Woodworking for a living

[Erik Loza]

No opinion here except to say that the most successful "bespoke" furniture makers (as opposed to those who are doing primarily cabinetry) I have as customers are either extremely savvy about marketing, themselves, or have a dedicated social media person. They have slick websites, IG, FB, Youtube, etc. You won't find them on CL or the FB Marketplace. Someone mentioned earlier that it is more about sales know-how than about woodworking. I would amend that to say it is more about "social media marketing" know-how than sales or woodworking know-how.

Erik

[Todd Trebuna]

Hobby for me. Been hobbying for 30 years. I'm in full time Law Enforcement, so it offers a needed break from the reality of my job and frankly, my family. I raised three daughters, two of which developed various health problems, so the one place where there wasn't stress was the garage. I have the best wife in the world, so she never ever says do you really need that or do you really want that, despite having a garage full of nice tools that get used occasionally. I basically justify my purchases, knowing that in less than 10 years I won't be able to whim buy and while I can, I'm going to outfit my kit.

[Jim Becker]

I basically justify my purchases, knowing that in less than 10 years I won't be able to whim buy and while I can, I'm going to outfit my kit.

That's kinda the track I took a number of years ago...circumstances allowed me to put together a shop that was more of a "dream" shop than it had been and I took the opportunity to do so, knowing that post retirement, all bets would be off for that kind of investment. The kids came after that, too, so the timing was fortuitous! I had already learned some hard financial lessons from previous purchases before I "knew better", and didn't make those same errors, for the most part, when stuff got replaced.

[Alex Zeller]

I learned long ago it's the salesman who makes the money. The person doing the actual work might make a living but the salesman is the person who will get the most money for something based on what they see in the customer. Let's face it. You could make the most outstanding furniture but if you can't read the customer and adjust to how they think and what you feel is important to them then you are going to struggle. I'm a little far away from Amish country but I do have a friend in upstate NY who sells their goods. He has no clue how they make a living doing it (since he buys it so cheap) but he does very well at selling it.

Back when I was in my 20s I realized that I could repair damaged vehicles. I could buy something much newer than I otherwise could afford, repair it, and then sell it for a nice profit after driving it for a few months. I always had at least two, the one I was driving and the one I was repairing. But those days are gone now. Too many people who are willing to do the work for nothing has driven up the price of wrecked vehicles.

After decades of being out of woodworking I'm a hobbyist and have no desires to do anything more than that. My goal is to produce some nice stuff for family and friends that hopefully will be around in 100 years, long after I'm gone. I have a minimum of 5 years left of working for a living so now is the time to buy the tools I want. I've heard professionals (plenty here) who say they want industrial equipment that they can set and forget. Time spent setting up a tool and then repeatedly checking and adjusting is a "no value add". It doesn't make money. I can take the time. The only real pressure on me is if it's a gift, like a B-day or Christmas with a set date. Even then if I miss it so what.

I know several people who do woodworking for a living and most of their tools are much nicer/ more expensive than mine. None of them would let anything from Grizzly step foot in their shops. All of their shops are in the middle of nowhere and they meet with the potential customer with books of photos of their work. When the work is there they can bid a higher price for new work but rarely can they pass stuff up as they also know when the work dries up they need to hunker down while they try to find a new job. Surprisingly it's not based on the economy. When things go south they tend to get work from people who have money or a safe job who want to do some upgrades to their house. I respect them but I would never want to count on it for a living.

[andy bessette]

I learned long ago it's the salesman who makes the money... I'm a little far away from Amish country but I do have a friend in upstate NY who sells their goods. He has no clue how they make a living doing it (since he buys it so cheap) but he does very well at selling it...

One can make a case for choosing a career as a re-seller, exploiting the labor of others, rather than actually creating something with your own talent and labor.

Back to woodworking for a living... in case someone is interested in the machinery aspect, I'll post some photos of my shop machines. First, one of my Unisaws, with carbide rip blade, married to contractors saw with 1/2" carbide dado. Out-feed table is 48" x 96" and is an important assembly bench. Adjacent is 10" General International jointer with helical cutter-head.
Second photo shows another Unisaw, with carbide combination blade, married to table-mounted 3-1/2 hp Stanley router. Adjacent to that is a Craftsman radial arm saw, another essential shop machine used almost exclusively for 90 degree crosscuts.
Third photo shows 3 of my 4 bandsaws, a 16" MiniMax, with 1/4" blade, a 20 Agazzani with 1" carbide blade, and an 18" Vectrax with metal-cutting blade. In the foreground are shaper and drum sander. Behind the Vectrax is Delta dust collector.
Fourth photo shows my drill press station.
Fifth photo is thickness plane with portable air compressor.

[Tom Alison]

Regarding tool selection, I think it is critical to be able to identify those tools that can save you time in your production process. One of my customers who sands & refinishes wood floors for a living recently purchased a $6,000.00 floor sander, he said what would normally take him 3 days to sand, he can do in one day now. I agree with Brian, quality tools are cheaper in the long run, break-downs and trouble shooting can be a real time suck to your bottom line!!

[Warren Lake]

its a gold mine so quit your six figure day job and get over to lee valley and get started.

Did you see dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey asks "what are my chances of a guy like me ended up with a girl like you" she says one in a million, he is ecstatic he has a chance

Then if you look at Jims own life or Arnolds or others they knew they would do it from very young.





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[Bruce King]

I stumbled a across this, very interesting
https://www.colonialsociety.org/publ...kers-1650-1860

[Bruce King]

its a gold mine so quit your six figure day job and get over to lee valley and get started.

Did you see dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey asks "what are my chances of a guy like me ended up with a girl like you" she says one in a million, he is ecstatic he has a chance

Then if you look at Jims own life or Arnolds or others they knew they would do it from very young.





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Did the Ashley furniture guy start out making furniture or just the business side of it?

On another thought, with the exception of a few that work their way into furniture building the vast majority of high earners do carpentry work such as cranking out closet systems, commercial displays etc. as a one man shop with a helper.

[Andrew Hughes]

Ashley furniture out near me sells very low quality furniture.
Calling it furniture is questionable.
Ikea sells a higher quality product

[Mark Bolton]

Ashley furniture out near me sells very low quality furniture.
Calling it furniture is questionable.
Ikea sells a higher quality product

Same here. But in this area now there are only 2-3 choices for furniture period and they are all pretty much either low quality/mass produced, or uber heavy solid clunky, or the ultimate con-job of Amish made (if made is even applicable). Finding anything of reasonable quality and long lasting even in upholstered is pretty much impossible unless you travel.

[Ronald Blue]

Interesting read. Interesting views. If you are in business then a machine needs to meet some requirements. But if that can be done without a huge cash outlay then it's a win. I have no intention of doing any type of wood working for a living. Only for pleasure. However I watch the used tool market and have picked up a few items worth the money. I can afford to buy high end stuff but would never do it because it isn't me. I did get a steel almost a year ago on a CaMaster Stinger 3 X3 CNC router. It's a 4x8 capable machine. Half of new price. I've not had time to use it a lot but plan to change that soon. I'm thinking I'm going to pull the plug on full time work. Probably within the next year. To many have worked their whole life and then retired and were gone 6 months later. I don't want to be one of them. I have a Craftsman zip code saw that was given to me that at this time meets my needs I watch for nicer cabinet saws but they either are to far away or not what I want. I might spring for something new but it will have to be because my freebie doesn't get the job done. I did buy a sliding attachment from a fellow creeker but haven;t installed it yet. If it had a better fence I would have little complaint at this time. I appreciate good tools but they have to fill a need that I have. I fully understand that if you are making your living with them you need solid quality tools.