How to make money from woodworking?

[RobinBHM]

I think there are very few if any cabinetmakers making free standing furniture for a living. However there is a definite market for fitted furniture: bedroom, living room and kitchen.

It is possible for a one man band to compete against Sharps, Neville Johnson etc, especially if they can work from a home workshop with minimal overheads. The Festool type track saws that are available now can allow cacassing to be made in even the smallest workshop.

 

[marcros]

I think the op was looking more for ideas to sell at craft fairs or similar, rather than to make a living. Probably looking for an outlet for the fruits of his labour as much as trying to meet an hourly rate for the weekend.

 

[Rhossydd]

I think the op was looking more for ideas to sell at craft fairs or similar, rather than to make a living.

that's what he said ;-) The problem is that what sells at craft fairs and the like might not be the sort of projects you'd choose to make for pleasure. Then it just becomes drudgery to offset expenditure, which would seem to defeat the whole point of taking woodwork up as a hobby anyway.

Then there's issues of CE marks, being able to prove the safety of finishes etc. Not impossible, but judging by the protracted threads these issues generate here occasionally, it's the legalese that stops it being as simple as 'make it, sell it'
Sellers at boot fairs might not ask too many questions, but they also don't pay much money either.

I'd suggest that picking up tools at boot fairs, refurbishing them and selling them on eBay could be more profitable than actual woodwork for the 'weekend warrior'.

 

[marcros]

I agree that you can probably make more from buying and selling tools and/or machines even.

 

[Krysstel]

Having been dragged to a few craft fairs in various places before Christmas I have seen a variety of people selling items they have made. Most of it tends to be turned bowls or bandsawn boxes.

Chopping boards are another one. I saw one bloke lay down £120 for a chopping board that was basically a 2' by 1' Waney Edged board that was 1" Thick. I asked the maker about their process and aside from not revealing their secret finishing recipes they admitted that the board was just drum sanded and finished.

I was in Berlin just before Christmas and in the biggest Christmas market there was a guy selling nothing but chopping boards and similar stuff. The medium sized long grain stripey ones went (I say "went" but I actually never saw money change hands) for 250 euros. Each. He also had small coasters for a mear 30 euros :shock: . The large, end grain chopping boards were unpriced. I would have asked questions but couldn't fight my way through the hoard of people - picture borrowed from the markets online page ! It was by far the most visited stand I saw in the whole market. Another guy was selling plain, flat beech boards for 120 euros.

Mark

 

[custard]

Even as a hobbyist, where there's no overhead component in your costing, you'll struggle to make money on anything remotely mainstream. To stand a chance you've got to get into more specialist areas where the Ikea comparison no longer exists,

-Painted or part painted furniture to precisely match the customer's existing (Farrow & Ball!) decor
-Children's furniture, chairs, desks, toy boxes. There's more of a willingness to spend a bit more if it's for kids, at least from (some) wealthier parents!
-Free standing furniture that's none the less made to non standard dimensions, the perfect occasional table for a specific alcove etc
-Waney edge/live edge furniture with all the Nakishima bells and whistles like butterfly keys, I find I can sell pretty much all I can make, the real problem is finding exceptional quality live edge boards
-Yachting furniture and fittings (cockpit tables, folding teak chairs)
-Sports and hobbies accessories (musical instrument boxes, cookery book stands, etc)

You get the picture, follow the path less travelled. But two other points,

1. If you're the average weekend woodbutcher then your skills probably aren't up to it, in which case enjoy your hobby but work hard at getting better, and the simple fact is that just making a couple of softwood spice racks each year won't get you up the learning curve to commercial standards fast enough.
2. Whatever your make it's probably only the wealthiest 10% or less of the population who will fall into your market. If that's not the circles you move in then you need a plan to contact them.

Good luck!

 

[Benchwayze]

Just buy some decent softwood, at a decent price, and make some 'Country-Kitchen' shelf units/cupboards, complete with Shaker pegs, and handles. Maybe augment your range with a stool or two, or kitchen chairs, and you're golden. ) Offload it on eBay.

If I could turn out enough of that stuff, I would finish the workshop make-over and get stuck in. Trouble is, if you build up a demand, you are stuck with working your life away! At this end of the 'coil', it's a bit too much. :mrgreen:

 

[custard]

Just buy some decent softwood, at a decent price, and make some 'Country-Kitchen' shelf units/cupboards, complete with Shaker pegs, and handles. Maybe augment your range with a stool or two, or kitchen chairs, and you're golden. ) Offload it on eBay.

If I could turn out enough of that stuff, I would finish the workshop make-over and get stuck in. Trouble is, if you build up a demand, you are stuck with working your life away! At this end of the 'coil', it's a bit too much. :mrgreen:

But the economics of this are just terrible, it'd make more financial sense to spend your weekends flipping burgers or working in a petrol station.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALE-READY-TO ... 2a4a2c2f96

Benchwayze, but there's no point in you ever making and selling furniture, you'd be way better off selling your very professional watercolours. Nice job!

 

[Silas Gull]

I'm sure you'll think of something that'll pay for a few chisels.

 

[TRITON]

Look for something that can be made reasonable quickly and employ jigs etc for small production runs. Chopping boards as suggested but look more to bottom end pricing than 250 euros :shock: Amazing what some people will buy.
But even chopping boards need a certain level of machinery.

Theres some great examples on you tube.

 

[Benchwayze]

Benchwayze, but there's no point in you ever making and selling furniture OUCHERRRR! :shock:

You'd be way better off selling your very professional watercolours. Nice job!

Errr. Thanks custard! I think!
:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[rafezetter]

I made a set of dining chairs nearly 20 years ago. I still have two of them. Theyare American Cherry and to3 months to make, as a set.

A friend of mine saw them and said, enthusiastically, "Wow, they look fantastic, that's just like what you would buy in IKEA".

The only reason I didn't bludgeon him to death there and then is that I realised that he meant it as a compliment.

For some strange reason we are still friends.

Still might be worth "accidentally" spilling your pint over him at least once, just to clear the ether...

 

[rafezetter]

Trying to sell home made furniture seems doomed to failure too. Just the timber costs are greater than most people buy flat packs for

I was at a friends over Xmas and he was talking about me making him a large coffee table with storage similar to one he already had but in dark wood and larger...

"A bit like this he said..." and showed me a brochure of a place in wales that imports mangowood furniture and treats them natural / light / dark - the coffee table (more box really) was around 4ft wide x 2ft deep and 1.5 ft high with 9 drawers in.

The price was about £250, DELIVERED.

He wanted it cheaper than that.

It's the same guy I made that stand for I posted in "last thing you made" (or in my photo bucket, link at bottom: Paul's Stand) - he said I should pick something online he could buy me as a thank you, "for £20 or so", not much more to say really....

He's not even a cheapskate, he just so ensconced in the "flat pack generation" as he's the same age as me, 45, he has no understanding of what's involved, not even after reading my detailed description of how I made it.

Incidentally I didn't pick anything as I figured every time I saw it, I'd just be annoyed by it.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I have turned a hobby into a business once (electronics/automation), and would resist the temptation to do it again. As a hobby, it is always fun or you wouldn't be doing it. As a job, you have to do it, and it soon looses the joy. And the fixed cost overheads (like insurance etc) mean you can only be competitive by working full time (or more).

There's been a few mentions of chopping boards. I rather enjoyed making one for myself. My niece wanted one like it, and so I made 5 for family at christmas. Strips of steamed beech, glued together, planed flat, corners rounded, groove and well carved, by hand. By number 5, I was still working on Christmas eve, and not enjoying it nearly so much as I did number 1 !

 

[cusimar9]

Having just bought a new kitchen it's clear there would be good money to be made in bespoke kitchens. Magnet quoted me about £15k+ for a kitchen with oak doors, I nearly fell off my chair!

 

[PortersWood]

With the cost of timber it's almost worth buying solid wood flat pack just to use the wood for something else let alone try and turn a profit as a weekend woodworker. I certainly have given up on the idyllic dream of selling on the occasional piece of furniture to cover materials costs and a little towards the tool fund.

Personally I make little boxes as the wife likes them and I know I can move them on. My desire to make furniture has had to be scaled back to items for my own house and friends and family who at least appreciate the difference between hand made and mass produced.

I have so much respect for those who make a living this way.

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

It's the same guy I made that stand for I posted in "last thing you made" (or in my photo bucket, link at bottom: Paul's Stand) - he said I should pick something online he could buy me as a thank you, "for £20 or so", not much more to say really....

He's not even a cheapskate, he just so ensconced in the "flat pack generation" as he's the same age as me, 45, he has no understanding of what's involved, not even after reading my detailed description of how I made it.

Incidentally I didn't pick anything as I figured every time I saw it, I'd just be annoyed by it.

It's a nice stand, I am sure you enjoyed making it and your friend is enjoying using it.

Pick yourself something nice that you would not justify £20 on, a marking knife, dovetail gauge whatever and enjoy it.

just an idea.

 

[heimlaga]

I have found that for a person working in the building trade it is possible to get a decent side income making the odd one off door and wondow and piece of joinery and built in furniture. The basis is that there are no marketing costs and that you do not have to be the lowest bidder if you get the job done when it is needed. It is not worth the effort for a site foreman or a house owner to spend a full day searching for the lowest bidder on a job that takes two days work and then wait 8 months for delivery with all the delays it may cause to the project. It is easier for them to just ask "the guy who makes joinery at home" and pay a prize that maybe is 30 or 50 or 50 percent higher and get the job done next week.
Some understand this and some don't.... but I don't have to work for those who don't want to pay.
There isn't much money in it but with minimized costs I can make a small profit. Barely enough to make it worth the effort.
Minimizing costs is an art in itself.

 

[Mark A]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALE-READY-TO ... 2a4a2c2f96

A lot of stuff like this is imported from Malaysia and Indonesia. Likewise, so are the driftwood ornaments and dangly things sold in the shabby chic/seasidy boutiques around where I live.

I've looked into making some of it myself because the style is so popular right now, but there's no way I can compete with southeast Asian MDF imports.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There are people selling "Cornish" made silver jewelry - my geography must be dreadful, I didn't realise that Cornwall was actually a part of India.