Adjustment Mechanism

With the stand almost done, I have started thinking more about the adjustment mechanism.  For the tightening screw, I will need some dowel, maple for durability.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32721&cat=1,250,43217,32721

For the overall shape of the pegs, they will be modeled after tuning pegs, which is not my idea, I saw it done somewhere, but I cannot remember where.  I think that I will top the maple screw with a darker wood, possibly macassar ebony, or burmese blackwood, both of which I have on hand.

Base Joinery

Moving on to the base joinery, which consists of a kind of half-lap joint that I had never cut before.  To prepare, I read Tage Frid's primer on mortise and tenon joints, and then I cut a practice joint.  It was surprisingly easy. 

I find that chalk rubbed in the cut-lines make them more visible on dark walnut.

One down!

Marking out the thickness of the column.

Halfway done.

Unfortunately one of my joints was too tight, and while I was fitting it, it snapped.  Luckily it was easily repaired with some glue.

All done.

So far this was one of the most fun parts of the project.  Most of the work has been milling, which is slightly boring, so it was nice that I was finally able to do some real joinery.  Iwas also very proud of the way it turned out, that (besides the one component breaking) everything went together very smoothly.  Overall I am very happy with the base.

Frid, Tage. Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. Newtown: Taunton, 1986. Print. 

Thoughts About Final Presentation

I am beginning to brainstorm ideas for my final presentation:

• Bring in completed project
• Bring in wood samples
• Have slideshow of some interesting aspects of the build
• Answer a few of my research questions
• Present my magazine article

Power vs. Hand

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I want to talk about why I could not earn a living with my woodworking, as I am currently set up.  When I first started purchasing tools, I only purchased hand tools, mainly because I could not afford or fit any power tools in my shop.  After a while I bought a bandsaw, a drill press, a grinder, and a router (all relatively small and inexpensive).  Why is this important?  Because about 80-90% of the time I have put in to this project so far has been milling.  Milling is making the wood the correct dimensions so I can cut joinery into it.  My current process it to use my bandsaw to rip the stock to the correct width, hand planing to flatten and square the faces, and hand sawing to cut the piece to length.  Almost every woodworker who makes money from making furniture has power tools to do almost all of these tasks, simply because milling by hand takes way too long.  If a task can be done more efficiently one way over another, it is unrealistic to do it the more inefficient way, and milling with power tools (using a jointer and planer) produce excellent results much quicker.  So to really start making money from woodworking, I would need to mechanize in order to reach maximum efficiency.

Column Progress

I did some more work this week on the column, mostly planing the outside, and making sure the bottom is square, because that's where the feet attach to.  It looks good.

Marking out a square line to plane to (on the left).

Woodworking as a Business

As part of my research component, I am interested in how much I would sell my project for, if I was selling it.  This is a very hard question as I am certainly not a professional trying to support myself with woodworking, so my costs are significantly less than a professional's.  So far what I can conclude from the literature I have read on pricing your work is this: it depends.

When I talked to Chris Lowe, he told me that he figures out how many hours it will take to complete each part of a project, and what the materials cost is, and uses this to calculate the total price.  A while ago I began making a detailed log of how many hours I spent on the stand, and on what.  Up to now I have spent approximately 20 hours on the build of this project, and have spent $55 on materials.  At a conservative $20/hr, that makes the total cost be about $415 not factoring in at least 6-7 more hours before completion.

However there are other ways to determine a price that take into account factors such as sale method, and the target market.  The most direct way to customers is (unsurprisingly) to sell to them directly.  However unless you already have a substantial customer base, you will have to put time and money into marketing your work, which takes away from your profits and production time.  Another way is to sell through something or someone, for example selling products through a gallery or a show.  Depending on the venue however, some of the purchase price will be given to the gallery/show.  Another important factor in pricing is your target customers.  How much are they willing to spend?  Can you justify your cost by the quality?

Because of my situation as a student, it is very difficult to make a hypothetical cost estimate.  I don't have to pay for my room or board, so my direct costs are only the materials cost at the beginning of the project.  Really I am just happy to have something work on that I know someone will value greatly.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/articles/pricing-your-work/

http://bridgewooddesign.com/estimator/howto.htm

http://www.woodworkersjourney.com/category/pricing-your-work

Graves, Garth. Earn a Second Income from Your Woodworking. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway, 1997. Print.

Learning Observations

Learning involves memorization.  This has proven to be very true about my project, however my memorization is different than most.  Mine is physical memorization, teaching my body to be able to plane more accurately, to be able to saw exactly to a line.  I have vastly improved my woodworking skills throughout this project.  Being in the shop regularly has really helped with this.

My project is a perfect example of how learning is inconclusive.  Although I already possess the basic skills needed for this project, at every turn there are opportunities to learn new techniques and improve my skills.  For example in the joinery for the base, the joints a modified version of something I have done before, but are slightly different. The person I interviewed, Chris Lowe, told me that it takes at least 10 years to begin to feel comfortable with this work, but even for someone who has worked as a woodworker all their life, there are always new skills and techniques to learn.