I am a hobby guy operating out of a 3-car garage (or car-hole as one of my friends likes to call them) with a fairly well appointed shop with a mix of new / used gear. Some quick mental adding has me somewhere in the $20K range.
I am a hobby guy operating out of a 3-car garage (or car-hole as one of my friends likes to call them) with a fairly well appointed shop with a mix of new / used gear. Some quick mental adding has me somewhere in the $20K range.
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
-Bill Watterson
Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.
-W. C. Fields
I'm somewhere in the 6-figure range... and the list of associated "hobbies" keep growing.
Hi-Tec Designs, LLC -- Owner (and self-proclaimed LED guru )
Trotec 80W Speedy 300 laser w/everything
CAMaster Stinger CNC (25" x 36" x 5")
USCutter 24" LaserPoint Vinyl Cutter
Jet JWBS-18QT-3 18", 3HP bandsaw
Robust Beauty 25"x52" wood lathe w/everything
Jet BD-920W 9"x20" metal lathe
Delta 18-900L 18" drill press
Flame Polisher (ooooh, FIRE!)
Freeware: InkScape, Paint.NET, DoubleCAD XT
Paidware: Wacom Intuos4 (Large), CorelDRAW X5
Once I sat down to do counting of major things (not all those little tid bits you buy from LV or other places that are in the drawers).
I stopped when I passed $50k mark and that was long time ago. On the bright side my shop has paid for itself at least 4 folds in the new house projects I have done over the last 2 years.
I've never really added up what I have spent, but it has been spread out over nearly 40 years, with the bulk of purchasing in the last 10-15 years. But I never looked at it from the standpoint of "Can I save money if I make it myself?". It is a hobby, an escape for me. I don't smoke, drink very little, and most importantly, gave up golf MANY years ago since I was so horrible at it! That alone can probably justify the expense of the woodworking expenditures, and maybe more.
I tried to calculate these numbers for this woodworking hobby for myself, but don't know where to reference regarding prices. For instance, I am in the process of building built-in bookcases for our home. It's a few moderate to large-scale projects, at least for me anyhow. I just don't have any idea how much a professional carpenter charge for it. My wife says buy all the tools I want because I am saving us money otherwise spent on commissioning professional contractors. So, how does one estimate?
The cost of the tools will equipment is scary I have one drawer full of freeborn shaper cutters I would guess well over $3000 to replace
Thanks John
Don't take life too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway!
Who's counting. Everything that you enjoy in life will cost.
Army Veteran 1968 - 1970
I Support the Second Amendment of the US Constitution
For an estimate of avoided expense of purchasing furniture, I usually assume about 4X the material cost. I've tried doing a more detailed comparison a couple times and that seems like a reasonable rule-of-thumb. Obviously if the piece is intricate and/or the materials are expensive, this could be off.
I would expect more than that. 5x or more would be more in the realm of what I would have to pay to replace my projects it seems. Even more if you would claim that you have to justify it with a custom piece since you had a certain look or size that isn't achieved with normal furniture dealer pieces.
I built a blanket chest as a wedding gift to a friend of mine, with about $75 worth of wood and another $50 in hardware, and the closest I could find comparable examples for were going for $700-800. And, they were still a lot more simple than what I did.
The last time I actually tracked this was when I made 2 Morris chairs and footstools.
The material cost was under $1,000, the cost of purchasing the furniture was $6,000 plus 15% sales tax.................Regards, Rod.