I have made several posts. I am new to this site and think it is great. It seems that many of you “know” eachother in some ways and I like the back and forth. so I thought I would say alittle about me. I live in michigan near Ann Arbor. I am a psycholgosit who is seriously considering changing or adding a career, doing furniture work full or part time. I have sold some stuff in the past. I like the aesthitic aspect of woodworking so I am not the fastest maker or most technically clever. I think I am pretty good with design. I like the process of making things as much ( or maybe more) then having made them and I like hand tools and using lumber that I have dried myself. I have a pretty good shop: General Canadian saw, Laguna bandsaw, 8″ powermatic jointer, small Hatachi planer, router table and a nice bench. I like Krenov type philosophy of woodworking althouhg I am also at least somewhat practicle as well. I have taken summer classes at different schools. I also reciently have begun to play the violin and will someday try to make a fiddle or two.
I can be somewhat absentminded and am sometimes alittle impulsive with my work. Doing things with active attention to the subtle details helps me be more grounded and thoughtful in my furniturmaking and life in general.
I guress thats about it.
Peter Lynch
Replies
Uh, If I may give you a little advice. Assuming you are successfully employed in the field of psychology, I'd hold onto that job until you saw how the woodworking enterprise was doing. By the way, how do you like the Laguna bandsaw and PM jointer? I am considering those two machines.
Peter
And are you nuts! I hope you have a college that you can go see on a regular bases, cause if you make the switch your gonna need it!
Oh, welcome
Doug
Peter,
I apprecite your enthusiam about the field of woodworking, but coming from someone who's been at it for 17 years and 6 of those years being self-employment, I think you'd be crazy to switch professions, unless you're prepared for more grey hair and a big pay cut.
It's one thing in this business to be a craftsman, but it's another to be a business man too. It's very difficult to be both.
Working for someone, "just as an idea", you'd be lucky to make $15.00 an hour, if you were experienced. Top pay for most of the big cities without going union is about $20-25.00 an hour.
If you have kids and a family, I'd take serious consideration to what your family thinks. This is a risky, cut-throat business and if someone can steal your clients, they will. You will also find that people want a lot and for very little.
You'll also find those same people are driving a Lexus, beamer, etc and live in a million dollar home. That's also why they live in million dollar home.
When being in this business for a living, you need to put away your pride and do what it takes to make money, or you'll never survive.
Also, NEVER and I mean NEVER give your drawings away! Many people will even try to copy what you have on another piece of paper without you even realizing it.
I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the point. I know I'm not alone in this and I'm sure other business owners will chime in too.
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