Creative Woodworks & crafts 2000-08, страница 23

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Ultimate Woodcrafting Festival update

I The Ultimate Woodcrafting Festival for 2000, regretfully, will NOT be held this year. The date to begin properly organizing this event has long since passed and to try to pull something together at the last minute would result in an event that would be something less than you would care to attend. However, the management here at All American Crafts Publishing, Inc. are considering several options for the (true) new Millennium in 2001. We will keep you informed as plans develop. If there is anything you have ill mind that you would have a particular interest in seeing or participating in, please let me | know and I will pass it along.

Captain Video

Hopefully, you noticed an ad in this issue promoting a new instructional video on basic scroll sawing. Yes, that's me, and as you have read a number of times in this column, I have never considered myself an expert in woodworking. So what am I doing, you might ask? Well, Stcebar Corporation, who I am sure you are familiar with, has had a number of requests for an instructional video on this subject. When they asked if I was interested in making such a video, I literally jumped at the opportunity. In our shows and I demonstrations over the years, wc have been repeatedly asked to produce just such a tape, but never had the funds to do it, nor an offer from a corporate sponsor, until now.

Wc have all experienced a blade that does not track as we expect. The wood seems to have a mind of its own, the table seems to be not as we left it yesterday, ad infinitum. With that in mind, we put together a bunch of thoughts while I cut and conveyed to the viewer what was happening between the blade and the wood and why. The video starts with a description of blades, sizes and tooth spacing, and moves on to the results you will get with various combinations of them and wood thicknesses and densities. Wc also covered the reasoning behind where to place entry drill holes and methods of sawing a workpieee to render the best appcaraticc, plus a whole lot more.

I know that you old hands might find some of this boring, but there are a lot more folks out there who do not saw on a daily basis and would like to develop their skills, but do not have someone at their side to help them. That is the purpose of our video. One thing we do stress is that this is merely the way I do things, and that everyone develops their own methods as they progress. Your method may differ from mine, but neither of us is wrong, just different, and the proof will be in the cutting.

A little more light on the lamps

Perhaps you noticed John Nelson's lamp pattern in the last issue. We have been working on a total of six lamps, with the other five to be released as patterns similar to the Gallery Basket Series. (See ad in this issue.) They are different from most other scroll saw projects in that there is a considerable amount of joinery involved. These joints are simple half laps and mortise and tenons, but when done properly, they result in a stunning accomplishment and an item that is sure to bring you raves. Of the five patterns, four of them are made of wood that is 1/4" or thinner. They can be brittle, so some breakage might occur while you are working on them. If you are uncomfortable with the Lhinness, and want, to use thicker wood, you will have to enlarge the whole pattern as the cogs in the horizontal members will not have enough material to provide any support. Your other option is to make a trial lamp out of thin plywood. It is far more forgiving than thin solid wood, and when stained or paint-

August, 2000

cd will look as good as the solid wood presentations.

There are no secrets in the construction of the lamps other than patience and hand fitting. One final thought, however, is that if you are unable to use the wood shortly after you receive it, be sure lo keep it flat and with some weight on it. Wood, being the natural material that it is, will move as it absorbs or releases moisture. Cupping of the board will cause you aggravation and breakage during assembly and will require additional hand filed adjustments for proper fit. We have not experienced any breakage to date because of any wood movement after the lamp has been assembled. The wood moisture content ranged from 11% down to 8% in my shop, and most of it was kiln dried. The lamps were made over several seasons and did get up to 12% moisture content, without failure.

Pricing your work

Our column on marketing your efforts has resulted in a lot of mail with the main question being, how do you price your stuff. My initial response is that it's real simple. Assume the yoga lotus position, play some soothing music with incense burning in the background, then go into a trance. Eventually, your answer will come to you in a pretty, pale mauve colored cloud—a true Zen experience! But be careful. Do this too often and you may not wish to continue woodworking—either because you have found true enlightenment and arc now in a different state of mind or because you are broke. Probably both!

In all seriousness, the pricing of any product is the key to staying in business. Many other things can comc into play for continued success, but pricing is the driving element. Ask six different woodworkers how much to charge for a particular item and you will get six different answers. The reason is that we all have different overhead. The person who makes the item for a living will have a broader range of expenses than the part-timer or hobbyist, and that determines your bottom line.

Sit down and itemize the known items needed to produce your product (which for this exercise, we'll refer to as a blivit). Account for the wood by the square inch, the finish by the ounce, the number of blades used for each blivit, how many screws, how much sandpaper, how many hangers, etc, etc, etc. Keep track of the time it takes to make one in minutes as well. Add up the cost of everything but your time. Now add up your fixed overhead such as rent, utilities, automobile, etc., per month and divide that by the amount of lime you spend engaged in your work on each blivct. Add that percentage to your previous amount. Now determine how much you want in your pocket after that—after taxes. Factor all this together and that will get you started. After you sell a few blivets, you will soon know if you covered all the bases and have to adjust up or down. Down ?!—Ha!

Another method is to weigh your blivet against similar blivets made by others and see how your price compares. Are the other blivit makers hobbyists or professionals, arc people buying them or are they sitting on a shelf with a layer of dust? Whatever you do, respect that the professional has set his price to afford the same things in life that the hobbyist takes for granted with a regular pav-chcek. You may be in a position to undercut their price, but to what end. You will then rcducc the value of all blivets. kill the sale for the professional, lowering your character in their eves, and cheapening yourself to your customer. Leaving yourself no room to adjust for new expenses (which you can bet there will be plenty of), it is also likely that you won't be around on the show circuit the following year, so price right from the start. |r j