Congrats on getting this far. I’ve had a fairly easy life.
How did you learn woodworking?
nice story, thanks for sharing
(would be interesting to hear your mothers version)
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Long story, but, It was kind of in my blood from birth. My Mom liked to talk about how she bought me a pound-peg toy as a little boy and I would hammer the pegs down and flip it over at lightening speeds endlessly and how this drove my Dad crazy. As a kid I excelled at building projects for cub scouts, then go carts, forts, cages and at 13 years old a 24’ long pigeon loft. A big influence was that took Vocational Woodworking in my freshman year of high school. There I became familiar with woodworking tools and the teacher instilled in me a mindset for mass-production using jigs and templates along with developing assembly lines. He was a very coarse man, was loud and yelled a lot and most kids didn’t like him but he really liked me, I used to ditch other classes and hangout in the wood shop and I guess he figured letting me be there was keeping me out of trouble. He encouraged me to invent and build things like wooden toys with moving parts on a mass-production scale.
Starting out, as a high school dropout, I worked at several cabinet shops moving around a lot while knowing I could take out the Yellow Pages and start going by cabinet shops looking for a job and find a new job in a day should I have issues with where I was working. I settled in for about 3 years at a large shop building kitchen cabinets where I worked my way through the areas of sanding, nailing, doors, hardware, millwork and then into the custom shop where an old man named Forest took me under his wing.
I was by far the youngest guy to be working in the custom shop and was usually working circles around the other guys but only got about half the pay they got. Then, I was asked to undertake setting up a laminating department which I did and was doing all the work myself with Forest leading me and teaching me tricks.
Finally, I had been asking for a raise for sometime and the foreman promised a dollar and after I built 150 laminated vanity aprons for a hotel in one week, which I’m sure the profits would have paid my wages for a year, I asked for my raise. The foreman went into the office and come back and told me all he could get me was 25 cents and I quit! I was told later they had to hire an outside laminate lead-man and 3 helpers to do the job I was doing…
I had been saving and buying a few tools such as a belt sander, vibrating sander, router, circular saw and had a large assortment of hand tools and decided to set up shop on my Mom’s back porch starting with turning the circular saw upside down and mounting it in an old desk for a table saw. I got a job to build a dresser and managed to finish it in 2 days making as much $ as I would in a week at my old job. The dresser was a big hit and 3 other people wanted one. Word spread and someone asked to me for an entertainment center and coffee tables but I was just getting by and needed better tools and more jobs but refused to go work for someone else and make them money they weren’t willing to share.
As I mentioned in the woodworking thread my Grandma asked me what I wanted to do in life and what it would take and I said a real table saw and it happened that my birthday was coming up and she said she would buy me one. Soon after I got a kitchen job, then another and I was off.
Then, I was asked by contractor if I could give him a bid on laminated cabinets for a dentist office and I low-balled it and got the bid. After that job he told me he had a barn and asked me if I wanted to be partners in a cabinet business, My Mom was not happy that I was growing my business off her back porch, which I built but was still her house, and I took the contractor up on his offer.
It was a metal barn and no cooling like an oven in the Summer and freezing in the winter. The contractor turned out to be a drug addict and long story there but we weren’t getting along and after a couple years I bought 5 acres of desert property and built a shed on it where every time I got paid for a job I bought materials to build my own shop and stored them in the shed.
One day the contractor’s wife came to me and said they were getting a divorce after her husband had done one of his disappearing acts and I need to find another place to work so I loaded up my tools and put them on a slab of concrete on my property covered by plastic.
I had been planning to build a 30’ x 60’ gambrel roof barn but didn’t have enough money for that so decided on a 24’ x 48’ grambrel barn and in 3 weeks I moved my tools in and set up shop. Almost immediately I got 2 requests for large kitchen cabinets bids and I got them both at the same time. The down payment money helped out a lot, Forest came by and beefed up my craftsman table saw and I worked night and day and got the cabinets done. Soon after I got a huge custom job for an 8,000sf home and used the profits to build my shop bigger.
I found building custom cabinets is where the work was at so that is what I did for years to come and made good $ but wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing. It was getting boring and I was getting too old to keep up my pace and went and got a college degree while starting a new woodworking business on the side more in line with inventing and mass-production.
I’m currently in the process of re-organizing my shop to get more serious about my new business after my other career fizzled out due to the virus. Business was picking with just a halfhearted effort as far as I have about 30 more items on the drawing board to produce and I’m seeing a lot of possibilities. I plan to train someone to do much of the work as per my setups rather than do it all myself this time around.
My mother was quite a woman. A small town girl, stay at home mom that moved out into the big city and soon found herself divorced trying to raise 3 kids in that city away from her family and friends. I was no angel and she definitely had her hands full. She kept her house and paid it off but things weren’t easy for her. We made amends long ago. She just passed away 3 weeks ago. I was walking around her house and actually forgotten all the things I’ve done for her home. I added on a large room, a laundry room, built her new kitchen, re-plumbed her house in copper, built her an entertainment center, linen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, remodeled the inside, moved a wall and put new texture on all her walls, baseboard, doors, windows, painting and shingles. She was quite proud of me loved having large family get-to-gathers for the holidays at my home. I built the urn she was buried in as per her request.
ah sorry to hear that, my condolences
interesting interview, sounds like this guy did his time and could be much more helpful in society
why should sex offenders be publicly registered but murderers not? weird
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i don’t count because i am dead?
i don’t count because you think i am dead?
don’t blink
in a new york minute
everything can change
that’s all
I thought you were dead, too. I’m amazed how well you’re doing now, at least from what little you’ve said about your situation.
i live in maine
i will never understand birds
that covers everyone’s situation
cept the maine part
i am neither homeless nor dead
but in a new york minute…
Yes. I thought you were dead. “Not counting” means if the person is dead they are no longer homeless. Clearly, you are neither.
I don’t find being dead or homeless to be insulting.
I don’t find your boring comment insulting either.
i dont like quoting myself but iam lazy and would just type the same thing again:
corona didnt help or matter either:
https://www.reuters.com/article/military-spending-sipri/global-military-spending-rises-2-6-in-2020-despite-pandemic-hit-idUSL8N2MJ1N9
She is very well spoken. I wonder what trauma resulted in her being homeless. She mentions it but doesn’t disclose it.
I guess bill lowerre is gone.
really?
It was William F. Lowerre, Werewolf.
I like Bill. I didn’t like what he became here. I hope he stays away. This place is not good for him.
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