# Have you been able to finance your hobby?



## JSan (Dec 26, 2012)

I enjoy woodworking as a hobby but it can get expensive when you buy tools, materials, etc. Any success stories out there or ideas you would like to share in order to best finance a very satisfying hobby?


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## jmartel (Jul 6, 2012)

My woodworking essentially pays for itself and a bit more. Started out doing the stereotypical selling cheap cutting boards and stuff, and have since worked my way up to furniture. I've mostly sold to friends, but now I'm getting referrals and building stuff for people I've never met. I make enough to buy tools and pay for wood for my own projects.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

If you have to ask, you can't afford it! lol

Save when you buy.

It's like justifying a yacht because of the $$$ you'll save on fish. It ain't gonna happen. Most are lucky to sell at a price point high enough to cover your materials. Unless you go commercial you'll never recover the cost of your tools.

Let your projects dictate your tool purchases. Buy cheap at first (except your ts) and buy better when it breaks.dedicate a certain amount every payday to the tool fund. Most shops cost about $5k or so to have everything you need to do quality projects regularly. If you are the occasional woodworker you can get by with a lot less.

M


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## poordustmaker (Jan 12, 2015)

It took me about a year but I finally made enough profit from cutting boards to cover the cost of my dewalt planer. Still in the hole quite a bit tho.


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

Live below your means. Don't use credit use cash. After a while you'll have a lot of money to spend on your hobby.


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

> My woodworking essentially pays for itself and a bit more. Started out doing the stereotypical selling cheap cutting boards and stuff, and have since worked my way up to furniture. I ve mostly sold to friends, but now I m getting referrals and building stuff for people I ve never met. I make enough to buy tools and pay for wood for my own projects.
> 
> - jmartel


 That's me…!!


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## becikeja (Sep 12, 2010)

My problem, is I love the creativity of it. I could be wrong, but the way I have it figured, to make any money you must make the same thing multiple times, and develop jigs so you can whip them out quickly.

I enjoy seeing something, then trying to figure out if I can make it. Once I make it, I'm done and ready to move on to something else. I refuse to use a set of plans, that just takes all the joy out of the hobby for me. Since everything I make is a one off design, I have sold very little.

Good luck


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## Gixxerjoe04 (Jan 31, 2014)

I've been woodworking for 2.5 years, started selling small easy stuff after 6 or so months. A year in i did my first craft show, made a decent amount of money and last year was my first full year of selling at shows, online and to a lot more friends and word of mouth people. I did 4 shows last year, plus along with all the selling online and to people i know, I'm sure I wasn't perfect recording all of my expenses but probably 90% of them. I ended up breaking even, I would have been ahead quite a bit if I hadn't spent almost $6k on new tools. So it can be done, just gotta figure out your market and find good places to sell your stuff. Now that I have a lot better tools, I'm still going to do some shows since I've made good money at them, but now I'm trying bigger and more fun/frustrating things like furniture.


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

nope. One day though.


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

Rule of thumb in manufacturing is that when your quantity goes up 10X your cost to produce should drop by half to stay profitable.

M


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## TiggerWood (Jan 1, 2014)

All my woodworking tools and lumber has always been paid for by selling restored tools.


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## Woodmaster1 (Apr 26, 2011)

I do not try to sell things. I think it takes the fun out of the hobby. I buy tools without expectation of recouping the cost. I buy quality tools and enjoy using them. My wife has not had any objections to my spending on woodworking. She is glad I am out in the shop all day instead of being in her way.


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## conifur (Apr 1, 2015)

Start an LLC business, get a Federal tax ID #, and run it as a business, not in your personal name, a business name, you can deduct all expenses, even though you are not making a profit yet against any profits from sales.
I did it for 20 years. Never paid a tax even in profitable years. Every dinner out I did, every bottle of boose/wine I bought was a clients dinner/entertainment, every tool, blade, gas and mileage to an estimate/job all a deduction, biggest scam there is. Why do you think so many very affluent husbands have a wife owning a lost leader business!!!
You can right off shop space/office off of property tax, shop utilities, ect Like I said it is a scam, use it to your advantage'.


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

I bought lots of sweet deals even if it was a tool I wasn't looking to acquire, and resold them on Ebay or CL. Hand planes, table saws, routers, saw blades, etc. Then bought what I wanted with the proceeds. Even for the tools I wanted, I often waited for the really good sales.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I run my "hobby" as a business as has been suggested. This allows me to buy materials without paying sales tax, but I do have to collect it on my sales and send it to the state. I have been selling at street fairs and festivals and do about 25 a year. 110% of my hobby costs are covered from proceeds of those sales. I have been doing this since 2007. I spend about 30 hours a week in my workshop. I do not make much money but I do have a self funding hobby. Life is good.


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## Heywood (Jun 8, 2014)

I just work a lot of overtime at work. This will be another year of living at work with 2 guys from the area retiring. They will have to be covered with OT until their replacement arrives. Which will be Oct if we are lucky.


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## MrSmith670 (Jan 26, 2014)

I don't really ever expect to make back what I put into it. It is my hobby. I really don't want to turn it into work, it would suck the fun out of it. That being said, I do do the occasional commission piece. I usually don't make much, but not expecting a big payday keeps it enjoyable for me. Maybe some day when I have enough time I'll put more effort into turning a profit, although I don't think that's ever gonna happen.


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## bearkatwood (Aug 19, 2015)

I wish! I buy too many dang tools.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

> Live below your means. Don t use credit use cash. After a while you ll have a lot of money to spend on your hobby.
> 
> - AlaskaGuy


^ This. I don't want to turn my hobby into a full time business, I still enjoy it and too many times have started doing something I enjoy as a job then disliking it. I want to continue to enjoy my hobby and living below my means allows me to do that.


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## DeansWoodworking (Feb 21, 2016)

Having been a photographer for over 30 years I can tell you that most artist including woodworkers undervalue their work. It blows my mind when I see great work being sold for less than the cost of the material to produce it, yet this is common practice. If you truly want to have fun let someone pay a premium for your work they will appreciate it more, and you will be happy with the new tool you are sure to buy.


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## dyfhid (Jun 4, 2015)

I became a database administrator. Pays enough to own two houses and still build and outfit a separate building wood shop for my hobby.


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## TheTurtleCarpenter (Jun 25, 2015)

What is the cost of a nice Harley and insurance ?


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## AlaskaGuy (Jan 29, 2012)

> What is the cost of a nice Harley and insurance ?
> 
> - TheTurtleCarpenter


It depends on the kind of insurance. Insurance for the bike or the body?


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## Pezking7p (Nov 17, 2013)

I have all used tools, which I bought for a good price. I consider these low risk purchases, because when I sell them I'll get back 90% of what I paid for them, if not break-even prices. Total investment isn't tiny, but it's minimal.

In the meantime, I have used those tools to build a new set of kitchen cabinets, Laundry cabinetry (custom), entertainment center, other living room tables, and a fancy tack trunk for my wife.

Total value of these minus the cost of the wood, far outstrips the cost of my tools and shop. So I consider it better than breakeven as far as hobbies go.

I just took on my first commission, so we'll see how that goes. It's pretty small but I guess it'll go to a good cause


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## iminmyshop (Dec 9, 2012)

My kitchen redo alone justified most everything in my shop. Then there was the bedroom set and a whole slew of other things that we would have liked to have but could never have afforded in anything remotely the same quality. And then of course there's the whole therapy thing going on. I figure if I counted all those hours I spent NOT needing to see a shrink because of the meditative quality of time spent in the shop just about anything is justified. Now if I can just get my health insurance to see it my way maybe the'd split for a new drill press… : ))


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## pete724 (Mar 9, 2016)

Of course I can. It wouldn't be much of a hobby if I couldn't now would it?

Oh You mean can I finance my hobby using my hobby to do so?

No but I don't care.

lol


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## rwe2156 (May 7, 2014)

> Live below your means. Don t use credit use cash. After a while you ll have a lot of money to spend on your hobby.
> 
> - AlaskaGuy


I love it.

And please, don't forget which books you stuffed those $100 bills in …...


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## ScottM (Jul 10, 2012)

> I do not try to sell things. I think it takes the fun out of the hobby. I buy tools without expectation of recouping the cost. I buy quality tools and enjoy using them. My wife has not had any objections to my spending on woodworking. She is glad I am out in the shop all day instead of being in her way.
> 
> - Woodmaster1


Ditto. It's a hobby and I do it because I like to do it. Family tells me all the time "you could sell those and make some money". I just tell them "that's not why I do it".

Buy tools as *you* need them and not because someone says you need it. You don't have to have the most expensive equipment to do good work. I think it helps trying to figure out how to accomplish a task without having the specific tool you need to do it. Yes, it can be expensive but just take your time getting tools and supplies.


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## bigarm (May 21, 2015)

I have been selling guns!


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

I have been buying tools and enjoying my hobby and my profession for close to 40 years. 
As was already stated, you need to balance your hobby and spending.
Personally I don't drink (other than coffee) or smoke (except when I get really mad), so I spend my extra money on tools. Have never regretted it.

I would never be able to get back what I paid for my tools. My biggest fear is that when I die my wife will sell my tools for what I told her they cost…

Buy what you can afford then upgrade. Afford the best tools possible right away, save a step and you won't be sorry…


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## Planeman40 (Nov 3, 2010)

Back in the late 1960s I stumbled into a lucrative sideline building special props for filming companies doing television ads. I started building model airplanes when I was ten years old and developed building skills as I want along. I began collecting my machines using money made working at a hobby shop Saturdays, Christmas holidays, and during the summer, first buying an Atlas 6" metal lathe at the age of seventeen and then a drill press, a Walker Turner 14" bandsaw, and oxy-acetylene welding when I was in college at Ga. Tech. I was still working at the same hobby shop. I got married, bought a house with a full basement, and added a good table saw and some other tools to the shop. A friend of mine was a hot rodder trying to put a Buick V-8 engine into his rear engine Corvair and I did some welding for him from time to time. He was a sales rep for a filming company and one day he needed a "junk sculpture" to be used in a TV ad for a large bank. He called me and asked could I do it. That was the beginning of sideline work on making special props for filming companies. I was in my late 20's and had accumulated a lot of knowledge and skills in metalworking and woodworking by then and was able to turn out about anything they asked for. I did about six or seven projects a year. The schedules were always tight and I spent many a sleepless night while the projects were going on. But the money was excellent and I bought more tools and machines. All this time I still had my daytime job and the building of props was a sometime sideline. Eventually I got a call from a huge architectural and development firm who had heard about me and had a problem getting a custom 60 ft. mobile piece of art made that was to hang in one of their office complexes. I knew how to solve the problem and got the job. Now I was periodically building decorative details for this companies huge and far out hotels. I was even commissioned to build a custom curved walnut stereo center for the president's home which he had designed that had a number of round and oval shaped rooms. The money was better than the "prop" business and the schedules were easy. I couldn't handle both the architectural business and the "prop" business, so I eased out of the "prop" business and concentrated on the architectural business - still as a sideline to my regular job. Then the great real estate bust of the late 1970s brought the business to an end with my having a lot of money on the line and trouble getting paid. Not wanting to end up having to risk filing bankruptcy myself, I closed everything down. By then I had every machine and tool I could ever want and I wanted my time back to myself anyway. But I did fund my extensive shop and had some interesting times along the way. I'm retired now and have scads of time and I spend it almost every day in my shop having fun. I even occasionally build a rubber powered model plane with little balsa sticks and tissue paper covering using tweezers and a magnifying visor! Life is GOOD!

Planeman


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

My "real" job pays for my woodworking. It's a hobby and I intend to keep it that way. I have no desire to turn it into a business. If I can't afford it, I don't need it.


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## XquietflyX (Oct 9, 2015)

> ...... If I can t afford it, I don t need it.
> 
> - HokieKen


this… well maybe.. i still can't afford my wife or kids…..


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

I don't do the whole sports thing, so I am not spending huge bucks in tickets and $15.00 stadium beers, I don't drink much so there isn't a bar tab to worry about, I gave up motorcycles a long time ago, so as far as hobbies are concerned, woodworking has been reasonable. I built my shop slowly with any extra I could scrounge, and bought what I could afford. Yeah I wish I had a SawStop 3HP PCS, and may yet do that. Projects have yet to pan out profitable but I have a product idea that should sell fairly well that I am working on and not saying much about here. Don't need the competition.

Much of my material has come cheap from Craigslist, was given to me by friends needing to offload surplus, or was milled from "urban sourced lumber" I.E. neighbors lopping large limbs off of their yard trees, and me resawing them to suit my needs. I have yet to find any odd inclusions with MY resawing, but I did help a friend resaw some lumber from his property as part of a barter agreement, some fairly sizeable pecal we were sawing with an alaskan mill, that had a couple of nails in it.

I am hoping to soon have enough completed product to start doing more sales and turning a profit, which will get put right back into the shop. So I guess it is still a loss…


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

> ...... If I can t afford it, I don t need it.
> 
> - HokieKen
> 
> ...


Nobody needs those and those of us who have them will never be able to afford them. ;P


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