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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Denver
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    497

    making money at woodworking

    I am trying to develop the skills so that when I retire ... in about 15 years, I can make some extra money doing something that I really enjoy. I would like to benefit from the experience of The Creek to understand where the money is in woodworking. Here are some thoughts that I hope that you will add to:

    1. Building and installing cabinets. I find it hard to understand where there is money to be made here, since you can go to any number of cabinet companies and order pre-made cabinets in so large of a variety.

    2. Building furniture. Same as above.

    3. Building custom -- very high end -- cabinets ... those that cannot be purchased. I don't really understand what this would mean ... again, because of the variety of cabinets available.

    4. Building "fine" furniture. How do you find the market and what is fine furniture, and why does it command a price high enough to make money?

    OK, so those are my novice thoughts. Can you help me out here?

  2. #2
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    Dec 2006
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    Make money at wood work? Who ever heard of that?Make money, buy more tools to make more money so I can buy more tools.
    What you listen to is your business....what you hear is ours.

  3. #3
    It's not an easy thing to do Ray. Most woodworkers never break even. I think that you have to come up with something unique, and or be able to market yourself and product so that it will make people perceive value and worth. If you can get your material as cheap as you can, and make the process as efficient as possible, you'll have a good start.

  4. #4
    Let me preface this by saying woodworking is not my profession....

    The way to make money ( with anything you do ) is establish a VALUE for your work. It will be difficult to succeed in a small shop with clients that first and foremost are concerned with price. Finding the right clientele would be the key to say, custom cabinets.

    In my house for example, there are not many choices for my TV/Entertainment center, so that would be a custom cabinet / furniture situation.

  5. #5
    Well, this isn't really an answer to your question, but there's the story of the woodworker who won $3.5 million in the lottery. When asked what he was going to do now, he replied, "I think I'll keep doing woodworking until the money runs out."

    Mike
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Denver
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    Yeah, I have sometimes thought that maybe I could come up with something unique and sell it at craft fairs. I saw a crafts fair last year where someone was selling adirondack chairs and tables, and they were not very well done. I thought that if he could do it with such poor quality, then I could probably do it, too.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Colfax, CA
    Posts
    50

    woodworker and pizza

    A fellow woodworker asked me " What's the difference between a woodworker and a pizza ?" I said I didn't know.

    He said a pizza can feed a family of four !

    Like the others said " you need sonething unique ."

    Louis

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Forrest City Arknasas
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    195
    Greetings & Salutations,

    I am retired and have some of the same thoughts about
    making some extra money.

    I have built some lawn furniture such as porch swings and
    some unique 2 piece lawn chairs that I have been able to
    make a bit of profit on.

    There was an article recently in one of the woodworking
    mags and I would have to go thru mine to fine which on
    but it had a formula on how to price your work.

    The one key is "what is your time worth or how much do
    you want to make in a year.

    The formula worked by breaking down your labor to an hourly
    rate that would make you "x" number of dollars in a year.

    I plugged the numbers in on the Cherry Cedar Chest that I
    built for my nephew as a wedding gift and at a modest $15.00/HR
    I would need to charge $1800.00 for the chest. Included in that
    figure were shop supplies, cost of heat, air, electric and such
    along with materials.

    I also did some research on the computer and there are some
    folks that are hand making ceder chest out of fine woods and
    getting as much as $3500 or more.

    So when the opportunity came up to price one to my insurance
    agent that seen the one I already built I quickly quoted $1800.00.

    Well I didn't get that but I almost fell over when he offered $1500.00
    so guess what I said I would build it. LOL

    I would not want to go into a full time situation where I would
    have to build one right after another but rather be able to
    price out a project and work on it at my own pace.

    It does give me something to do and keeps me from roaming
    the streets at night.

    Hope this helps.

    Gene
    And to think it only took me 2 weeks 26 hours and 43 minutes to get that top flat.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Amarillo, TX
    Posts
    42
    I was a partner in a custom cabinet shop roughly 12 years ago. I started it with a very good friend of mine. We scratched together a small living for the two of us for about 5 years. We never really got ahead and made it what I would consider a success. We sold the shop at a break even price and went our seperate ways. I have since got into the ATM industry and my friend is an engineer for a rather large millwork shop in NM. I dropped of the wood radar up until last year when a friend of mine asked for some help with an entertainment center. With the few tools I had left we threw one together. I looked at it and was somewhat disappointed with my rusty skills, he was estatic.

    That is when it occured to me. I have an income that takes care of my needs. Woodworking now has a place in my life again. It gives me a sense of peace and the ability to create. Do I want to make money at it? yes ... Is it worth the potential heartache and ruin my desire to build? For me, No ...

    Just something to think about ....
    Dave
    aka The Putz

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Fort Collins, Colorado
    Posts
    447
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Burris View Post
    I was a partner in a custom cabinet shop roughly 12 years ago. I started it with a very good friend of mine. We scratched together a small living for the two of us for about 5 years. We never really got ahead and made it what I would consider a success. We sold the shop at a break even price and went our seperate ways. I have since got into the ATM industry and my friend is an engineer for a rather large millwork shop in NM. I dropped of the wood radar up until last year when a friend of mine asked for some help with an entertainment center. With the few tools I had left we threw one together. I looked at it and was somewhat disappointed with my rusty skills, he was estatic.

    That is when it occured to me. I have an income that takes care of my needs. Woodworking now has a place in my life again. It gives me a sense of peace and the ability to create. Do I want to make money at it? yes ... Is it worth the potential heartache and ruin my desire to build? For me, No ...

    Just something to think about ....
    hey Dave,

    You work for Diebold, NCR or god forbid Triton?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Amarillo, TX
    Posts
    42
    Actually I work for First Data, the former Core Data, so I have to support all of them. Keep me in your prayers, my sanity is slipping fast!!
    Dave
    aka The Putz

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Los Angeles
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    636
    If you want to make money at woodworking you need to make art pieces, not crafts. Work to get your work in to art shows.
    I've done several craft shows and my only comment about them are that the people there who are selling art pieces sell nothing because it is the wrong market, people coming to craft shows rarely spend serious money. The people who are selling crafts are pricing their items too low, IMO they are selling them at cost. The only people making money at craft shows are the ones who are selling imported asian garbage.
    My advice, and I will not be offended if you dont take it, is to take your time and make fewer but high quality art pieces. Check out some art shows and galleries to get an idea about pricing and placement. Look at the artists and talk to them, you will find that many are not artists and have just relabled imported work hoping to make a killing(avoid those shows). Some shows will want to judge your work before allowing you to present, those are the better shows.
    And most of all , Enjoy.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    SCal
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    Dennis, one heck of a post! thanks for sharing....

    I too find it ironic, how as we age, we all dream up these ww businesses (mainly in the construction trade) and somehow we dismiss how physically demanding all this work is. As Dennis mentioned, I too continually underestimate how much lifting, I do, bending, torquing my back in undesirable positions, etc. etc.

    I was glad to read a previous poster mentioned he is 27 and feels his body is falling apart. My heads-up to him is.... multiply those aches and pains by 5x if you want an estimate how 50 will feel. There is a few exceptions to the rule, those who appear like superman, as their body has healed well through the years and somehow they have rejected any arthritis genes which seems to attack the rest of us. Also, excessive sports in your youth will almost always come back and haunt you later in life. I am finally starting to come to grips with this.... those were fun years, but sheeeesh....

    Anyway, its nice to hear you are turning a profit, and maybe getting some young guns to do the heavy lifting is what you need now :-)

    With the bleak outlook on new construction in most areas of the country, this is a risky times to enter into such fields.... reality sucks...

  14. #14
    I know a few people who make a good living doing small products, but they do it mostly wholesale at a high volume. It takes a lot of time and salesmanship to develop this type of model. That's the reason I think it could be a good (semi) retirement venture.

    Custom casework is very lucrative because consumers don't have a reference point for pricing. The average person has an idea what is a reasonable price (in their mind) for a coffee table or bed is because they are bombarded with furniture flyers in the newspaper. But they can't go to a store and see 10 foot tall built-in bookcases that fit their unique wall space. My core business is custom closets, with a lot of interesting custom projects thown in. Sure, you can go to Lowes or HD and buy the stuff and do it yourself for a fraction of what I charge, but those are not my customers. My customer is the person who can afford my product, doesn't have do it yourself skills, and doesn't have the time or interest to deal with it themselves.

    So it works for me. I am no different from anyone else. I would prefer to build humidors, jewelry boxes, clocks, etc in my shop all day and ship the product to the customer for a handsome proffit. But I haven't figured out how to do this and feed the family yet. I think it's part luck and a lot of perseverance.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Portland Oregon
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    105
    Quote Originally Posted by Dennis Montgomery View Post

    I would prefer to build humidors, jewelry boxes, clocks, etc in my shop all day and ship the product to the customer for a handsome proffit.
    The key word here is "ship". Right now our Asian woodworking pals can still ship small stuff cheap, so I think it would be tough competition. I'm no futurist but with rising oil prices it may get real expensive to ship from Asia to the USA. That could mean less foreign competition for woodworkers in the USA.
    Last edited by Dennis Peacock; 04-12-2008 at 3:16 PM.

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