maybe disaster for my business, trying to turn opportunity...advice?

[zopi]

That is why I am making the brad pear blanks...it is nice to work, and is a canvas for the turner to highlight craftsmanship when the details should not be muddled by wild wood...my preference is wild grain, and unusual wood...will see if they sell. Besides, I am trying to get the oddballlumber out of my shop floor...lol.

Apparently Danish Modern candlesticks sell well...must figure out how to turn them...heck any large candle sticks seem to sell well.

[Brad_S.]

Lol...I will ask if the local funeral homes have any demand for such..

Talk to the vet, not the undertaker. Seriously, google pet casket....there is a market.

[Warren]

Zopi,  A few thoughts: 

The taxidermy mounts are something that I have been asked about a couple times, but never pursued. But would be relatively simple, and a good use for "shorts".

I have also sold several "half round" cedar benches to a local realtor for decorating farm ponds.  Saw a 10" to 12" cedar log in half length-wise.  Take another 8 ft cedar and cut into 2 ft sections.  Put one "V" notch in the top of each of the short sections.  Put two "V" notches in the bottom of each the long half rounds.  Instant man-portable "rustic" bench. (times 2)

While you are talking to funeral homes, inquire about making triangular presentation cases for folded flags for veterans. I had to wait several months for the case for my Dad's flag.

Good luck to you !

Warren

[Kansas]

A lot of good ideas. Think niche marketing. Something few if any are doing. Let me toss one more idea out here. For the right person, think they could do well. Religious art/woodworking. Had a guy that would stop by and rummage around the scrap pile and get scraps of wood. He brought a few things in he had made, that we put up on the wall.  Amazing what a few square nails and a cross made of scrap wood can do in the hands of an artist. For the right person with the right contacts, think a person could do well. A lot of people turn pens. But how many put in a religious symbol, or the symbol of a company. Or a fancy pen holder for a desk with the same things.

[AvT]

I think etsy has been mentioned before in this thread but look at the neat things this popular seller makes, he has been on there about 2 years and sold 3000 items, take a look might be inspiring
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TimberGreenWoods

[zopi]

I like those scrollsawn candleholders...was looking at doing some candle lanterns....patio table sort of stuff.

[zopi]

Come to think of it, I have not looked at a scrollsaw in ten years or so...might dig mine out and start messing with it again...

[AvT]

you know I was looking at that stuff and I think he uses lazer to do the cutting so I went to see what those things cost and you don't want to know.  But that is how they get the high production..

[zopi]

Yeah, and ten grand a pop...I will do what I can with what I have...

[AvT]

Two seconds after I made my last comment I regretted it.  We were typing at the same time and when I saw what you wrote after posting I said to myself " Awwww #$$@ I just rained on his parade",,, sorry about that zopi

[CHARLIE]

I couldn't do scroll sawing.  Not that I don't know how, but I don't have the patience. To me, it is tedious.

That guy on Etsy has to be using a laser to produce the volume he has for sell.  In my opinion, that isn't woodworking.

[shinnlinger]

Look at bandsaw boxes also.  My students make lots and you can throw them on the lathe also.

Dave

[zopi]

Ahh, don't worry at it...there is value in handmade, in a world where cheap and gaudy fetch the volume and cheap price, discerning folks will often opt or unique...

I am making bandsawn cedar jewelry boxes for my daughters for christmas..and just copied this funky little table that my father in law made for a boy scout project three quarters of a century ago...it will be one of my wife's presents...

[zopi]

[AvT]

Hey that looks awsome zopi... one would think there is a market for that sort of thing

[zopi]

We're gonna find out....lol. That one is my wife's.

[Slingshot]

    Speaking of boxes..... here is one i have made a few of for family, friends.
Rather time consuming but i like to make them.

I got the plans from Fine Woodworking I think. Called a lap desk.

Here is  one I made from cherry using 1/8th inch box joints on the corners, measures
13 X 17 and 4 inches high in back...
















Here is a smaller one of walnut not yet finished, using 1/4 inch dovetails....








Here are a couple neat ones I picked up at an antique store in Savannah GA.
They measure about 8X11 X 4 inches. I'm planning to make reproductions
of them...




































Several pictures but thought someone might want to make one or more.

_______________________-

[zopi]

Those are nice...we have one which has been in my wife's family for a long time...smilar to the one with the purple baize..

[zopi]

Bugger. Cannot win for losing lately. On the way to get a couple of stitches...bandsaw blade slipped ot of a skinny cut and put a nice little dado in my thumb...crap.

[zopi]

Sigh...five stitches...and in a different er now....while we were gone...middle daughter fell off the trampoline...
The bandsaw boxes are looking good...fortunately cedar hides blood well.. lol

[Brucer]

I just had a guy call me and ask about off cuts from 4x4's and 4x6's. He is making trophy bases.

Two years ago I saw some really interesting cutting boards. The were made from laminated pieces of Western Larch, with the end grain facing up. The boards were interesting on two counts.

From a practical point of view, a board with edge grain for flat grain on the cutting surface will slowly get a hollow in the center of the cutting area because the knife keeps severing fibres. I don't know where the fibres go (I can guess, but I don't want to think about it) but my favourite cutting board has a hollow in it about 1/4" deep. With the end grain on the cutting surface the fibres won't get cut.

From an aesthetic point of view, the craftsman had created a really interesting pattern. Western Larch has a light, creamy sapwood, and a reddish-brown heartwood. The contrast and proportions remind me of Eastern Red Cedar. I tried to reverse engineer the manufacturing:
- cut some 1x4 or 1x6 boards that have both heartwood and sapwood showing.
- plane the boards and then glue them together in a stack, placing them so the variations in colour form an alternating pattern. In effect you're creating a glued-up 4x4 or 4x6.
- mount the glued-up piece on a mill so the glue joints are vertical and saw off 1" boards. Kind of like making stickers from a stack of 1x4.
- plane the manufactured boards.
- rearrange the manufactured boards to make a symmetrical pattern of heartwood/sapwood and glue them up again.

What you effectively have at this point is bunch of 1x1's glued together to make an interesting pattern of contrasting colours.

Now saw across the laminated "timbers", cutting off pieces 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inch thick.

Sand the faces, bevel the edges and corners, and you have a really interesting cutting board. The ones I saw varied from 3/4" thick 3x5 cheese boards that you'd set on the dinner table, up to 12" x 12" kitchen boards.

Prices were pretty steep. I went back to the shop the next day to take some pictures and they'd all been sold :(.

[T Welsh]

zopi, All great suggestions! listed so far.I got back into woodworking about 8 years ago,the first thing I found out is that you need machines,the 2nd is you need space,and the 3rd is you have to find a niche you like to do and rewards you by selling fairly fast. If you are going to try and make a living out of it, try to find something that keeps you happy or it will turn into work :D. Good luck with the shoulder,Tim

[zopi]

I doubt It will make a living, but should augment..the income some...

Will have to go to the doctor this week for the arm, and again to have these stitches out of the thumb...I am so *pithed at myself for getting cut...I am positively paranoid about moving blades...

I likd the endgrain cutting boards..will probably do some of those evdntually...I am going to make up a batch of bandsaw boxes and get them out to sell, and go from there...