Home-Based CNC Woodworking Business Full Production Run

Can a CNC make you money? I made 87 whiskey bourbon smokers on my CNC router and laser to sell at upcoming craft fairs!

Supplies I used (Affiliate Links)

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

A great way to support Andy Bird Builds is to purchase through affiliate links, you get what you need and I may get a small commission.

#andybirdbuilds #cncbusiness #avidcnc

[HamiltonDilbeck]

Awesome work! Thanks for the shout-out, Andy. Hope the market days go well!

[AngieWilliamsDesigns]

I’ve been using a cnc for a while now. I worked at a MakerSpace and fell in love with their Shopbot. I then inherited an xcarve for my own shop when my brother closed down his shop. I love the cnc. The MakerSpace of course had great lasers as well. I have a Glowforge in my shop. Two things happened…. First… I got the glowforge and was doing a lot of things with it. Second… my xcarve was proving to be out of square/level. I did a couple of things to get it level again and started noticing it again. I’m not the kind to “tinker”. So it’s pretty much been sitting unused in my shop. I know I need to do something with it and I know I want to. But I’ve just gotten away from it. Watching this video makes me want to get it up and running again. I know it’s not as powerful as your machine. But like you said… I can still do it. It just will be smaller batches and not as fast. I’m ok with that. LOL. I’m making these cheese and cracker trays with my router and it would be much better if I had it on my cnc. lol. Just gotta get the work done. I could also go to the MakerSpace and do it on the shopbot. But it’s 45 minutes away. So… not sure I want to.

Either way. It’s the new year. I need to put this on my list of goals for 2024. Thanks for sharing.

[GyWO]

Thanks for showing your tool paths & explaining the material set up process! Amazing process & it’s great to see the laser integrated with the cnc

[vectric]

Great video Andy, loved how easy it was for you to mass produce the smoker! Love the hybrid element of CNC and laser too! Thanks for sharing.

[VoeltnerWoodworking]

This was a fun edit. Enjoyed the video and project dude.

[joehanika]

I like these types of videos. Good work.

[peeceejay]

That 1/2" shank on the ball nose bit makes a HUGE difference in feeds and speeds! That was cool to watch!

[llesco]

Yep adding the final pass at .02” it definitely helped.
I usually do my final pass @ .03” it makes less force at the cut out 👍

[SarovokTheFallen]

Love the video, love the full explanation, great quality video. Thanks a lot for sharing. To me the only addition I would absolutely love in these videos would be a more correct valuation of the costs such as a better overhead estimate. I wouldn't mind the full details of the more real costs but other viewers might not like it, so just a correct number without too much indepth detail on how you got there is ok of real costs per hour. (Devaluation of the equipment, costs for tools incl. IT materials, office space + workshop space price => all downsized to an hourly cost estimate)

[GroundedConceptsLLC]

Great workflow. Takes lots of practice to make it look that smooth. Awesome job buddy!

[Pursuit]

Killer video Andy! That efficient production work on a CNC really gets me excited! Well done and well explained 🤘🏼

[waskito]

Congrats on having a youtube channel that gets you sales, happy for you.

[TheAy]

thanks Andy. Even with a Foxalien Masuter pro(with Makita router) i can do 8 at a time with patience. Just a matter of scale. Great vid with lots of useful information.

[aarong]

Those all look great. I put a real light coat of mineral oil on ones that I made a few weeks ago and I think it made it look better.

[tanner]

I mean without being negative, and getting too detailed - $500+/hr is a very unrealistic number here. Dont believe the hype, beginner CNCers and woodworkers - hope you can see these are not sold, finished, or original. And I say that as respectfully as I can Andy.

[itsnotlevel]

Sounds like you need to redesign your dust boot to be two halves you could put on as its can take mine off and on as my machine runs.

[footballhm]

Hey Andy,

I do not have a CNC but I just made a bunch of Cherry cocktail smokers for a distillery at they look phenomenal with mineral oil finish. I just did a dip and then set them out to dry.

[abdulqawimackawi]

No way laser and cnc in one machine you are boss respect

[HDwoat]

Hi, great video Andy and very informative as usual 👍.

[dath]

Could you have cut the tabs with the laser to avoid having to hand cut them?