# Make wood products that sell



## willhime (Mar 9, 2014)

Hopefully this isn't strange asking this question, but, I was wondering what kinds of wood products and stuff sells pretty good to make some cash to supplement the addiction and for extra spending cash. Been outta work for awhile now because of some pretty serious hospital stuff, and my well is pretty dry now. Any actual items, suggestions and/or advice would be great


----------



## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

I dont sell at "Arts and Craps" fairs, but I see that the things that seem to sell (and are fairly easy to make) are cutting boards, bread boxes, bandsaw boxes and such small items.

Do you carve? Small "table decorations" like figurines, and carved boxes seem popular. How 'bout hand carved walking sticks or canes?

Got a lathe? Bowls are always a good mover.


----------



## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

Keepsake boxes, paper towel holders, mobile device charging stations, etc.
Things that have utility.


----------



## HowardInToronto (Sep 27, 2013)

It's an excellent question.

If you're looking into woodworking as a business on any level, I'd recommend you look at the question a slightly different way.

That is, "think markets, nor products."

Rather than thinking of what to make, think of hobbies or interests or industries you're familiar with that could use things you could make.

Do you know RC hobbyists? What about customized carrying cases?
Brew your own beer fans? What about customized cases for "that special batch?" 
Billiards devotee? You got it - customized carrying case.

I realize the above examples are only about boxes.

But think about that general idea. Can you expand on "customized items into specific markets" with a little bit of your own tweaks?

Remember - I'm not saying "build boxes." And I'm not saying "build boxes for those markets."

What I am saying is do some research! Among actual BUYERS!

As for unique tweaks, a few weeks ago, a contributor posted pics of his pirate-themed Adirondack-style chairs. When he was done, several people stopped by to ask about ordering chairs just like those.

The pirate theme isn't important. The idea is for you to do your own tweaks on another product into another market.

I'm hopeful this gave you a couple of ways of getting into something that'll work for you as you look into woodworking as a business.

Make sure to keep us posted.

Howard


----------



## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I play in my workshop about forty hours a week making artsy crafty things that I sell at festivals, fairs and farmers markets. I started making toys and they sell very well and are quick and easy to mass produce. I then made some small $100 cedar trunks. They slowly sold but I used the scraps to start making small boxes. I now make about 300-400 boxes a year with inlaid images in the hinged lids. They sell very well. I also make some 18" crosses with inlays and they also sell well here in west Texas. I taught myself how to do double bevel inlay and now can do the inlay part in minutes. Find something you get good at and then apply that skill to a product that you can make quickly and sell cheaply. I sell all that I make. This is one way to approach this. It has worked well for me.


----------



## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Find your passion. Find a market that you can use your passion to sell to.

I love making puzzles. I found a market in personalized puzzles with children's names. Now I have been doing this full time for over 11 years. I started out doing the art & craft shows. You can make good money there if you are in the right shows. I don't any shows where I make less than 6k - 7k in a weekend. I have a few shows where I can do over 10k without any difficulty.

You have to be flexible in your product offerings to find out what people will buy. solicit input from customers, potential customer and from lookers. I learned so much from what they liked and didn't like that I was able to focus my products into mare salable products.


----------



## cdaniels (Apr 16, 2014)

great question, i'm in the same boat as you. I'm looking at starting my own woodworking business but i'm going to stick to relatively small stuff that I can maneuver easily. I'll be keeping an eye on this one and I can give a hollar to the guys at stumpy nubs and see what they have to say.

Iron Sides


----------



## mojapitt (Dec 31, 2011)

If you can do joints for box frames, maybe try these. They do well for me.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/96791


----------



## DIYaholic (Jan 28, 2011)

I hate to disagree with anyone, but….
Customized work is not as efficient and potentially less profitable (IMHO). Unless you are talking very high end and you have a reputation and client list.

Finding your own "market" and that "unique" item is important.
I would come up with items that can be "mass" produced, or at least quickly repeatable. Then take those items and add your own twist, to make them unique.

Just my humble opinion….


----------



## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

That is mighty giving of you to show this, Monte. Then again, you can't possibly make them for all the people who need or want them!

Also, arts and crafts fairs don't work all that well unless you have a range of products to sell, in my personal opinion. You may also not see the money posted here unless you have a product like that.

Whatever you do, selling at garage sales is a no-no. People will want to pay you less than the cost of the wood, since everything else is marked down already. My wife tried that with tole painting years ago. She's quite talented with it, but people don't pay at garage sales. Boutiques work better for her. WAY better.

I have built and sold bird houses in the past, and will probably restart that when I retire and have more time. I can sell a bird house to a reseller (boutique) for the same money that I might get at a craft fair, easily. I made a mint on them. I can make 32 per hour, and sold them for $6 apiece in the late '90s. Cost me about $1.10 each for materials. That's about $150 an hour. Think radial arm saw with stops for the different lengths, a spade bit for the entry, and 1/4" dowel for the perch. Then a brad nailer to put them together, bam bam, bam. Note that the perch is an artistic detail. Birds find their way into a hole in a tree just fine without a custom doorstep.


----------



## mojapitt (Dec 31, 2011)

Randy, is right (I am shaking saying that). The last thing you want to do is the same thing as everyone else. That's one of the things that I feel helps me a lot. I am about the only one in my area doing what I do.

Really look at every project posted. Evaluate each for being unique and if it's something that people commonly use. Then, do not make it like the original. Make improvements (if possible). But make it your design. I love to be able to just look at the picture of a project and know who made it. Examples, Lydia, Benji Reyes, Greg (box sculptor,and lately,bbigogre. I know it will be quality, but it will be them. Others try, but they are very unique.

Look up LJ "huff". He has a couple blogs about running business. They are excellent.

Next, ask lots of questions here and ignore the buttheads that criticize people for asking questions. They would rather be lost than ask directions.


----------



## JL7 (Apr 13, 2010)

I would think these towel holder gadgets would sell. They use a marble inside of a groove and gravity to hold the towel in place. Build a few fixtures and you could make them fast…no plans, but some pictures HERE


----------



## Momcanfixit (Sep 19, 2012)

Okay, at risk of offending any of the great guys here….

Two thoughts - most of the women I know (non-woodworking) think that bare, or clear finished wood is too 'manly'. Paint something white, and they're all over it.

Also, around here there is a local brewery that sells beer growlers. I made a prototype and I'm reasonably confident I could sell them for somewhere around $45.00 each. I got as far as making templates, but that's it. If you're in an area with micro breweries, you might want to consider those. My prototype is in my projects.

When I was in New Orleans, we went to Breaux Bridge and there was a guy selling 'rue spoons'. Essentially hand carved large wooden spoons with an angled edge for scraping the bottom of a pot. The women were swarming over them. I didn't have room in my carry-on luggage, or I would have bought a few.

Good luck


----------



## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

I had a friend that did this kind of work. He made the most money on items that took the least amount of time to make. Pie trivets, kids toys and those kinds of things. The things that sell for less than $5 made him the most money because people will spend $5 on anything.


----------



## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Sandra is correct in that we are selling primarily to women. At any art and/or craft show that vast majority of purchasers are women.

Make what you like and find your market. My products sell very well in some venues and not all in others. 
I have learned what my ideal customer profile is and I do shows that the demographics fit within that profile.

How do you learn your customer's profile? Do shows to start with and talk with your customers and other vendors. If customers aren't buying and running away from the price, you are in the wrong venue. Ask the successful vendors where they go for shows. They will tell you or look at their website (the good ones will have them listed like I do).

Shows where you have the best chance to make good money aren't cheap to be in but the payoff will be worth the gamble. I have some shows where the booth fee for a single booth is over $500 and I use a double booth at my shows. So my booth fee averages closes to $1k per show. That doesn't include time, travel and lodging. Do I make enough money to cover all of those costs as well as my production costs and still make money? You bet I do! As a gambler friend of mine tells me, if you want to win big, you have to bet big. My sales at the shows I do are upwards of $7k with several over $10k with no problem. This is just what I sell at the show. This doesn't count all of the call backs and website orders I get throughout the year from the shows.

Make what you like and do it very well and you will be able to get into some very good shows. Then you can make money.


----------



## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

will, another option, if you just need the money and you're not looking to satisfy some kind of need to design, would be to find a wooden product that you can manufacture and sell as, say, a component part or to a distributor to be sold as part of a line of products. Be observant and look around everywhere you go for wooden objects. They all must be made somehow by somebody.


----------



## JimRochester (Dec 24, 2013)

I'm up to 4 Arts and Crafts type fairs this year. I don't look to earn an income, but I do look to have the hobby pay for itself which it does. Now when I want or need a new tool or bit, I know the next show will pay for it. I make the typical lamination stuff; boards, trays, boxes, clocks with about 80% selling on the $50 - $100 range. Some little craptastic stuff made from scraps for $5 - $10 and a few more deluxe items priced higher. I currently have a large Mahogany end-grain board for $225. Decent shows around here are $200 - $300 for the booth and receipts can be anywhere from $800 to a couple thousand. A friend that does turned bowls averages $2500 per show but his avg. price is much higher than mine. You also have to set-up and take down plus sit there all weekend. Tough to make real money selling typical craft show stuff but it is easy to bring in some cash for that next load of wood or new planer you've been eyeing.


----------



## willhime (Mar 9, 2014)

wow. I've only been doing this a year, but I'm constantly surprised and pleased as to the amount of help and benevolence from people. Being a chef for 10 years, I didn't see too much of that, mostly the opposite. One of my theories on this is that people might feel that woodworking is a dying artisanal practice? And everyone tries to generate the most help possible to help keep it alive? Idk, I could be way off. Anyways, yeah, I guess kitchen stuff would be the most obvious avenue, and I enjoy doing it, but I also enjoy the variety of other fields like design, art, and practicality. Makes sense though. I make some wood spoons and forks and they sell to friends and family before I can finish them. Cutting boards are entertaining to make but a little more time consuming. I prefer the look and concept of end-grain, but from the ones I've made, edge grain seems plenty robust for usage. I have basically an endless supply of 1-3" x 15' hardwood- maple, white and red oak, mahogany, poplar, and walnut from a local cabinet maker that just throws them out if no one wants them, which is a shame. Making at least break even money would be great since my purchasing has gone far beyond 'hobby' prices, plus, I'm terrible with money.

I've been looking up how to make amish marble holders, different kitchen items, as well as other various fields of interest so all this stuff is extremely helpful. And just when I think the world has gone too soft, someone includes a misogynistic joke, which is good in breaking up the neutral atmosphere sometimes of this arena. It's always fun to have people take you completely serious when saying something like that, then let them know you're joking. Working sushi for so long as a white guy provided much opportunity for this, "I actually grew up in Osaka", "I'm a descendant from a long line of proud samurai families", or looking confused and telling them I only know Japanese.

Now, my biggest problem is I need to stop telling people I can make 'that' for them and ending up with 20 projects that never see the light of day.


----------



## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

I don't know that woodworking is a "dying artisanal practice", as much as that the people here are in general hobby woodworkers, so aren't looking to exclude you from your shot at fame. That is going to depend on a lot of factors, only one of which may be woodworking skills. People can come and ask questions, but until those answers are applied (and there will still be a learning curve), they don't present much competition. This could just be an LJ phenomenon (mostly nice people, in my observation), though I do visit a couple of other sites where the people offer up help and solutions to problems all the time, as well.


----------



## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

> ...woodworking is a dying artisanal practice?
> - willhime


I disagree that woodworking is dying out. I believe its popularity is very robust, especially as a hobby.



> ...from a local cabinet maker that just throws them out if no one wants them.
> - willhime


will, I might recommend that you be sure the cabinetmaker is throwing the wood out. Some while back I noticed a cabinet shop was throwing their drops into a dumpster out back so I thought I'd help myself to some free wood .. that is, until he found me rummaging through his dumpster one day and admonished me by saying he sold that wood to a re-user.


----------



## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Willihme, If people are buying the items before you even finish them, that should be an alarm bell ringing in your head. That means that your prices are too low. Whenever I hear a few people at a show say that my prices are fair or more than fair, I raise them. However, I NEVER sell below a profitable level. That is my minimum price, from there it can raise up till I find what the market will bear. If I can't sell the item at my minimum price, I either re-engineer it to reduce costs or don't make it anymore.

If you haven't read it yet, I would suggest reading through Huff's blog post concerning pricing of products. You might think of this now as a hobby. That's how I started and the situations happened that I do this full time. You never know what the future will bring. Make sure that you are making money at this, so that you will be rewarded for your efforts. No fun working hard and not having any extra money to show for it.


----------



## dalethewhale (May 29, 2013)

Puzzle man's advice sounds spot on. Just figure out what you love to make and how to profitably sell it. It's as simple and as difficult as that. Good luck.
Whale


----------



## sawdust703 (Jul 6, 2014)

I don't know what your set up is, or your tool situation, but consider scroll saw work, my friend. "That takes too much time," ya might say, but take a GOOD HARD LOOK around at some of the craft shows!! Ya might see some joker with small, unfinished items, or somebody that makes Christmas ornaments. Pass it by!! IDK where you are, but here in our part of the world, NW Kansas, folks are into barn wood! Picture frames of barn wood with designs or names cut in them, wall hangings done on the scroll saw! I spend ALOT of time on my scroll saw, cutting different patterns, portraits, etc. As mentioned, ya just have to find your interest, pursue it, & make your finished product with a design that is yours!! Enjoy the day!! Good luck, & be safe!


----------



## huff (May 28, 2009)

willhime,

Jim (Puzzleman) advice is spot on.

As far as what to build and sell; there is a market for almost anything that we can build. Big or small, cheap or expensive, quality or crap, usefull or not; the real key will be in finding that particular market.

The point I'm trying to make is; what I'm able to build and sell is not neccessarily something that you would or could build and sell.

Pricing, marketing and selling are usually the three things that keep the typical woodworker from being able to sell their work and make money. (more so than the product itself).

*Pricing;* Most woodworkers want to price their work that feels "comfortable" and not based on facts,
(the true cost of what it cost us to manufacture it and sell for a profit).

*Selling; * The reason most woodworkers want to price their work that feels "comfortable" is; they're not salesman and they want to make it easy. We want to make it so everyone will buy from us, so we give our work away so nobody says no. (another words, let's try to compete with Wal-mart)

*Marketing;* Again, too many times we try to pick the "easy" or "comfortable" way to market our products instead of looking for the really best and most effective way to maket our product. That's why you see 10,000 cutting boards available on Etsy (and 90% of them are priced about the same…....Low!).

1. Pick a product you enjoy making and make it the very best you can.

2. Price your product honestly, figure the true cost of making it and make sure you add a profit.

3. Don't be afraid to sell your product. I'm talking about actually getting out there and meeting people and selling. You can also market on line, but "you" will always be your best salesman!

4. Market your product not based on what's easy or conveinent, but where the right people will see your product and want to purchase them. If you have to travel to find the right show, or gallery than don't be afraid to put the time and effort into it.

*Have fun!* When I finally learned to have as much fun pricing, marketing and selling my woodworking as I did building it, it was amazing how my sales increased.

Stay thirsty my friend and you'll do fine!

I do have a couple blog series that may help or give you some ideas.
http://lumberjocks.com/huff/blog

Good luck


----------



## JimRochester (Dec 24, 2013)

I agree with sawdust703. Very interesting and different stuff from the scrollsaw. Unfortunately I suck at scrollsaw work. I do it when I have to, then am amazed at just how bad I am. Actually I'm pretty bad at all the woodworking, I've just learned to cover up the mistakes in my regular pursuits so that a lay person wouldn't notice.


----------



## Bigkahunaranch (Apr 9, 2014)

The advice about building what you love holds true.
I love to build Mission/Stickley style pieces. I found a Antique shop where I can rent a space
for less then a hundred dollars. It gives me a place to display stuff and get my name out there.
I have also found that people love those "trinket boxes" and cutting boards.
In the three months I have had the space I have made enough to pay for the space,
and have money to buy a small tool or take my wife out for a nice dinner.
So I get to build my Stickley tables, chairs etc and use the scraps to build boxes and cutting boards.

But the best thing about it is, I am having alot of fun.


----------



## JimRochester (Dec 24, 2013)

As woodworkers we know the care, time and quality of a good end-grain cutting board. The average person knows what catches their eye from 10 feet away as they walk past your table. I hate to admit it but for volume, the small quick colorful stuff will sell just as well if not better than the item you poured your heart and soul into. I started showing the small flat and edge grain serving tray/ cutting boards and people went nuts over them. Don't fight city hall. I can make those in two days start to finish with mostly scraps and make money. So I made a whole crapload for the latest show. We'll see what happens.


----------

