Latest Work

[Chris Barton]

Here is the latest piece from my workshop. This is a comissioned piece made of cherry using Minwax "Red Mahogany" finish with several coats of shelac tinted with "reddish brown" Transtint and a few coats of Mylands "Mahogany" paste wax...

Chris

[Dan Oliphant]

Chris,
Great looking unit, the various "mahogany" colorings look very well matched in the photo. Question, what is the top drawer going to be used for? Looks like the only thing possible would be silverware.
By the way, I like the design option of having that single door between your two rollup doors. What does that make the total width of the opening? Something like 28 feet?

[Chris Barton]

Thanks Dan! Here is a picture of the pull out which the customer wanted as a writing surface. My basement has two double wide rool up garage doors, so that equals... I don't know exactly. It does make loading easy!


Thanks Again,

Chris

[Corey Hallagan]

Beautiful piece Chris. I love the color of it. Looks great!

Corey

[Jim Becker]

Very impressive piece, Chris. Great job!

[Alan Turner]

Nice work. Is that your design, or is it after another?

[John Renzetti]

Hi Chris, Very nice work. You a great job staining and finishing the cherry.
take care,
John

[Dave Tinley]

Chris-
Super looking project.
If you dont mind sharing, how many hours do you have in the project??

Thanks
Dave

[Martin Lutz]

Great looking work! YOur client should be very pleased.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Beautiful piece Chris!

[John Gregory]

Great work. Thanks for sharing

[Chris Barton]

Hi Everybody,


Thanks for the good words and encouragement! I turely believe this is what makes SMC so much fun; sharing our work and patting eachother on the back. As to Dave's question about time into the project: best I can figure about 80 hours. Which, brings up another point (or problem). We all like to show off our work and usually when we do so with friends or family we get the inevidible request, "could you make a table, bookshelve, cabinet, etc... for me? I can't afford to go out and buy the same thing from a furniture store." I get this alot and I don't think people know that we hobby woodworkers can't compete pricewise on these requests. How do you address this kind of question?

Thanks,

Chris

[lou sansone]

great piece and nice design. I bet the pictures do not do it justice. keep up the good work.

regards

lou

[Jason Tuinstra]

Chris, there are two kinds of people: those who stain cherry, and those who don't. Suffice it to say, I'm in the later category :D :p . BUT, if I were to stain cherry, that's how I'd want it to look! Very nice job. I'm sure your client is going to be very satisfied. It looks like you put a lot of work into it. Thanks for showing it off.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Add another attaboy, Chris. That's a nice job, and whoever is getting to own it is lucky indeed.

- Vaughn

[Bill Arnold]

... We all like to show off our work and usually when we do so with friends or family we get the inevidible request, "could you make a table, bookshelve, cabinet, etc... for me? I can't afford to go out and buy the same thing from a furniture store." I get this alot and I don't think people know that we hobby woodworkers can't compete pricewise on these requests. How do you address this kind of question? ...Chris,

First, very nice job on your cabinet. Although I don't use stain on cherry, you did a great job of matching the color.

On the pricing issue, I tell folks up front what to expect, whether it's family or the next door neighbor. Custom furniture is NOT cheaper than K-Mart or Lowe's or whatever. I've chatted with a couple of guys who aim to compete with the furniture store prices -- good luck! I'm not even going there. I haven't lost any friends yet by being honest with them about the pricing for custom work.

Regards,

[Norman Hitt]

Hi Everybody,


As to Dave's question about time into the project: best I can figure about 80 hours. Which, brings up another point (or problem). We all like to show off our work and usually when we do so with friends or family we get the inevidible request, "could you make a table, bookshelve, cabinet, etc... for me? I can't afford to go out and buy the same thing from a furniture store." I get this alot and I don't think people know that we hobby woodworkers can't compete pricewise on these requests. How do you address this kind of question?

Thanks,

Chris

Looks Great Chris. A method I've used successfully three or four times, (with some Freeloading type friends and Relatives)went as follows; (we'll use your 80 hr time estimate), "Sure I can make you one, and I'll make you a real deal". You will need to give me "X...$" so I can go buy the materials (and be sure to include $50 to $75 extra to cover electricity and wear & tear on the tools), and then we'll swap out the labor. I'll build your .........., and since I Hate yard work, :D if you will mow and edge my lawn 80 times, we'll call it even.

I haven't had one take me up on it yet, and they just kinda drop the subject. I even tried to get one of them to prep and paint my house in exchange :D , but they didn't take me up on it either.

Now if you really want to do the project for someone, that's a whole 'nuther ballgame with a thousand different negotiating avenues, BUT, even though you enjoy doing the projects, it's Still "Your Time and Expertise" they're asking for, and if they're not willing to give "something" of equal value in return, (either money or time), in my opinion, they just shouldn't ask.

Again, Very nice project, and Good Luck with your answers to the queries, as I'm sure there will be Many, with Your quality of work.

[Norman Hitt]

Hi Everybody,


As to Dave's question about time into the project: best I can figure about 80 hours. Which, brings up another point (or problem). We all like to show off our work and usually when we do so with friends or family we get the inevidible request, "could you make a table, bookshelve, cabinet, etc... for me? I can't afford to go out and buy the same thing from a furniture store." I get this alot and I don't think people know that we hobby woodworkers can't compete pricewise on these requests. How do you address this kind of question?

Thanks,

Chris

Looks Great Chris. A method I've used successfully three or four times, (with some Freeloading type friends and Relatives)went as follows; (we'll use your 80 hr time estimate), "Sure I can make you one, but Custom Woodwork is not cheaper than buying at the store due to the cost of better materials and the labor involved, but I'll make you a deal that will save you some money but will cost you some time". If you will give me "X...$ up front" so I can go buy the materials (and be sure to include $50 to $75 extra to cover electricity and wear & tear on the tools), then we'll swap out the labor. I'll build you a .........., and since I Hate yard work anyway, :D if you will mow and edge my lawn 80 times, we'll call it even.

I haven't had one take me up on it yet, and they just kinda drop the subject. I've also been known to mention to them later that I was still looking for a yard man, and it usually got a grin, but no takers. I think I made my point. One time, I even tried to get one of them to prep and paint my house in exchange :D , but they didn't take me up on it either. :(

Now if you really want to do the project for someone, that's a whole 'nuther ballgame with a thousand different negotiating avenues, BUT, even though you enjoy doing the projects, it's Still "Your Time and Expertise" they're asking for, and if they're not willing to give "something" of equal value in return, (either money or time), in my opinion, they just shouldn't ask.

Again, Very nice project, and Good Luck with your answers to the queries, as I'm sure there will be Many, with Your quality of work.

[Jeff A. Smith]

The stain part I get... but you add tint to what kind of shellac? Clear? And the trans-tint -- I assume it's their alcohol-based dye?

That is really an impressive finish -- reminds me of the proprietary Bob Timberlake finish which I have sought to duplicate.

Jeff Smith
Athens, AL

[Effie Lever]

Great looking piece Chris, it will probably going to take me twice the time it took you to complete it. As for friends and family requests, I don’t have this problem, they all know how busy I am. If you have a family, a full time job, a house and few hobbies you don’t need to explain.

Effie

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice job and excellent finishing! I usually go BLO, Shellac and a topcoat sometimes But I like the look you achieved. You should be proud!!!

[Gail O'Rourke]

Chris this is a beautiful piece, really gorgeous. I love the pull out writing table and the glass door. What thickness to you use for the glass? Do you insert it into the frame or put it in with clips so that it is removable?

Re: friends and family

My first reply is "wouldn't that be nice"

If they continue to ask...I always say, cut some pages out of magazines and show me what you had in mind. This tells me the price they are looking at as well as quality

Then, I have the option of saying "$500.00 for that potter barn piece is a great price, I couldn't make it for that." and then if I do want the work I would say

"However, I could make it custom size and color...you could get exactly what you wanted...but it would be a little more...like..."

I try to include a Family and Friends discount on the estimate, so that they know what I would charge others for and then see their actual discount.

Hope that helps.

Gail

[Keith Foster]

Beautiful work.

As to the friends and relatives...
I get this all the time in my "real" work, which is building computers. When they ask I tell them up front that I'm not Dell, HP, Compaq, or Gateway. My systems are custom built and I don't compete on price - only value and service. End result is that I build about 50 systems a year and make a tidy profit on each.
If I were to apply this "moto" to woodworking, I'd just change the names to IKEA, Wal-Mart, and Garden Ridge. Trust me, your friends and relatives know which piece is better - otherwise they wouldn't have asked to begin with.

I will say I like the yard mowing trade off idea - I like that a lot!:D

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Very, very nice work! I love that color. We just bought a rustic Armoire (no time to build one) for the new house and Jana wants it stained in the same color...unless I can talk her into another contrasting color as well for the panels on the doors.

[John Lucas]

My first reply is "wouldn't that be nice"

If they continue to ask...I always say, cut some pages out of magazines and show me what you had in mind. This tells me the price they are looking at as well as quality

Then, I have the option of saying "$500.00 for that potter barn piece is a great price, I couldn't make it for that." and then if I do want the work I would say

"However, I could make it custom size and color...you could get exactly what you wanted...but it would be a little more...like..."
Gail

Gail's is the most practical answer...also, let them know the type of money you are getting for the paid work. An answer such as this: "I've got hundreds of hours into this piece...that plus the wood puts this piece in the price range of $12,000 (or whatever.")

Now what I want to know is how you took only 80 hours to make this piece. That is so very low in my book. In fact, I think it would take me that long to find some of the tools and jigs. But, your work is so very good. Thanks for posting.

[Lee DeRaud]

Now what I want to know is how you took only 80 hours to make this piece.You put the pieces out each night and hope Norm's elves are prowling the neighborhood. :cool:

[Dan Forman]

Beautiful piece. Like the pull out writing surface.

Dan

[Chris Padilla]

Hey Chris,

You got a little squeeze-out when you glued the top to the drawer section...a sharp chisel carefully wielded will clean that up lickity-split quick! ;)

BTW, awesome piece!

[Robby Phelps]

I'll add my compliments of a project well done. I especially like the proportions. You mentioned that it was a commission piece... do you mind us asking what you sold it for?

Again nice work and keep us all posted on more of your projects.

[Mark Singer]

Really well done! Great work!!!!