y'all. This is one of the few things I've made that I feel is worth anything and I'm actually really happy on how it turned out, especially the finish.

My wife's set up the company and she's hoping that I can build stuff for her on an ordering basis. I built a table and buffet for my wife out of Borg construction pine and everyone that's come into our house thought it was beautiful, but I think it looks like crap. *shrug* As long as the wife is happy. :)

And I would love to quit IT and just stay locked up in my workshop most days. With technology, I get annoyed about people complaining "this doesn't work, that doesn't work, I need my Blackberry to get emails at 1 in the morning!" Technology is encroaching upon life way too much and it's starting to take a toll on me and my sanity.

[Jim Neeley]

I don't "sell" my stuff... I've found it far more profitable to "amortize" my tools against my home projects by making things for mama and having our son assist. Heck, one end-grain cutting board amortized my Unisaw.. A coffee table amortized my first DC, jointer and planer; the second one amortized a G-P 5.5 drill, M-F hand braces and bits for both.

Now she wants cherry wall-to-wall (15'-18') floor-to-ceiling book cases with cabinets and drawers below and a writing surface in the middle. I'm figuring that will amortize my Clearvue, a half-dozen L-N planes and chisels, my Shaptons and upgrading my little jointer and planer to a Hammer A3-41.

To heck with cash sales; amortization is where it's at. <g> Keep her happy, life is good and I get lot of fun toys to work with... and my wood supplier will be happy with my order of several hundred BF of cherry.

[Chris Griggs]

Nice work there Adam. Getting paid is fun from time to time. I did a few repeated commissions a while back (a couple small decorative boxes), and while I got some very good money for it I was kinda glad when they dried up. There's something to be said about having a hobby, for which you have no obligation to anyone else. Sometimes the idea of getting some real training and doing more professional work seems really nice, but for me I very quickly stop enjoying my hobbies/passions when I try to make money at them, so I likely never will to a great extent.

That's just me sharing my personal experience by the way. In no way trying to discourage you from future commissions, and I will say that the first couple times I got paid were really really cool. I think I'd like to find a happy medium someday, where I have a well enough equipt shop and am good enough that I can get/do interesting commissions from time to time, but never need to take a commission I don't want to do (read: I won't quit my day job).

Anyway, again, that's just me. Congrats on making money at it....its always super cool to get paid for something that you'd typically do for free or at a loss more often than not. And very nice work on the build itself....very cleanly done!

[Matthew N. Masail]

I don't "sell" my stuff... I've found it far more profitable to "amortize" my tools against my home projects by making things for mama and having our son assist. Heck, one end-grain cutting board amortized my Unisaw.. A coffee table amortized my first DC, jointer and planer; the second one amortized a G-P 5.5 drill, M-F hand braces and bits for both.

Now she wants cherry wall-to-wall (15'-18') floor-to-ceiling book cases with cabinets and drawers below and a writing surface in the middle. I'm figuring that will amortize my Clearvue, a half-dozen L-N planes and chisels, my Shaptons and upgrading my little jointer and planer to a Hammer A3-41.

To heck with cash sales; amortization is where it's at. <g> Keep her happy, life is good and I get lot of fun toys to work with... and my wood supplier will be happy with my order of several hundred BF of cherry.

That only works if you have the funds anyway! otherwise -funding- is needed.... but Happy for you! (-: good luck with the cherry. sounds nice.

[Christopher Collins]

I've made a knife-block that looked pretty similar. Make a box like that and fill it with bamboo skewers cut to length, pointy side up. looks great, protects knife edges.

[Frederick Skelly]

Looks good Adam. Cant wait to try your 4:1 finish too!

[Adam Cruea]

Looks good Adam. Cant wait to try your 4:1 finish too!

Since there are different polys, it's probably worth mentioning I used Minwax gloss fast-drying poly. When I used a brush at 100%, it leveled well but set very quickly (and was gummy). I tried wiping on 100%, and it was better, but just set way too fast (got gummy and stayed gummy). Cutting it using 20% (ish) MS and 80% (ish) poly kept it thinned down enough to keep it from getting gummy quickly and possibly thinned it to where after about 3 to 4 hours, it wasn't gummy anymore. I didn't measure exactly, I just put it into a pint Ball jar and put in around 1 cup of MS and 4 cups of poly. The pint jar is wide enough for my paws to fully soak a rag and ring it out to damp (or slightly over-damp).