How I Got Started In Woodworking & What I'm Doing Now

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the scrap pile. Kind of the everything else of woodworking besides actually making projects. And in this episode, I want to do something a little bit different. I don't want to talk about a certain subject specifically. I just kind of want to talk about what I've been doing lately in my shop. Um I went through just kind of give you a little background of my woodworking journey. I started in 2017 and I originally started on the lathe. And what made me get into woodworking was I had seen someone who had gifted someone else that I know a wood-turned ink pen. And I was like, hey, where'd you get that? And he's like, Oh, I made it. And so I started doing some research. I was like, shoot, I can make wood-turned or lathe-turned pens. So pretty much without thought, I went out and bought all the stuff that I needed in order to make pens, including a lathe, including the um the jigs, the fixtures for the lathe, the bushings. I did some research on where to buy the lathe kits or the pen kits, I mean, for the lathe, um, the the pen blanks, and I started watching some YouTube videos. I bought a lathe. I bought uh some cheap chisels for the lathe, and I pretty much just gave it a shot. And the first one, believe it or not, turned out pretty good, uh, considering it was the first one. Looking back on it today, no, it was a piece of junk, but it was pretty good considering it was my very first one. And then I, you know, with turning pens, you kind of get into like the finish of the pens. Turning the pens themselves is a cakewalk. What distinguishes the good pin makers from the bad ones is the finish on the pen because some people use friction polish. A lot of people, though, use CA glue, C anera accolate glue. It's basically super glue. And it sounds weird to say that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might sound strange that you're using CA glue as a finish, but it just crystallizes and hardens in a way that provides a super ultra protective coating on the pen, which you need because if you're using a pen regularly, there's gonna be oils and dirt and grime on your hands that are gonna get on the pen. There, the pen's gonna be rubbed because, again, there's friction between your hand and the pen. It's gonna get thrown on a desk, thrown in a drawer, thrown in a cup holder, on a cup pen, you know, cup on your desk. It's getting used. And so the finish, most of the time on a wood-turned, a lathe-turned pen, is not oil-based. It doesn't seep into the wood fibers. It is a coating on the outside of the wood fibers. So that tangent there, but that's kind of what distinguishes a good pen maker from a bad one because you can mess up the finish very easily. And I did that in the beginning. All my finish was striped, and that's very common on the lathe because the pin blank is rotating horizontally as you turn it on the lathe. And if you put the finish on there and you don't sand and buff down those lines, you're gonna see those streaks going against the wood grain because, again, you're turning the blank horizontally to the grain, and your finish is gonna be going perpendicular to the wood grain, and you're gonna see stripes if uh if you don't buff those out. So it was like for me, it was a lot of research on figuring out how to get a good finish on the pin. I want it to be, you know, kind of that glossy sheen finish on there. That's the look I was going for. Um, but I didn't want it to look like plastic, but I wanted it to be protective enough. So it was like, well, how many coats do I do? Do I do CA thin, CA medium, CA thick? There's different viscosities of that type of glue. Um, and uh, and then it was like, well, you know, how do you sand between coats? How many coats? What grit do you sand up to? Do you also put polish with the glue? There was a lot a lot that went into that. But the good thing about pens for me personally, fun fact about me, I get very impatient with woodworking. I don't like and I do not enjoy projects that take weeks or months or more to complete. I get very impatient. I want something that I can start and finish in a day, two, three days maximum. Because I like, I'm results driven. I want to see the work that I did and have something be nice quickly. I get very impatient. Like I said, I need to see the results and see them quick. So um, with pens, that was the perfect project for me starting out because number one, it didn't cost a lot. I mean, yeah, I had to buy the lathe and the chisels and stuff, but it didn't cost a ton in materials because a pen blank is generally like three quarter by three quarter by five inches long. Some of them are a little bit thicker than, you know, maybe one inch by one inch by five inches. But for a slim line pen kit, it's very thin and three-quarter by three quarter by five will do the trick. So it didn't cost a whole lot in materials. Now, I didn't know any better at the time, so I was buying pin blanks. And now I have, you know, almost 10 years later, I'm set up a little bit differently. I have the milling machines, I have the I have the sources to be able to buy rough sawn kiln dried lumber and mill it down myself rather than paying a premium on buying one pin blank, right? Um the point I'm making is at the time I might have been buying an exotic pin blank for $5 for the blank. Whereas now I can get my cost to under a dollar a piece because I'm buying an entire board and I'm milling them down into multiple, multiple pin blanks. So I started on the lathe. Um just so happened I was in woodcraft one day, one Saturday, and I was looking at the lathe tools, the lathe stuff, and there was an old man that came over to me and he said, Hey, what are you working on? And I had just gotten started. I said, Hey, you know, I've been doing pens for a little while because by the way, the thing with pens is I mean, you can make them quick. You know, I was making, there was times I made 10 pins in one day because I would batch it out. I'd do all my wood turning, then I'd do all my sanding, then I'd do, you know, and I'd have 10 different pens of 10 different styles, 10 different wood species. I was so proud, to be honest, and they turned out great. But um, I had made a lot of pens within a very short amount of time. So, like two weeks in, I had probably made a hundred pins. And I'm not exaggerating. I I really made a lot. Um, so anyways, I was in woodcraft one day, and this old man came over, he said, Hey, what are you working on? And I kind of explained to him, I said, Well, I'm actually brand new to this, but I have made a hundred pins, and I would like to do more lathe turning work, more wood turning, but maybe something different, try something a little bit different besides pins. I thought about making wood bowls because I had seen that done a ton on the lathe, and he was like, Hey, I'll tell you what, he said, Come see me tomorrow. I live, you know, he told me where he lived, and uh so the next day I called him and I said, Hey, can I come see you? You told I had no idea what he was wanting to show me. What I had no idea. Well, I go over there and he gave me basically 55 bowl blanks for the lathe. They were already cut to size, various different wood species, a lot of persimmon wood, which I didn't know was a thing at the time, right? You hear persimmons, but persimmon wood was traditionally known and used for making um drivers like golf club heads back when they were made of wood. Persimmon was that. So it's a very hard, very dense wood. Um, but he gave me 55, like around 50 bowl blanks, basically for free. I think I gave him $20 or something because I said, Man, I'm not looking to buy a bunch. And he said, make a donation. And I was like, I got 20 bucks. And I mean, to the point where we loaded up a wheelbarrow full and I hauled them to my truck that way. So I was lucky, obviously, very thankful and and and grateful, but um I was astonished at how at having that because that would be able to keep me busy for a long time. And I didn't have to buy bowl blanks. Again, I'm starting out, and so I didn't know where to buy bowl blanks, what's a good deal, what's a good price, what's not, what to look for. Do I go ahead and buy them pre-rounded? Do I buy them square? Do I, you know, whatever. Um, that kind of kickstarted me into turning bowls. Well, that took a little while. You don't turn a bowl as quickly as you make a pin. Um, but it didn't take long. I mean, I think within two months, maybe I had turned all those bowls. So after at that point, I had start around that time I had started um like making jigs and fixtures for my shop. I was working in one half of a two-car garage. So I was working essentially in a one-car garage. And I had started building shelves on the walls because again, I'm limited on space. I had started getting more tools, I had gotten uh um like an old miter saw, an old table saw, maybe a cheap router table or something. I I had started, you know, getting more stuff. I was still primarily just doing lathe work, but um I was making shelves. I was doing a little bit more, quote, real woodworking besides just wood turning. And um someone that I work with asked me if I could make them a what I'm gonna call a hall tree, a foyer bench. Some people call it a drop zone. Essentially, it's a bench that you can sit on where the the part that you sit on opens up and there's a trunk in there, like a storage chest. And then behind the bench, there's like a coat hanger spot and then maybe some shelves on top. I think you know what I'm talking about. You see them in a mud room a lot or a laundry room. Um, someone asked me if I can make one, and I told them straight up, I was like, well, I've never done that before, but I'm sure I could. So I found some plans online and followed those plans, and it turned out perfectly. Uh I mean, not perfectly. I would, you know, but no issues though. No crazy, I did something wrong and had to redo it. No, it was fine. It turned out perfectly fine. I bought pre-dimensioned lumber because I didn't have a planer and a joiner at the time. I used pine, which knowing now what I know then, I wouldn't have done that, right? I hate pine now, but when you're a beginner, you don't really care. And it was getting painted, so it didn't really matter. Um, so I made that. That's kind of what kick-started me into quote real woodworking, doing projects, not just wood turning. And um, I had done a few other things, mostly just like I made a little end table. I started making piddling with some like cabinet doors, little thing. They weren't cabinets like you'd hang on the wall. They were like an end table that had a cabinet door on it, random stuff. And it was all junk looking back at it. But um shortly after that, I built my shop, uh, dedicated shop, full-size, you know, shop. Um, my shop is 30 by 50, and uh it's a dedicated workshop. It there's nothing else. I don't do mechanic work in there on my cars. I don't um I can pull my car into my shop if I need to uh to change the tires, whatever, but I don't, I'm not set up for that. It is a dedicated workshop. And so um I had gotten out of the garage, got more space. Well, with more space comes more tools. Built a bunch of cabinets for my shop. You've probably seen them if you watch any of my YouTube videos. Um, those were some of the first cabinets ever made. And again, I see them every day because I still use them to this day. Looking back, I would have done things a lot differently. They don't look good compared to the work that I can do now if I need to. So um, all right, so that worked me into the cabinet journey. I started making cabinets a bunch, and I started uh making wooden signs. I had gotten my first CNC machine and started getting into making wooden signs and little plaques and stuff like that, and um, and cabinets, some furniture. And then that so that I built my shop in 2019, and so it's been seven years, and I've kind of done a little bit of all disciplines of woodworking. I mean, I've already said that I've done through the wood turning, shelves, cabinets, furniture, you know, signs, um, a lot of different stuff. The most recent journey, I would say in the past year, from now through from the last year through current day, has primarily been furniture and cabinets. Um, my brother recently moved into his house and I built all the cabinets for his house. I recently finished some furniture. You've probably seen a couple videos or on my social media of pictures of of those pieces that I've done. But ironically, lately, in the past month, I would say, I have been doing lathe work and wooden signs. I enjoy CNC work and I really enjoy the lathe. The difference is though, I am currently not looking at the lathe work as a side hustle. I am truly looking at it as a hobby. My side hustle in woodworking is media, digital media, meaning on YouTube, um, social media affiliates. You know, I make money from that stuff. Digital sales, I sell plans and templates and stuff through my website. Um the woodworking side hustle for me is more media based rather than actual commissions or selling wooden goods. However, as far as the lathe goes, as far as the wooden signs, I do sell those. And I sell those right now primarily on Facebook Marketplace, a little bit on Etsy, but not a ton, mainly on Facebook Marketplace. Um, and I'm not really even looking at that as a true side hustle. I mean, of course, I would love for it to scale and take off, but for me, um, the lathe work is kind of just the fun stuff, and the signs is to help pay for the materials and just piddly cash type stuff, you know, extra cash. So, what have I been doing lately? Well, a little bit everything. Lately, if you call it two months ago, I was still trying to push the furniture stuff. I was making furniture for people, trying to get jobs, trying to do furniture sales. And that last kitchen table I did, there's a video on my YouTube channel of a big dining room table I did that almost killed me. And um, it it was just very intricate. The base with the X shape was very intricate, and um, yeah, it it took a lot of taught took a lot out of me mentally. And it was great, it was fun, but it was just a lot of work. So I was like, let me kind of slow down. Um, got some other things going on in life right now, just you know, busy, basically. I mean, I'm still working. This is not my full-time job. I'm still working a full-time job. I got some other hobbies that have nothing to do with woodworking and making stuff that I'm focusing on here and there, course podcasting a little bit. Um, yeah, so so time, you know, there's only so many hours in a day, as they say. So uh so I was doing the furniture. The lathe work kind of just came back up because again, I like it. I like doing lathe work. That's how I started, and there's a reason why I started that because I'd I just enjoyed doing lathe work, and I've made a ton of stuff even in the last 30 days. Um, I made a lot of spinning tops, little wooden toys, tops, you know, spinning tops. I've made uh a goblet. There's a video coming out about that, uh showing that. Um course I made the wooden bowl, I've made a wooden scoop, I've made uh chess pieces, I've made a little Christmas tree, I've made just whatever, right? And most of the stuff I'm making, though, is not big material needed, meaning that if you're doing a wooden bowl, yes, you're probably gonna want the thickness of that piece to start out rough at like four inches, so that you can have the depth of the bowl be significant. But if you're doing a chess piece, you really only need a scrap piece of wood that's like two inches thick, and that's a little bit easier to source and a lot cheaper to source than a four-inch 16-quarter rough songboard, right? So um, yeah, I and and then the wooden signs. Primarily, I'm trying to keep the wooden signs simple. I've talked about this on the podcast. If you're trying to grow the side hustle, keep it simple. And that's what I'm doing. I'm just doing last name family signs, as I call them. Um, one species of wood for now, and pretty simple on the design. Simple is repeatable, and simple a lot of times what people want. The last thing I would say about that is by me keeping the stuff simple, the signs simple, I'm able to charge at an affordable price point. I'm not doing a 3D carved custom sign with a family crest that's different for everyone. That would be a lot higher price point, which some people maybe can't afford or don't want to afford. Um by me keeping them simple, I can get more sales that way. So um yeah. Current day in my shop, lathe work and wooden signs. And the wooden signs are primarily just a set it and forget it on the CNC, um, CNC router. And uh the lathe work is where I spend my time as far as creativity, right? The wooden signs, I mean, like I said, is set it and forget it. Put the person's last name, and it's pretty much the same thing because I've simplified the design. The lathe work is where I can express myself, so to speak. Uh that's a weird cliche saying, but express myself creatively can be done in my lathe work because I can make tops and bowls and honey pots and honey dippers and chess pieces and whatever, right? And uh yeah, it's just kind of fun to do. I've gotten into lathe chisel sharpening. I was paying someone that uh could come sharpen my lathe chisels for me, but with lathe work, a good rule of thumb is like 20 minutes. So, like after 20 minutes of using that chisel, it's time to sharpen again. And as you can see, that's a big problem. Unless you have someone that can sharpen your chisels every day, you're not gonna be working very fast through the lathe work. So I've I've bought some jigs, I've invested some money in the right stuff to be able to sharpen my own lathe chisels, and it certainly makes a difference. So um I enjoy that though. It kind of breaks up the monotonous carving the wood into doing the lathe. I it's almost fun for me to sharpen the chisels because I treat it as a challenge. I try to get that metal as sharp and as shiny and as straight and correct as possible. So I kind of enjoy the sharpening side of it too. Um, and then uh yeah, it's podcasting videos, right? YouTube, podcasting, lathe work, wooden signs. That's my disciplines, that's what I'm doing right now uh with Rocky River Woodworks, with my wood stuff, woodworking. So, anyways, this kind of just a rant, an event, and a catch-up. Uh, I'll have another episode maybe coming up about the business side of woodwork and get back to the normal topics that I normally talk about. But if you have any questions, please reach out to me, let me know. If you want to be a guest on this podcast, I would be ecstatic to do that. I think it'd be great. We could talk about anything in woodworking, we can talk about your type of woodworking, whatever discipline you're in, how you make money with it, whatever. Um, or if you just have a suggestion of what type of podcast you want me to make next, leave a comment, send me a message, let me know. I want to give the people what they want. And and uh I love talking about woodworking, so we can talk about anything. So let me know. Leave this podcast a five star review on your podcast player. If you're watching on YouTube, please leave it a uh thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. Until next time, take care.