Saturday, 26 January 2008

• I'm Officially a Woodworker... Again.

  I deleted most of the text from the previous entry as it was so negative, and that's not what I need in my life right now (or ever for that matter). Suffice to say I didn't take turning 49 very well. But enough about that. Please refrain from encouraging comments of wisdom. I don't want to hear it and it's the very reason I didn't allow comments for that entry. That said...

   

  I jumped back on my feet in short time and commited to doing only woodworking. Those of you who follow my blog probably saw this coming for some time now. I moved my website to a new address - www.aworkofwood.com - and added a personal message to all the visitors that I am now a woodworker. I also dumped a couple of thousand into woodworking tools and have yet to dump a few thousand more over the next couple of months. Then I copy/pasted my website directly into an add at chicago.craigslist.org and waited for the phone to ring, as I continued working on the woodworking project I'm currently involved with. Here's a picture of it from a couple of weeks ago.

   

  

  The project is actually a lot farther along than this. The doors are installed and the upper doors are trimmed for a perfect fit. I'll get a more up to date photo later and post it. I built this unit using solid maple combined with birch faced plywood. It's to get painted and maple will provide a durable yet smooth finish.

   

  It's taking a long time because it's a learning process, but it's allowing me to cover most of the bases I haven't had the opportunity to experience before now, such as mortise and tenon joinery, and perfect fitting flush doors.

   

  I used my website as the add in CraigsList and, until yesterday, I pretty much gave up on expecting a flood of business. But then I got a call from a fellow named Dimitri, who lives in a subdivision in Glenview - one of the North Shore suburbs where I've been wanting to get a foothold since working for the stair company a couple of years ago. He had a guy build some shelving units and a matching desk for his home office, but the guy had a family emergency and couldn't complete the project. Yet to be done are some simple shelves for the cabinets, the drawers for the desk, and a few miscelaneous details. The guy did decent work - not quite up to my high standards, but the customer is happy and that's what's most important. I have to get back to Dimitri with a price to finish the project and I plan on landing this one for sure. What makes this an especailly good thing is that I can tell the customer is the type who will refer me to a lot more business - just something I've learned to tell in my couple of decades dealing with people in a business environment.

   

  Today I recieved another call as a result of my ad at CraigsList - a general contractor who does a lot of North Shore work. I haven't returned his call yet because I like to think these things through before making initial contact. But the project he's inquiring about is to build a custom bathroom vanity cabinet. He will also need other custom projects for other of his clients, but coming from a general contractor, I consider that to be a carrot on a stick. Yes, there may be more work on the horizon, or maybe he just wan't a special price with the possibility of more work in the future. I'm not going to play the carrot on a stick game, but at the same time, I do want to make sure he's happy with my work. Hmmmm... Just thinking aloud.

   

  Here's some of the tools I bought...

   

  
  Shop Fox 6" Joiner (extended for long lumber)

   

  
  Bosch 10" Table Saw with Gravity Rise Stand

   

  
  Fein MultiMaster for detail work

   

  
  Porter Cable Biscuit Joiner for doing...

   

  this..

   

  

   

  and this..

   

  

   

  and this..

   

  

   

  I made 3 of these big boards for the top of the lower cabinets, the back panel between the upper and lower cabinets, and the bottom of the upper cabinets.

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