Custom Furniture Building

Craftsman Corner Desk

2012-01-17T03:46:00.000-08:00

This is an Craftsman style corner desk, designed and built with a murphy bed (see LJ Post). As with the bed, the customer designed it and drove in from Natchitoches, LA to finalize everything

Craftsman Style Murphy Bed with Hidden Desk

2012-01-17T03:40:00.000-08:00

This is a new style finished in December 2011. It was designed by the customer. I’ve built a mission style Murphy bed for them in the past in black (see picture). She came with me with the design and the layout worked nice with a folding table. Most tables added to Murphy beds look like they were just added to the front without any thought. I love it when customers allow me to build one that is more inset and integrated into the overall piece. The desk legs are the top/center double doors and the three drawer fronts come down with the desk. It is similar to how I build my Smithsonian Murphy bed.

Pair of Chest

2012-01-13T03:59:00.000-08:00

These are a couple chest of drawers that I modeled after on from one of my suppliers. The customer loved the style but wanted it in oak. The only color available was a cappuccino finish. They also changed up the sizes a little. It was built and finished in December 2011.

It has a post and panel style sides. The bottom is arched to leave it open. I also gaped the space between the drawer fronts a little more then normal. Normally I leave a 1/4” gap, but this time I left about a 1/2” to keep with the original design. One that I did deviate from was the drawer guides. The one from my supplier had epoxy coated side mount rails. I chose to use the ball barring full extension rails.

You can watch us build this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

To see when your project will be built, check out our Customer Status link.

Princess Curio Cabinet

2011-10-12T03:34:00.000-07:00

This is a TV cabinet that was built to match the Princess Curio built in November 2005. Both of them were built to match the Castle loft.

Size: 60”w x 67”h x 18”d

Wood: MDF and Maple

Finish: Pigmented Lacquer/Latex accent color.

Princess Curio Cabinet

2011-10-11T04:01:00.000-07:00

This is a custom curio cabinet that was built back in November 2005. It's an accessory for our Castle loft. It features glass doors and a two tone finish. The color was the most difficult parts on completing this project. Each edge had to be hand painted the accent color

Size: 48”w x 67”h x 16”d (Custom size is available)

Wood: MDF and Maple

Finish: Pigmented Lacquer/Latex accent color.

You can watch us build projects like this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

To see when your project will be built, check out our Customer Status link.

Angle Bedroom Suite

2011-10-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

This is a bed that was built a long time ago. It is from the kids furniture site. I started with the storage bed headboard and designed everything else from there. The angle concept of the headboard was transferred to the chest and desk pedestal. If I remember correctly, the customer choose the chrome feet.

The wood is maple with a clear coat finish only.

This was a fun project. I wish I could do more like this.

For more building pictures see my shop page link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

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Custom Corner Desk

2011-08-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

This is a desk that was built to match a bed that I built for a customer in June (see example). Actually I built the bed for their home builder. The customer wanted a matching desk.

Because of the space problems between a wall and window, I had to adjust my normal depth of the desk. When dealing with angles small changes can effect a lot of different areas. I put all the measurements in a spreadsheet and entered formulas in for all the variables. When I changed the depth, I see how if effects the spacing in the center. I played with the numbers until I came up with good ratio.

Normally I don't build my raised panel sides. I outsource them. I built them this time because I didn’t know the depth of the overall desk until too close to the due date. This desk was completed in August 2011

Hudson Bay Murphy Bed Ebony Finsh

2011-04-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

More pictures of this bed can be found by clicking here.

This is the first time I’ve used the Minwax Ebony stain by itself. I’ve used it in combination with a dye to achieve my cappichino finsh, but never alone and on oak. This bed was built in February 2011. It is a version called the Hudson Bay Murphy bed. It is the standard Alpine version with some added moldings added to the face. This is that free add-on plans that I send with my do-it-yourself murphy bed kit.

This one I also added a couple 18” bookcases. They have a door at the bottom and adjustable shelves at the top. I added lights to both the bookcase and the bed section.

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Baseball Wall Unit

2011-04-01T05:26:00.000-07:00

This may look like one of the many murphy beds that I build but it is not. It is a standard baseball bed with a wall unit. I took the headboard of the baseball bed and surrounded it with a couple bookcases and light bridge. It was completed in February 2011.

The bookcases are built just like the ones I use on the murphy bed with the full length door and a couple drawers at the bottom. If you ever wonder why the drawers of this style bookcase never start at the bottom, it has a cubby hole. It’s there so there is not interference with the lower hinge and drawers. I think it give a nice little effect. You need somewhere slightly out-of-site to store them dirty cleats.

It is built mainly from maple with some MDF. The finish is pigmented lacquers.

The lights are controlled by a touch dimmer at the top of the headboard.

Here are some of the true Murphy bed styles: Yankee's Special Edition, Vintage Style

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

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Contempo Murphy Bed

2011-01-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is a murphy bed completed in December 2009. It is a new style, which turned out to be a popular one. I’ve build a few of these last month. It is a real simple one with a contemporary look I call the Contempo. This one has just one bookcase.
Goto web page: Contempo Murphy Bed
Write-up at Lumberjocks: Write-up

Tip Tuesday: Buy “Solid” wood

2010-11-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

Some associate veneers as being low quality and if you truly want quality go all solid. Really the opposite it true. Veneers got a bad rap around the 60’s when cheap furniture was introduced into the market. There was delaminating, which is the lifting of the veneer, because of a bad process and gules.

What is veneer?
Veneer is a thinly sliced piece of wood glued onto a substrate or a another, usually manufactured, wood like MDF or plywood. With today’s technology these slices can be as thin as 1/64th of an inch.

Isn’t solid wood better?
It all depends. Each has its benefits and bad points. Solid wood contains mosture and will expand and contract with changes in the humidity and seasons. For this reason, usually we don’t use lumber over about 6” wide. If we do we may have cracking and warping. We will glue them up into larger panels alternating the grain to lessen the effect. Even though the seam is so tight and sanded you can‘t tell where it is, but the grain pattern doesn’t flow smoothly and continuously from one board to the other. This is where veneers are better. They can be glued on a stable substrate. This will keep the wood movement down to a minimum and less likely to warp, crack, or cup. Also the grain usually appears to be continuous. The veneer is either rolled off the log to produce one continuous piece (rotary cut) and another lay-up technique that make it appear as one piece. Another one is book matching. They will slice the veneer and open them up like a book. This produces mirror images of each other.

What about the delaminating (veneer coming off)?
Most of the time that is not a problem. With the better glues and processes you rarely find this problem. Most veneer that furniture builders buy sheets that are already connected to a substrate in the form of 4 x 8 sheets of plywood. The are pressed on at 2800 lbs per square inch. I have had some import plywood come in that has delaminated. I now only buy domestic.

More benefits to veneer:
Slicing so thin you can get lots of sheet of veneer from a single tree, thus yielding a lot more then with solid. The substrate can be made from parts that were normally discarded or of a faster growing tree. This is better for our environment and supplies for the future.

You can use an exotic woods in the designs and not break the bank. I built a table with Waterfall Bubinga that I wouldn’t be about to do without a veneer (price). Also curving wood. Veneer is the best for that too. My wood boat bed has a curved front which couldn’t be done easily with solid lumber.

Veneers are everywhere. Most likely all if not most of your furniture contains veneers. Some of the most expensive furniture I’ve seen has been MDF with a veneer. MDF is a manmade material made from resin and wood particles. It is different than the true particle board which I would stay away from. MDF can be shaped, routered and is a very smooth surface to veneer on or to paint.

Baseball Murphy Loft

2010-06-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

This bed is a cross between my Baseball bed, a loft bed, and locker murphy bed. I’ve built the loft only version before (original loft). This customer wanted to have an area to play along with a full size bed.

The scoreboard headboard is totally customizable by the customer. I have a form that the customers fill out and submit (see example). The bats are authentic Louisville Slugger signature bats.

Changes I made from the original was to eliminate the slide and take out the window on the side panels. The Window would be in the fold us section of the murphy bed. The slide would also interfear with the operation of the bed. I could have made a different style, but the slide would also take away from the look.
I kept the ladder holes incorporated into the sides. I really like the clean look of not having an attached ladder

Buildng pictures and recorded video's can be found on my blog site: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/25025

You can watch us build this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

To see when your project will be built, check out our Customer Status link.

Loft With Slide

2010-05-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

This is a loft with a simple loft in look, but a little more complex than it seemed. It is built from solid maple with a Red Mahogany stain from Minwax. It is a full size on top and an open play area on bottom. The vertical post have cutouts at the top for handles and they flair at the bottom to give it sort of a Asian feel. The cross supports act as the ladder and a slide was added for those quick exits in the morning.

For support the slats were built in a “T” configuration. Basically I added a board turned 90 degrees to get that end grain strength, since it was spanning a full size width. Also to make is stable and not to sway, I added a bottom 16”h board and used “T” nuts and bolt at the top/back guard rail.

Here is some of the raw building videos:
Loft post
Loft 2
Routering loft post
Loft side build
Loft New sides
wwbeds shop 12/11/09 11:58AM
Slide Sides
wwbeds shop 12/11/09 03:45PM
Loft Slide

More Building pictures can be found in our December 2009 pictures archives or see what we are building not on our Current Projects page

Football Locker Murphy Bed

2010-05-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

This is a version of my locker murphy bed. It was built in November 2009. This is a murphy bed built to resemble a football locker. I normally build this in a baseball style. The inside headboard is designed like a scoreboard. This is taken from my regular baseball bed. The outside has graphics to look like vents, a name plate that doubles as the support leg and lock. The team graphic was one that was bought and applied.

This style is alway a fun one to build.
Here are some raw video of the build:
Football Cut/Rip
Football Headboard
Football Inner Frame
Football Face
Football Center

Daily Update November 17, 2009

2009-11-17T05:18:00.000-08:00

Daily Update for November 17, 2009

You can watch us build this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

To see when your project will be built, check out our Customer Status link.

Platform Bed

2009-11-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

These are some platform beds that were competed in October 2009. They both use full size mattresses, but the platform is about 75” wide. I made a row of cabinets to where they fit on the side of the bed and they fit on top of the platform.

I made the cabinets in 3 pieces, but where they appear as one. The dividing face frame hides the seam between the cabinets. The top is made in one piece to also make it look to be one piece.

One of the beds has a headboard where the other one doesn’t. They both go to the came customer, just one child choose to have a Media Stand instead of the headboard. The one with the headboard will have a frige in that open spot under the headboard.

Here are a few building videos:
Abby Headboard cut
Headboard Banding
Abby Headboard Sanding
Abby Build
Alex and Abby's bed
Platform build
Cabinet Cut/Rip
Cabinet Bainding
Bookcase Building
Door Parts
Door Preps
Door Building
Door Sanding
Abby and Alex Drawers

Building pictures can be found a my blog on Lumberjocks.com

You can watch us build this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

To see when your project will be built, check out our Customer Status link.

2009-10-22T04:44:00.000-07:00

This is a platform bed that was completed in October 2009. It has a 15 ¾”h drawer unit for storage, a panel headboard, and a small frame for the platform. The finish on it is a simple Danish Oil to keep that natural look.

Here is the raw footage of the build (sorry about video quality still using backup computer):
Hutchison Drawer Cut/rip
Sanding
Hutchison Sanding/Pocketing
Hutchison Drawer Pre-Assembly
Hutchison drawer build

You can watch us build this live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

Pair of Murphy Beds

2009-10-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

This is a pair of murphy beds that were built and shipped unfinished. They were completed in October 2009. What is unique about these are they are apart of the same unit. The two queen wall beds are separated by a 18" bookcase. The Hudson Bay as I call it is simply the Alpine with some added molding. I say simply but it's not that simple. There is 32 pieces, 64 in all that has to be cut and mitered on both ends. Each piece of molding is hand sanded, fit, attached, and sanded again. There is a lot of labor involved.

The overall width of this unit is 146" at the base and 148 1/2" (12', 4 1/2") at the crown. That's not bad though two beds and a bookcase in a little over 16 square foot of floor space.

For building pictures and video click here.

Write-up at Woodshop News

2009-08-27T06:13:00.001-07:00

Woodshop News, a national trade magazine called and wanted to interview me. They had some interest in my live video feed. Their digital version of their magazine is just out and the story was posted on their website. It's a short but to the point article about the camera system and how it is used for both marketing and with customer relations.

Check it out at Woodshop News.

Get a peek into my shop at wwbeds.com

2009-07-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

This is the finished product of the single beds built for the Chi Omega dorm rooms. Ten of these were built. They were completed in June 2009.

They feature a large head board designed with bookcases at the top and small cell phone shelf, which most students use as an alarm clock. Below the small shelf is a hole for the charging cord.

For storage the bed has 4 extra deep drawers with full extension rails. This gives over 5 ½ cubic feet of drawer space. Add the false panel on the other side with the doors and you have over 22 cubic feet of space.

Product dimensions:
Overall 79 ¾”h x 40 ½”w x 76 ½”d
Drawer Pedestal Height 23”
Usable drawer box space 7 ½”h x 27”w x 16”d (each)
False panel useable space 23”h x 19 ½”w x 64”d
Door opening 19”h x 15 ½”w

Sofa Murphy Bed Closed

2009-04-15T05:58:00.001-07:00

Sofa Murphy Bed Closed
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is a bed that was completed in February 2009, It is my standard Euro style with quite a few modifications. One of the new design features of this one is the sofa. This is a sofa that I designed to be placed in front of the bed when it is in the up position. When the bed is needed the cushions come off and the bed folds down between the arms.

Another feature of this bed is the sliding bookcases. These bookcases are designed to be above the sofa and in front of the bed when closed. When the bed is in used the bookcases slide out of the way. I used a standard by-pass door system and used both tracks rollers on each bookcase. This added stability and more strength to the unit.

The third feature is the inset bookcases. For the bookcase drawers on the side to work, I needed some space for the arms of the sofa. I needed about eight inches so I build a couple bookcases that were turned inward. This allowed me to have some extra space without wasting it.

Orginal Train bed

2009-04-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am currently building a train bed and blogging about it (see Train Blog) Some of you have been watching so I thought I’d share this one that I built in 2004. This is a bunk bed version, unlike the one I am building now.

Here are some building pictures of the new one. I didn’t have any saved of this first one:

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

-- Watch live video from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/live.htm

Red Hudson Bay

2009-02-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

This is a queen size Murphy bed that was completed in December 2008. I call this style the Hudson Bay. It is built from maple with a little redder than normal cherry finish. I matched this color off a emailed picture, which I normally don’t do. Especially since colors aren’t consistent from monitor to monitor. What I did was to make a few different shades of what I thought the color was and sent it to the customer. The color ended up being a red dye, almost pine when applied, and then a Red Mahogany stain.

I built this one and held it for a few weeks while I built the desk (see Hunt Bookcase the customer order mid-stream of building the bed. So I got to keep it on my floor for a while. The delay was enhanced, because when I finally got all of it shipped. The shipping company totally destroyed the center/pull down section before it made it to the customer. It was sent back. I replaced just about all the center section and sent it back to the customer. The time from when I had it built to when the customer actually had it set up was about two months. Most of that time was waiting for the first time to be shipped an the shipping company getting it back to us. My turn-around on the rebuild was only a couple days.

I just received an email from the customer, which I proudly posted on by Testimonial page.

Gary,
I meant to e-mail earlier but we got the bed and my husband and a friend installed on Sunday and it’s beautiful. We love all the furniture and want to thank you so much for everything, especially handling the Roadway issue. I am eight months pregnant and working and I really appreciate that I did not have to deal with Roadway on the damaged bed.

It has been a pleasure and we would be happy to give a testimonial for your site or feel free to have anyone e-mail us as a happy customer.
Feed back like this make it all worth it. Most of the time in any industry the only feed back is the bad stuff. When things are going good most people don’t think to send that.

Here are some building pictures.

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

Panel Poster Bed

2009-02-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

This is a bedroom set that I completed in June 2005. It was built in oak and featured raised panels on the head and footboard. One thing that I did different was to turn the center panel horizontal. Normally I outsource the panel work, but on this one I built it myself, mainly because of the sideways panel. I didn’t want to confuse my supplier. This change in the panel gave it a little different look to it. The headboard also featured some hand forged ironwork.

The case goods are a combination of a face frame look but built like they are frameless. The sides look like a 2” face frame, but I made it appear to be 2” thick. I sandwiched two ¾” boards and a ½” thick inside frame together to make a frameless 2” thick side panel. I also added rope molding and hand built the base molding in layers.

Here are some pictures of the case goods:
Dresser and Mirror

Chest

Bookcase

Here are some building pictures:

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

-- Check out the video live from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/

Basketball Bed

2009-01-24T04:47:00.000-08:00

This is a new design of mine. It wasn’t order by a customer. I just wanted see what we could come up with for basketball, since we’ve had the baseball bed for so long. It is real similar to the Baseball bed in that it uses the same headboard pattern, side rails, and post. I didn’t put anything on top of the post, like the bats for the baseball bed. I did have some mini basketball knobs I thought about topping the post with, but they were too small and looked out of place.

It has a customizable headboard and footboard. The child can pick their stadium name, the player’s name and number, the score, and the name and number on the footboard.

I finished this bed in a flat black lacquer and a burgundy lacquer that I had left over from another job. I really like the paint scheme so I might standardize the color combination for this bed. I may tweak the color a little to match the burgundy drawer in the nightstand and chest.

Here are some more pictures

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

-- Check out the video live from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/

Display Euro Murphy bed

2009-01-16T05:32:00.000-08:00

At the end of the year I started selling off some of my display Murphy beds. Because of this I was left with a bare showroom. I wanted to put something on the floor that I haven’t had there before. I decided on the Euro Murphy bed. This is a bed that I’ve built about five times before. This will be the third in this color combination.

I used maple wood with cherry accents. I edged all boards, whether they were plywood or lumber, with cherry. Then put two strips of cherry down the face. Once it is lacquered, it reviled very nice contrast.

The bookcases are 24” wide and don’t have the usual drink trays. Instead of the drink tray I put a regular drawer on the left side and a pull out desk on the right. The desk pulls out on full extension rails and then the laptop drawer pulls out from that. This allows plenty of leg room for working. A printer can be placed in the cabinet below. Right now I just have adjustable shelves down there. I may change that to a pull out printer tray.

The doors glass has a film on it to give it that Venetian blind effect. I get this film from Outwater The next one that I do I may try some etched style glass.

I currently have two more of this style on order and will be working on them in the next week. I also have another customer that is ready to order one too. I don’t push a particular style but it is weird how my different style come in spurts like this.

Here are some of the others that I’ve done in the past. As I was writing this, I was thinking I have built about 4 or 5 of these, but after posting the pictures I realize there was much more that slipped my mind.

For more building pictures and to see the two that I’ll build in the next couple weeks see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live:

Quick Ship Plan

2009-01-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

Here at wwbeds.com we have just implimented a Quick Ship Plan. Our most popular murphy bed, the Alpine, in both oak and maple are built and ready to be stained a color of choice. Usually we can have the Alpine shipped in less than a week.

We were already geared up for the Christmas rush and made some extra parts. We will keep them in rotation. As soon as we sell one we'll replace it. Using this system we should keep the system going with the 1 week lead time.

In the near future we will add the Bullock, then the Ross, and maybe the Excalibur.

New Showroom Cam

2009-01-05T05:26:00.000-08:00

We have now added a Showroom cam to our live video feed. We put this camera in our showroom area for when there is no activity in the shop, which is common on Saturdays. This will also be helpful to us when we're all needed in the shop and have to abandoned the showroom. We can keep an eye on who comes in.

For now the camera will be on the same feed, which means that you'll only see one image at a time and will still be controlled by my "tool belt remote". In the near future I plan on have a Showroom feed of it's own. I'll then be able to run them side-by-side so our customers can see what's going on in the shop and showroom. I will also have picture-in-a-picture capabilities. Stay tuned for more updates.

You can watch us live from our Current Projects page at wwbeds and poggyskids.com Also at the site photographs are posted each day of our work.

My Girls Beds

2009-01-02T05:41:00.000-08:00

This is a couple Murphy beds that were completed 12-23-2008. I built them for my two daughters. I designed it to cover an entire wall. The two beds are separated by a desk with shelves. Each of the beds and the desk all have a three stage touch sensor lights for reading or to be used as a night light. The lights over the bed I added a mercury switch to shut the lights off when the bed is in the up position.

I finished it in just a natural maple with two coats of pre-cat lacquer to match a chest and a converted changing table that I built before.

I gave this to them on Christmas but were not able to install them until New Years day. We also painted the room Tinkerbell Green.

Here are some more pictures: (Put you mouse on the picture for a discription)

Baseball Loft

2008-12-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

This was a project that we finished and delivered on Christmas eve. It is a baseball loft. It is based off my baseball bed that I normally build with the customizable headboard. This is real similar to the baseball loft I built last August. Here are some of the changes I made to this one.
I use the style slide that I have for my Castle Loft. The customer wanted a full size coming straight out on the bottom and the larger slide helped filling in that gap. I like how small the other slide was, but like the sturdiness of this one.

I incorporated the ladder into the side panels. I love this change. The less pieces the easer it will be to ship and assemble. I also looks better and reduces the weight of the panels.
I also didn’t do the dugout bench or wall this time. The customer wanted a full size bed under there instead.

The front guard rail was made form real Louisville Slugger bats. I slightly trimmed both ends of a pair and cut most of the handle off the other two to make is the correct size that I needed. I put them together with a lag dowel type screw. After getting it together It felt a little week at the joint so I made the center support by drilling two 1” holes in a piece of ash, taking the bats apart and sliding it in the middle.

I really like this bed and may try to build one for my showroom and internet. I wasn’t able to get real good pictures, so I’ll have to build another one.

This is a picture of the old style:

Here are some building pictures:

For more building pictures see my Current Projects link at wwbeds.com or poggyskids.com. See what we are doing live: Check out the video live from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/

Mission Style Wall Bed

2008-11-29T04:06:00.000-08:00

This is a mission style Murphy wall bed that was completed on October 18th. The customer requested only one bookcase to accompany bed. It is one of my favorite Murphy beds but not to build. There are many parts that make up the face compared to some of the others that I build.

The wood is Red Oak with a Red Oak stain from Minwax. I then clear coat it with 2 coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer by Sherwin Williams.

The mission style crown I make myself and is set at a 45 degree angle. I start with 3 ½” wide board and cut the two back angles. I don’t take it down to a point. I leave a little material to ride against the fence on the subsequent cuts, since I have a right tilt table saw. After both back angles are cut, I flip the board over, adjust the fence and cut the face side slightly. This gives the crown another shadow line so that it looks like it is no just a flat board up there. Since they are cut at 45, they will be 90 degrees to the backs and therefore to the piece when it is mounted. I thought I’d share that with you. Hope you find it useful. I also used the same mission crown on the feet of Chandlers Table.

More pictures can be viewed in the October archives or the Current Projects link.

More pictures

As always you can see us live
goto http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wwbeds-shop

Oak Captain's Bed

2008-10-30T03:40:00.001-07:00

Oak Captain's Bed
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is an oak captain’s bed that was completed on October 25, 2008. It features 6 drawers on one side and I just left the other side open. Most of the time these are placed in smaller kids rooms and usually the bed is placed against the wall making the other side useless. The footboard has a door has a door to access the space under the bed.

The finish that the customer selected was pickled oak from Minwax followed by two coats for pre-catalyzed lacquer.

More picture can be seen at www.wwbeds.com. Just click on Current Projects.

Chalkboard Murphy Wall Bed

2008-10-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

This is a different version of my Chalkboard Murphy Wall bed that was completed on 9-30-2008. On this version the customer requested that we do pegboard on one side and the chalkboard on the other. All other wood surfaces were finished in a cherry finish.

Here are some other pictures

http://wwbeds.com/Sept08Pictures/DSCN5510.JPG

http://wwbeds.com/Sept08Pictures/IM003798.JPG

More pictures can be found on our Current Project page at www.wwbeds.com where we also have Live Video of our shop.

Chandler Table

2008-10-20T03:35:00.000-07:00

This was a table that was complete on September 16th, 2008. It is a table base for a local designer. I was commissioned to build the base only and they supplied the glass top. It is built from walnut and Waterfall Bubinga. The walnut feet are 6×6x6 blocks mitered in the corner so that no end grain is showing. They were offset from the walnut base by 3” on each side. Then to make the transition from the feet to the base I used a mission style molding to match the top molding.

The bubinga used on the top a some that my brother bought at auction from Dessault/Falcon Jet where he works. I applied it to an MDF substrate with contact cement.

On the finish, I planned on doing everything natural, but the walnut wasn’t dark or consistent enough so I stained it with a Dark Walnut stain from Minwax before applying the two coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer. The top was clear coated only. By the way I just installed and used my new air assisted airless spray gun that I bought at the IWF show last month. It is great. It applies the softest finish with very little overspray.

This was actually my second one to build. The first one I looked at my cut list wrong and built it too wide by 8 inches. The customer said they would take both and sell the other on consignment for me, so it worked out great. The pictures below are of the wider one

More Picture

Sample of Waterfall Bubinga
Before the table base was stained
View without glass top

Yankee Baseball Desk Open

2008-08-15T05:20:00.001-07:00

Yankee Baseball Desk Open
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is a desk competed on August 12, 2008. It was custom built for a customer who also bought our Baseball Murphy Bed Locker. The goal was to incorporate the look of the old Yankee stadium. I had some pictures and what I did was to match the top to the Yankee façade.

This desk features a single pedestal with drawers and a pull out keyboard tray. I tried something different on my keyboard tray this time. I had the false drawer front pull up and the tray slide out from underneath.

It was finished it in my standard baseball blue and green lacquers. All the case was green and the drawer fronts, writing surface and back were blue.

The Rains Platform Bed

2008-08-06T04:42:00.001-07:00

The Rains Platform Bed
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/wwbeds/

This is a platform bed that was completed on July 16, 2008. The wood that was used for this project is maple and is finished in a cappuccino finish. This is a platform style bed and only mattress, no foundation, will be used. For this reason the slats are constructed with just a couple inches of space between them. The slats also have a slot that they are inserted into to keep the spacing uniform and easy to install.

I also built case goods to match (dresser, night sands, and chest). They are built in a simple contemporary style with slab drawer fronts and squared off edges.

To see more like this visit our web site wwbeds.com. We are now a live view of our shop. Just visit our "Current Projects" page.

Excalibur June09

2008-06-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

Excalibur June09
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is a Murphy bed that was completed on 06-13-2008. It is made from maple wood and finished out using a dye stain and a regular wiping stain. The fleur-de-lis carving at the top was chosen by the customer as was the handles. See more like this at: http://wwbeds.com/Excalibur.htm

A Pair of Chalkboards Beds

2008-05-24T05:34:00.001-07:00

A Pair of Chalkboards Beds (closed)
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is a set of beds that were competed on 5-18-2008 shown here with the beds closed. They are built for two boys that shared the same room. These Murphy beds are built with a chalkboard and pegboard front and the beds are separated by a 24” bookcase with drawer and shelves behind a door. A drink try has also been added between the door and the drawers.

This is basically a Murphy bed with a flat face, which I call the Alpine. I painted the lower section with a chalkboard paint that can be purchased at any home store. On the upper section I used contact cement to attach a roll of pegboard material and then built a frame around that. I also added a chalk tray which I milled out of solid maple with a fluting bit.

Cherry Finish Excalibur

2008-05-22T04:59:00.000-07:00

This is a Murphy bed that was completed on 5-9-2008. I call it the Excalibur. This bed has arched raised panels on the face along with fluting on the trim beside the doors. Above the fluting is the release leg that unlocks if from the cabinet and acts at the support feet when the bed is in the down position. Above the feet are rosettes that were cut in.

To tie it in to the customers existing furniture I matched the color and changed the crown up a little. The customer had some dental molding that they wanted to match. To get this to work I had to deviate from my standard cut list and make a taller header and sides. The dental molding wraps around and I needed to figure a break that would allow it to disassemble and reassemble to where the molding looked seamless.

The color is a dye stain followed by a wiping stain. The dye is a combination of brown and red dyes with a lot of thinner and the stain coat is Red Mahoney from Minwax. The cherry colors was matched off a customers drawer.

Here are some links to the building pictures

http://wwbeds.com/may08pictures/IM003587.JPG

http://wwbeds.com/april08pictures/IM003569.JPG

You can see more at our "Current Projects" page.

Full Boat

2008-04-18T06:12:00.001-07:00

Full Boat
Originally uploaded by cdavis9699@sbcglobal.net

This is a boat bed that was completed on 4-15-2008. It is one my production bed that I build regularly. I’ve built this one in just about every size but king. Going from toddler to queen size. I even sent one to Qutar in the Middle East. I’ll be building two more in the next few weeks. One pink and one this same color.

I change something on this bed each time I build it. This time around I made the headboard legs removable. I used dowels and pocket screws for it to be reassembled. I also added air vents in the back, for safety reasons. The last few have had an air space under the lid, but to streamline production and to improve the appearance, I move them to the back.

Special Edition Baseball bed

2008-02-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

This is a version of our popular Baseball bed that I completed on 2-6-2008. I’ve built many of these. This one, however, is a little different than our norm. It comes from our Special Edition line and I customized it a little more then normal.

On this bed, like our other baseball beds, the child get to help us customize the headboard. They fill out a form with the team names, the score, the stadium name, and their name. Usually I use authentic Louisville Slugger Signature bats, but this time the customer chose one of Louisville’s Pro Stock series called Hornsby. This is the same grade bat that the professionals use.

I then matched the wood type, which is Ash. The color was a little tricky. Ash stains out like oak. It’s easy to get the dark grain but the rest of the wood would be light. We ended up dying the wood with a brown dye and then stained it using a tweaked version of Minwax’s Red Mahogany.

All the information that the customer sent to us I had routed into the wood, but only after the finish was applied. This exposed the natural wood and made the cut sections lighter. The original plan was to paint the letters and numbers gold to match the bats, but after it was cut and loved the result of the natural ash, we decided that the gold would just cheapen the look of the bed.

This bed has a trundle and drawers under the bed and a matching nightstand.

Murphy bed Sideways Ross

2008-02-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

This is a Murphy bed that was completed on January 26, 2008. This is a style that I build often, but this is the first sideways version. It is built in oak with 2 24” bookcases. Most of the time I keep the two sides symmetrical. This customer chose to have two different style bookcase.
See more at our website: www.wwbeds.com

Combination Loft

2008-02-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

This is a loft that I completed on 1/24/2008. It is made from all pine and includes a desk, bookcase, chest and trundle. It also has a pass through on the back side that can be used for storage or a “club house”.

One of the large end panels I did something different. I didn’t want to use solid pine because it needed strength and I didn’t think the solid would hold up and that would have been a lot of gluing. If I used a plywood, I’d have to edge band or add trim along the edge. The edge band would be too square and the molding would have alter the design the customer saw on my original. What I did was to use a MDF core pine panel. I cut the end panels, like normal, rounded it over with a router and after it was stained and finished , the edge looked great. I got the idea from a door I saw on some cabinets a while back.

Panel Headboard and Nightstands

2008-02-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

This is a custom headboard and couple nightstands that were built for the same customer as the “Wardrobe/Entertainment Center”. It was designed to match in style and color.

Headboard
The headboard was built with raised panels to match the style of the Wardrobe/Entertainment Center doors. I added some custom dental molding under the top lip. This is the same dental molding that I built to insert into the crown molding in the rest of the room.

Nightstand
On this nightstand, we deviated from the normal wood top, to a top that was made from Formica Solid Surface material. It gave the top had a granite look. We also used Formica laminate on a pull out drink tray above the drawers. Each of the drawers used full extension rails with birch drawer boxes. The base molding was a two piece molding, a solid square stock with a base cap on that. This matched the molding that I applied to the Wardrobe/Entertainment Center, with the exception that it was a little smaller.

The Wardrobe, nightstands, and headboard was one of the larger projects that I’ve completed on one order. I did separate it into two phases, which were separated by a week. This was to allow for carpet installation and I gave me a little breathing room.

Wardrobe/Entertainment Wall

2008-01-31T05:23:00.000-08:00

This is a wall unit completed on December 21, 2007. It is part of a complete bedroom set that I built for this customer consisting of this wall, a bed, and two end tables. I will write about the rest at a later date.

Features
46” flat panel television and accessories in center section
Television pulls out and swivels.
4 Hanging compartments for clothes. (one has a tie rack)
18 drawers (plus 2 hidden) all with full extension rails
20 solid raised panel doors with 170 degree cancelled hinges.
Wainscot panel style end panel
Built as a built-in with a corner block to transition from our crown to their crown.
All insides are natural maple with the outsides dyed, stained, and lacquer.
Television compartment is painted black.

This was a very large project for me, especially around Christmas time. I divided these units into 5 section and then each of the sections were built as a lower drawer section and then an upper doors section. Because I used full overlay hinges on the sections, it made everything look seamless. Also to make it look like one piece I added the left wainscot panel with the left style attached after everything else was in place. Another way I tried to make it look like one piece was I seamed the crown and base together as one piece before I applied the finish to them. I left them long and fit them on site.

I made a bed and end tables about a week later to match, so keep watching for later post. More picture can be viewed at our archives at my website www.wwbeds.com

Parks Canopy

2007-08-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

This is a bed that can be used as either a canopy bed or a standard four-poster bed. This was done by adding post extension and a canopy to the top. I made the top caps on the band saw with a coupled routed squares on the bottom. The wood of choice was both Popular and Maple.
FeaturesQueen Size convertible canopyHigh Gloss Lacquer finishFluted PostDoweled side rail connections with draw type bolts.Laminated top arch molding

This project was the first one that I used a brand new tool. It is a doweling jig from Dowelmax. The is a great tool and wished I bought one earlier. I used it everywhere. On the post/panel joint, to align and connect the lower post to the upper post and the upper post to the finale.

It also allowed me to make a much stronger side rail connection. I used three holes in each end of the side rail. Two for dowels and the center one for a machine screw. The machine screw connected to a half moon connecter that was set in a 1” hole. With the Dowelmax, I was able to perfectly align everything.

The top arch was laminated into that shape. Since I don’t have a vacuum system, I did it a little different technique. I cut the top cap into 6 1/8” strips. Put glued between each layer. Tacked it down in the center, onto the headboard (I didn’t glue the bottom layer to the headboard. I then clamped them all together with as many clamps that I had. Once it dried, I removed it and trimmed all sides. Added an edge profile and put it back on, this time with glue.

The bottom of the post was cut on the band saw and then all the post were clamped together and the coves were cut at the same time. The post were rotated 90 degrees and cut again. This was continued until all the side were hit.

Dowelmax made this project a lot easier. They are located in Canada and I believe they will send a free DVD. I would recomend this to anyone.

For more picture check out my “Current Projects” link at wwbeds.com.

Gone Live

2007-06-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Over the years I've been keeping my customers informed on what I've been working on by my "Current Projects" page. I post picture there and then give a little description of what I'm doing. That is if I had the time. Sometimes I would go a few days without posting any pictures, but would always catch up.

I have always wanted to show a live video of the shop, but didn't think that was possible. Until now. I've found a way to get our security camera onto our site. This is great because I can first, give my customers something fun to do.... See if you can find you furniture. It's a "Where's Waldo" type of thing. It also allows me to monitor the activity when I'm in the office or my day off. And especially it allows me to prove that I really get to work at 6:00, sometimes earlier. I'll have to move my nap time from the work bench to somewhere off camera. Not to mention removing the sawdust from my head (if you know what I mean).

It may not be the most beneficial thing, but you have to admit. It is really cool. Maybe the customers can't make out if I'm working on their furniture or something else. Even when I upgrade the camera. I'll try to keep note on the page and I'll keep up the photos. Speaking of photos did you see my new helper.

I plan on upgrading the camera system. I am using a wireless system now, which has a lot of interference. I'd like to hard wire the camera and add good quality audio. Now that would be a show. We have our own word to songs and our own dance moves too.

Let me know how you like it. Is this something that only I'm excited about? I'd like to know so send me some feedback.

Special Edition

2007-01-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

I just finished building another Special Edition baseball bed. This was a fun bed to build. It was ordered for a professional baseball player for the Angels, Kelvim Escobar. His designer placed the original order and Kelvim filled in the stats with his information and faxed the forms back to us.

This bed is based on our Special Edition version with a few modifications. For one, this will be the first one that we put both drawer and trundle under the bed. We also stained the wood a Special Walnut color from Minwax. Staining the headboard, I think, works out better than painting the letter black. We may make this the new standard.

The desk was a nice addition to the group. I did a distressing technique on the top. I first used a white undercoater to give it a white base; then I used a special walnut glaze to antique it a little. I did a little simulated worn look on the corners to make it look well used.

End of year

2007-01-12T15:25:00.004-08:00

Wow, it has been along time since I've posted anything. Business has been very busy. Let me give a quick update on how our Murphy bed line is going. We have finished out the 2006 with 52 murphy beds being sold and built, which was our exact goal (1 per week). That is not bad for a small 2 man shop considering all the other items we still offer and build. Next years goal will be 60 murphy beds or 5 per week. That may be too conservative considering the new purchases I've made which has increased production.

My new baby is an edgebander that I've recently bought from Laguna Tools. I took a trip to Atlanta to visit the IWF2006 show for this specific purpose. This has been the largest purchase we've had to make so far in our 27 years in business, even bigger than our wide belt sander. But it has proved itself to be worth it. It is a BIG time saver. What would normally take 2 hours, now takes just 15 minutes. In our business time is money.

With that time savings I was able to keep the prices low. If you remember from an earlier post, my strategy was to artificially keep the prices low to increase interest and to get more web traffic. This has worked, but instead of raising the prices up to where the should have been (pre banding machine era) I can keep it level and save the customers a little.

I did make a small change in pricing. I raised the base price of all the sizes to cover packaging. This was not really a price increase. I just moved it form one place to another. I was figuring it into the shipping cost before. Now I've lower the shipping price to $299. So it is really a wash.

Don't forget to visit our web site at www.wwbeds.com, and our kids website www.poggyskids.com. I do have a new site where I'll focus on just the Murphy beds. That will be www.murphyswall.com.

I've had some interest in our beds from a sales rep., so we've sent a couple up to the furniture market in tupelo Mississippi. I'll post how that goes at a later time. So keep

2007-01-12T15:25:00.003-08:00

Batter Up!

2006-09-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here at Poggy's Kids furniture we have been known for our baseball bed. This has been a popular item in both our local store and over the internet. Switching to our more "grown up" furniture, we've dove right in on the Murphy bed market and have made a big difference in our product line. I've been averaging about 1 bed per week and we are now preparing for a big increase.

I've been wanting to design and build a Murphy bed with a child's theme. This week I did it. It is not something I've just threw together, I have thought about this idea a while. I've combined both our baseball bed and our Murphy bed into a very exciting new addition to our line. It is our new Locker Room Murphy Bed. It is designed to look like a pair of lockers in the locker room of the child's favorite team. This is complete with the child's name, another name of their choice, and a scoreboard headboard. The display that I made has the optional light kit ($125). This includes 2 can lights, a touch dimmer, and a mercury switch. The cost of this bed is:
Twin size Murphy bed $1082
Locker Graphics $80
Baseball headboad $170
Total $1332

I plan on selling the first 10 or so at $994. I have some other ideas too so keep checking our current project link.

New Addition

2006-05-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of adding a new addition to our already diverse product line. This product, I think, will revolutionize the children's bedroom market. It is the Hiddenbed. This simple bed caught my eye surfing the web and I haven't quit thinking about it yet!

Here's the concept. It is a desk then it's a bed. It kind of like our murphy bed (see www.wwbeds.com/murphy.htm ), where the bed folds down from the cabinet. But it even better than that. The bed is made so that things on the desk, like a computer, papers, and a drink, can stay during the transition from desk to bed. No need to move anything. You could download files while sleeping.

It is all in the mechanism. This patented product from www.hiddenbed.com allows the desk to stay perpendicular to the floor. It also slows the motion down, so that it will not be dangerous for the little ones. The entire transformation takes less than 5 seconds.

I plan on building my first on in the next few weeks. I am currently working on getting the hardware shipped from Uruguay, South America. The hardware is reasonably priced, but what is killing me is the shipping and wire transfer fees. It will cost $50 to transfer the funds and $95 for shipping. With those cost I can see why most companies are charging around $2000 for one. As you read in my last post, I am trying to break into the market by artificially keeping my prices low. I am hoping to stay below that $2000 mark.

The company is real restrictive on beds that they will allow us to build. All new designs have to be pre-approved by them before we market them. I can understand that. Their name is on the product and they don't want to ruin it with some bad, fly-by-night company.

Let me know what you think about this. I hope my customers get as excited about this as I am. Keep looking for building pictures on this and other new projects. Comments are always welcome.

Where have I been?

2006-05-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

It has been along time since I've posted anything new. Alot of things have happened since then. On a pervious post, I noted that we were gearing up to build Murphy Beds. Well that has exploded. Since then I've build 25-30 complete beds. See http://wwbeds.com/murphy.htm for a few of them.

To give you a little backgroung, In Atlanta Augest 2004, I researched the different types mechenism on the market. This was at the IWF woodworking show. I found that the creat-a-bed mechnism to be the best. With this system the bed is mounted to the wall at 3-4 studs. No need to mount to the floor and ruin your flooring. I also cope around the customers base molding. These two features right here sold me on the mechnicsm. It doesn't become a perminate fixture, you can move it very easy. Features that make it even better are the pneumatic piston lift, and there is no special mattress to buy. With this system there is never any springs to adjust and the pistons are tested at 10,000 revelutions. (see other features) That is 27 years of everyday use! It uses any type of innerspring mattress up to 12" thick. The only set back that I had with the mattress is if a customer wanted to use an ultra lite foam mattress, the foot of the bed wanted to float of the ground. This was easily fixed by adding a little weight at the foot.

My stratigy to sell these beds were to artificially keep the prices down for about 6 months while trying to get my foot into the market. During this time I'll try to get my name out there and to get the web site moving up in the search engines. The name part of that has worked but the search engines has let me down a little. People do stunble across the web site, but not in the numbers expected. I plan to keep the prices where they are for another month or so.

I plan on designing a Murphe bed for dogs. In the mean time keep watching my Current Projects link to see what I'm building.

What, is Christmas almost here?

2005-11-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

About 1 month till Christmas? Where did the year go? This is our busy time of the year. Like other retail outlets, we rely on this season to continue in business. Unfortunately the "shopping season" is too short. Before I am lynched let me explain. I normally work on a four to six week lead time. This is because everything has to be planned, ordered, built, and finished and each takes a set amount of time. That would leave our cut-off date to be, uh, NOW!

Most people don't want to wait 'till after Christmas for their gift. So I usually give a little break and go a few days longer with the cut-off date. That dead line comes and someone else wants their furniture. Who am I to deny them their Christmas surprise? So I allow a few more orders in. Now we’re really stacked up. Luckily I planned a little ahead a built up stock in some of our popular beds, like the baseball bed. I got them to the point were they are ready for finish (this way the customer can chose the color).

To add the stack of orders. the Democrat/Gazette is doing an article on our Murphy bed. (see www.wwbeds.com/Murphy.htm) They chose us because we are the only one around that builds or carries the Murphy Bed. We also have one on display for them to shoot pictures. Or we "had" one. Just days after the interview, we sold our display to a displaced “Katrina Victim". I would have loved to keep that one, but they needed a bed and needed it quickly. That left me with two weeks to try to squeeze in a new one for display (only one week left now).

I decided to build two different versions of the Murphy bed. The first one will be very simple, no moulding. It will be the least expensive version I can offer. This one will be built from oak, not the cheapest wood, and stained a light oak finish. I should have this in a couple of days. See our current projects for pictures www.wwbeds.com/Current%20Projects.htm . The next one will be a little more elaborate with crown/base moulding, framed out front section, bookcases, lights, and finished in a flat black lacquer on oak. Many people would kill me for covering up the beauty of oak wood with a colored finish, but this will be awesome. The black will cover the wood, but not the grain. It will still have the texture of the grain showing thru - the grain is the best part on oak wood anyway. This one may take another week or so. I probably will not have it finished before the article is released, but at least I will have something for customers to look at.

Christmas is only four weeks away, but I am not worried. God always takes care of us. I have faith the same will happen this year. I pray that my job will not interfere with the true meaning of this season. That is, our Savior was born. Without Jesus being born, He couldn't have died and paid the debt for our sins. We would be eternally separated from God. He was born, He did die, and we are saved.

Pick Two Any Two

2005-11-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

I come across customers all the time who would like everything now. “Give me a quality piece of furniture at a very low price, and by the way I need that ASAP.” In almost all businesses that is impossible to do and stay in business. Most mission statements for companies usually states something about giving or providing their customers with a product or service with a certain level of expected quality, price, or promptness, but there is also their responsibility to the stakeholder of the business (i.e. the owners and employees) By providing all three of these features to a customer, the business would quickly fail.

Let’s look at the first one, quality. Webster defines quality as a “degree of excellence” or a grade. People normally use it to describe high quality furniture. But quality is more like a sliding scale. There are different degrees of quality. For example I could put a quality finish on furniture with just a few steps (stain/seal, sealer coat, top coat). If done correctly, that would be a very fine finish. I could add a few steps to that fine finish and get a very high quality finish.

Another factor to add to the mix would be the price of the piece. Most everyone wants a reasonable price, and most businesses would like to receive a fair price for their items. Price and quality, for the most part, have a direct correlation to each other. When quality goes up price usually does too. Quality can come from a couple a couple of sources. First, quality is gained thru experience. The more experience your employees gain the higher quality you’d expect, and the higher wages they’d expect.

Another would be the time spent on the project. That leads me to my last factor, time. The finish can gain higher quality by spending more time and adding more steps. The longer you spend on a project the more that project would cost in labor. Going the opposite direction, by allowing for more time, cost could go down. This way the project would not require overtime, during a busy time, or it could be scheduled in pockets of free time in your schedule.

As you can see all three affect each other, which means you can’t have your custom product quickly and keep the price and quality down. One must be eliminated, low price, high quality, or speedy delivery. You must pick two and only two.

This usually applies to custom build products only. Production items are sometimes excluded. One example is our baseball bed. It is priced low, high quality, and can be shipped fairly quickly. This is because we already took care of the time factor. We did this by scheduling it ahead of time. We built them in pockets of free or slow time and build a large number together to cut down on the average time.

I can give you that high quality furniture quickly but expect to pay for it. By waiting, it could save you some money. I don’t mind adjusting the time and price factor. I like to leave the quality alone. If the quality move, I like it to move up.

Remember pick two: Price, Quality, Fast.

Auto Repair vs. Woodworking

2005-10-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

Repairing my table saw and having an auto repair shop loosen a bolt got me to thinking. Why are we willing to pay $50/hour to have our car repaired, but feel guilty charging someone $35-$45/hour for woodworking. I understand that auto shops have large overhead. So do woodworkers. Yea you can buy a router, circular saw, and a hammer for a few hundred bucks, but you have your shade tree mechanics that can do the same with a set of wrenches. Your more organized woodworking shops will have a higher overhead. It's not uncommon for a shop to have a $10,000 wide belt sander and other expensive tool that a "shade tree" woodworker could do without.

There is also tools that are specialized to make the job faster. You have your pocket hold machine, Plat joiner, 6" joiner, routers set up for specific jobs, or a dust collection system. There is a trade off for time and machinery. The more you invest in your shop, the faster a job can get thru the system. You have a lower labor time, but your labor rate had to increase. Sometimes I look at that and think that it's just a wash, because a lot of the time the end price is the same. Even though that may be true, another factor that increase at the same time is QUALITY.

The quality of a product gets better the more efficient a shop becomes. This is, I believe, because of three reasons. One, the specialize machine elimiates steps and repeats the action the same way each time. By eliminating steps, you eliminate time and chances to mess up. The action that is repeated is always the same. You can rely on the outcome. The steps after that don't have to be measure or adjusted each time. The another reason is you don't feel as rushed during a job. The parts you are doing manually can be slowed down. It's more of a mental thing, when you feel you're ahead of schedule. The last reason quality improves is just a better way of doing things. Take for example my Pocket Hole Cutter. Before Pocket holes, items were glued and nailed. The only thing the nails are used for in woodworking is to hold the piece together while the glue dries. They have very little holding power by themselves. Now with pocket holes I can use a hidden screw in the place of those nails. The holding power has increase expandable. I read an article comparing the holding strengths of different joints in wood. They compared the pocket screw hold on a butt joint, dove tails, tongue and groove, and maybe some other fancy joints. Their scientific testing demonstrated that pocket hole held better the all the others, even the dove tail which surprised me.

How did I get off on the subject of joinery? Anyway back to my original problem. Both industries, woodworking and auto repair, have overhead expenses. With us we also have a showroom to maintain.

Another area is the learning curve. Someone once ask how long it take to build a certain piece of furniture. I told them 14 years. After the shock, I explained. It took 14 years of experience to get to where I am. It should take less than a week for the actually building. Woodworker and auto mechanics alike don't just wake up and say "I'm going to start in a new field of work today and be exactly where I need to be". Like most industries that is impossible. I would not necessarily take 14 years, but some hands-on experience is needed.

It is accepted to pay a fair rate for auto repair, and we should not be ashamed to ask for a fair rate for our services too. If we believe in our products, then there is no need to back off. The product should be worth it. One last note. I keep comparing the two different industries, but did you notice. I, the woodworker still needed the services of an auto mechanic to fix my table saw.

Thanks,
Chris

Finished but not a lot done

2005-10-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today is finally over. I start the day without a table saw. The barring locked up on it. I didn't realize how important this one tool can be in the shop. Yesterday I had a new barring shipped overnight. UPS arrived about eight this morning. Unfortunately I watch them drive off behind a locked front door. So I started my morning by disassembling the saw. Nothing else to do. I ran into problems there too. I tried for hours to break the bolt loose that holds the barring. I didn't actually try for hours, most of the time was spent finding tools, buying tools, and running around in circles. I finally got it off by taking half the saw apart and taking the hole thing to an auto shop.. They used an impact wrench. Helps to have the right tools. Anyway I did get some work done. I build a maple bookcase. Check it out on my web site www.wwbeds.com. Click on the current projects link

Start up

2005-10-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt to blog. What I plan to do is to keep readers informed on furniture building. The ups and downs and all arounds. If that doesn't work I will may venture off into some tips on furniture quality, furniture care, or buying furniture.