Wood Working for dollars!

Wow, you guys are a gold mine of ideas!! Now I just gotta find the wood! Bought a lathe today!! :d
 
If you got your hands on a metal lathe you could make wood bodied or inlayed flashlights they can go for good money as long as you make small quantities.
 
I 2nd humidors. Here are some pics of one I made for myself. I've always intended to make some more, just because it's a fun project. Since I don't need more than one though, I'd probably sell them.

IMG_0687.jpg


IMG_0689.jpg
 
a knife block wouldn't bee too hard some table saw cuts and some glue. and you could match the colour of the block with the handles :). In fact I might make one...
hmm, what is expensive... if you had a chuck on that lathe you could make custom pool cues.
 
Coat racks - the one pole kind.

Older homes with no closets, folks who like to keep a jacket handy at the door, older offices who have kept or like old stye furniture (like lawyers,) local, state, and other government offices who have no closets for employees garments, and lots of others need them. Even Sunday school classroooms.

Just look at the cheap sectional junk stuffed knocked down in boxes and you see why. Poor mechanical understanding of the concept, worse execution, soft woods finished to look like quality hardwoods, and guaranteed to break with a full load.

A school house style 3x3 beveled oak, quartersawn, with big iron hooks from a restoration catalog, and legs doweled and screwed in sufficiently, should take a dozen winter coats and not even blink.

Each can be customized to the interior decor with matching wood, finish, and style. Colonial, Federal, Victorian, Art Deco, Danish Modern, etc.

Even if it's a bunch of skiers shucking their soft shells and tossing them on a stripped bark pine pole with rustic fittings, people need to put their coats somewhere.

Don't know of a real barbershop without one.
 
the coat racks are a good idea. And for the most part they are of a simple construction.
 
Here's one that I'm gonna some day get into.
Wooden swords, knives, and weapons. Both toy ones- usually made of pine, though I prefer poplar, and that sell for between $5 and $50, and wasters, which are made of hardwood and you can make a pretty penny off selling. Get yourself a freewebs page, ebay account, or find a renfest (my favorite) and you're good to go. Can't believe no one has mentioned this, as this is Blade Forums.
Also- gun racks and cabinents. Humidors, knife boxes, crosses/crucifixes, boats (maybe?) shelves, desks, coat racks (simple) gun stocks, knife scales, boxes, etc etc
 
tirod3 said:
Coat racks - the one pole kind.

Just look at the cheap sectional junk stuffed knocked down in boxes and you see why. Poor mechanical understanding of the concept, worse execution,
Click to expand...

And they're designed to go in the box so that the boxes fix perfectly on pallets that fit exactly into standard shipping containers for the journey from China. Put a heavy coat on one and it'll fall over because it's off-balance. An old-fashioned coat rack didn't have to knock down into a box that fit on a pallet that fit into a shipping container, so the base was bigger and withstood the off-balance load.
 
Absolutely. I've bought the KD junk and it is. I've seen the school house versions from shop class eventually thrown out because some staffer didn't want them in the new modern school with it's chrome coatrack screwed to the wall. Ah well.

They lasted 50 years or more and never failed in service.
 
I don`t know how to post this and not get flamed, but here goes.

Years ago a friend at university approached me because he knew I was a weekend carpenter. My friend was, and is, big into S&M. His "Play group" or whatever you want to call it was building a dungeon in some woman`s basement and wanted to know if I could help. I did, and it was easy....and no I don`t roll like that.

But to get ideas we went on line and searched for "bondage furniture". I was amazed at what people were charging. The prices were UNBELIEVABLE. Most of it could be made with 2x4s or 2x6s in 1/2 an hour (Not including finishing time) and sold for 5-6 times the cost of materials. I always thought if I could do it without feeling creepy, it would make a great internet business.There`s hardly any competition and there`s a BIG demand. (Albeit, a little creepy.)
 
Now that I think of it when I worked the gun shows 2 things stuck out in my mind.

1) At a knife show there wasaguy selling simple wooden cigarboxes, not humidors, but the kind kids used to take to school for pencil boxes. He had about 15 he was selling for 2-3 bucks apiece. He should have asked more because he sold out the first day before they opened the doors. The other dealers couldn`t get `em fast enough.

2) If you could make decent diplay cases/boxes, either with glass or prefferably Lexan windows, gun show dealers love`em for thier small stuff that can wallk away on it`s own when they`re not looking. Nobody shoplifts something they have to ask you to open the case for.
 
I make things like coasters from cut offs of expensive woods. they always look good and sell well.
Tables are another good thing to make, a custom piece is worth alot of cash if you know how to make them well.
I also made a heap of cash building tree-houses last summer, there good fun to make as well !!!
As mentioned, Knife blocks are good, i make "flat" ones so you can stack them in a drawer rather than have to keep them on the counter. if you want a pic for an example of one just give me a shout.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top