Woodworking: for Love or Money?

[hazmat]

<font color="blue">The "bible" is Feirer's "Cabinetmaking and Millwork"
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The local library consortium has a couple copies available. I'll be picking it up tonight. There are 1967 &amp; 1982 versions.

I think the wife is getting a little bit interested in the endeavor. She was flipping thru one of the magazines I picked up and really liked their rolling mitre saw stand w/ fold down wings. Norm's mother of all mitre saw stand/cabinet show was on this weekend, but I forgot to set the VCR timer (we were out of town) [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

I'll have to look into the refurb / refinish route as well.

Thanks for all the feedback. It is good to hear other's prospective.

I know that if I put a $$ value on my free time that I can't compete with a furniture manufacturer. However, If I spend that time building furniture instead of my other money sucking hobbies (skiing, sailing &amp; kayaking &amp; camping) I'm probably ahead. It all depends on how creative you want to do the accounting.

[hazmat]

<font color="blue">Norm's mother of all mitre saw stand/cabinet show was on this weekend, but I forgot to set the VCR timer (we were out of town) </font color>

Just checked the Yankee Workshop web page. I missed the workbench show that I wanted to catch. The mitre stand is on next weekend. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Hazmat, I agree pretty much with what everyone said so far. If it is purely economics, it might not be a good investment of your time or money. I have made up to about $0.05/hour DIY but can get more enjoyment, or better stuff for my purpose. If you like DIY, it is easy to justify. Can't recall the name of the book or whatever but there was a good one on 2x4 furniture. Some pretty neat stuff that didn't require a lot of expensive materials, highly developed skills, or a "New Yankee Workshop" full of tools or Norm as a consultant.

A minority report: Be darned careful with advice to buy cheap tools. Better to have fewer tools that are of decent quality that a shop full of stuff that is imprecise or floppy and weak, or won't give reliable reproducible results. Miracle 10 in one or a hundred in one tools, even the high dollar quallity ones are a pain in the rear and require an inordinate amount of time to be invested in playing with the transformer toy and not wood working. If you were say, building 10 wooden horses for kids to ride, you would do all you could then transforn the tool, do the next set of operations, then xform the tool etc. If you are building just one, it becomes much less attractive. If you just walk in the shop and need to do something, you can bet Murphy's britches the transformer toy all in one tool will be set up as the wrong thing. They can be nice, if you have the patience and the time or if you find a good price on used ones and buy 3 or 4. I carry a Leatherman tool on my belt over 90% of the time. It is not the best knife, screwdriver, file, pliers or anything else except it is in my hand and transformed to the right tool in just a few seconds. Multi purpose wood working tools, in theory, follow that concept but in practice are high overhead and more so if you are a spur of the moment person and don't plan everything in great detail, figuring the critical path and so forth.

Let us know what you do.

Pat

[TimSullivan]

I have built furniture for our home and know one thing for sure. I work real cheap. I was going to make a shaker bedroom set from plans. After I priced the good maple stock and tried to guesstimate the time for construction, I priced the pieces at Crawford furniture in Jamestown, NY. I would be working for about a dollar an hour.

You can buy the Crawford furniture for 40% off at the factory. That is first quality not damaged or left over pieces. Those you can buy even cheaper. It is two hours from our home so we call and order then grab a truck and go pick it up a few days later.

Bottom line for me is if I have the time and I want a special piece then I will build it.