Random thought I had.
I've never been the handiest person, but I've been trying to get more into it. I can do a lot of relatively easy repairs and know how to hang drywall & I've dabbled in some novice furniture building. They never end up coming out exactly the way I want, which I boil down to my lack of patience and not having a good place to do projects. I recently built a coffee table for our apartment as a test, and after a couple of weeks of it taking up space in our home office, I finally had to call it quits. Really disheartened me.
One of my friends from high school never went to college and instead began building custom oak-slab tables. I'm not sure if any of you have ever seen Blacktail Studio (check 'em out here), but my friend opened his own shop fabricating those. Each of them takes roughly 4-5mo to make, and he sells them for around $20-30k each. He expanded his employee base to hire 2-3 full-time staffers, and they push out probably 10-12 tables a year. He makes really good money and is looking to expand. I'd say on average, there are probably 5 or so tables being worked on actively.
It's really inspiring to see someone being able to create something of beauty and make it look so simple. Both Blacktail & my friend are experts in this, although my friend doesn't have quite the YouTube following... have been trying to convince him to make one.
I'm gonna give the coffee table another shot sometime this week. I've modeled it out in Fusion, and while I could pay a CNC shop to do it for me in a couple of hours, I think I'm going to attempt to do it myself. There's a shop near me that lets people pop in to use their equipment for an hourly rate, so I have to get some certifications in order.
If anyone has any tips, feel free to let me know. Could be YouTube series, general knowledge, word-of-mouth, and more. I feel like this is something I should know, considering I still interact with GC PMs, their laborers/subcontractors, and everyone else frequently.
Also - if you've built something cool, drop an Imgur link or a photo so I could check it out. It always gives me motivation. Be well!
That's really cool to hear, and thanks for the link! I'm in the same boat as you. Summer job in highschool was framing houses to building cabinets thanks to my GC dad, but not fine-craft like that. If that shop has the tools and the space? Perfect.
Looking on YT there's plenty of woodworking tutorials. So I'd start there? Otherwise offhand I'd just say make sure you got the right tools. Know what a dovetail is, the rules of epoxy and woodglue, starting a screw by drilling a smaller diameter first then the actual screw so you don't split the wood. But I'm sure you already know all that based on this post and your project.
Yep, I guess trial and error + proper research/preperation will have to do. When it's all said in done I'll probably pay 2-3x what I could buy the table for, but there's no fun in that. If I can get it done I'll send you some pics. Thanks for the comment!
I love carpentry. I have built a bookcase and some large frames for paintings. I stained the bookcase as well and it looks really good.
What finishes do you like? I'm going with a dark brown / black style for my coffee table, so I opted to use a water-based charcoal application with a polyurethane coating for protection. This time around I'm thinking butcher-block style with a similar finish.
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