Don't make THIS mistake with your furniture business.

Never EVER buy materials for a commission without a deposit or a payment in full upfront. I dropped almost $1500 on a pair of 1-½” thick 12-foot long Ambrosia Maple Slabs and the client rejected the quote. To be fair, I have only myself to blame. I already had a signed quote on a matching maple slab conference table and and I knew this client was in a rush for these pieces, so in the interest of time, I had my slab supplier start processing the material (clip of belt sanding) and prep it for pickup. BUT, the client got the quote and was more than they wanted to spend, so I had to make some major price concessions so I didn’t lose all my money. Now, if it was walnut or white oak, and not ambrosia maple, then those are materials I use all the time and could just go into inventory...but 2 ambrosia maple slabs?!? I mean, what the heck would I do with those?!? LOL.

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[kennethellison]

Finally! A woodworking video where no one complains about sanding! As a finish painter and piano refinisher, I love the tactile feel of bringing the surface down to a satin finish buy hand. I almost never use a machine to sand any of my projects. Bravo sir. By the way, you must give ECO-Steps waterborne finishes a try. They are phenomenal. I've been using them for years.

[JDderd]

Just me here commenting for the sake of the algorithm hoping the ad revenue helps offset your poor decessions. Lol. Good luck KJ

[MayhemJoe]

Few understand the joys of creating and destroying the happy feeling with the business side of the process. Excellent job Keith!

[BobAmarant]

Wow. Huge project. I would not attempt messing with something that big after breaking my bicep tenon 12 years ago on a much smaller bench top. Cool that shop connection you have, good guys to know. Final project looks great! Congrats !

[dennisdickson]

Nice work Keith..good to see you kept your sense of humor through such a challenging project.

[mikeinmaryland]

Such a bummer. I’m glad you were able to deliver and get paid. I know it stinks when you want to do a nice job for a client. That said, often when we like/love our clients we stay at the delivery too long, and then start answering questions that are going to keep us on the job even longer. Nothing worse than a client saying… I read on the internet….


Cutting your price stinks, but getting paid 🎉🎉🎉

[atomictyler]

Looking good!

I tested my Lamello out as a replacement for clamps on a panel and it worked out really well. It was only 3/4" material though. you'd probably want to do two tenso's vertically for something as thick as that slab.

[julietphillips]

Holy Moly! That is a whole lotta work! You have some good friends! Awesome is not cheap, so you will bear this in mind when you quote on future commissions because at the end of the day, the outcome has to be "win win" for all! Take care.

[JayBergCustoms]

I don't ever stock ambrosia maple either, but sometimes i get some in the maple for other stuff, and I'll make some little do-dad out of it. I always end up liking it more than I thought I would.

[Billytomtom]

Hi Keith I really got a kick out of this video, the Joy of being young, fearless to take on any challenge ...lol. After I got my plumbers license in Orange County, NY, I started buying up some abandoned shells most were 3 or 4 family Historic Buildings in Newburgh NY. I was like a kid in a candy store, all these amazing old buildings that needed major surgery, but the ARC Board makes sure everything has to be done as it was it was built in 1890 or around there, it was hard to find the original Deeds or Architectural plans. I have always had a mechanical mind wanting to know how something tik's ...LOL
I think I restored around 7 or 8 buildings before I kinda retired, running a plumbing & heating business while GC'ing the Restoration of these old Victorian Painted Ladies in very time con summing. I don't have X-ray eyes so when I was just do the plumbing & heating in a total gut re-hab, well sometimes I took much of a haircut . Estimating a gut rehab on buildings that used anything like a piece of steel railroad bead, as a header would pop-up, and now the oxygen-acetele torch was was part of my loss time and profit.
But like yourself, my love of challenges was never a boring day, although it is tough on a marriage, in my case 2 of them. But honey I can't be home and make money at the same time, those are nerdy stock brokers.
What I enjoyed was always taking pictures from day one until completion, yes this Grand Lady has a new Life, thanks to many great sub-contractors and myself.
Whenever you find a job you enjoy doing, well you never really work a day at all, it's Fun !!!
Thanks Keith for sharing your knowledge and experience, we need more Craftsman in our Beautiful Country and not junk made in China, You get what you pay for in life, buying good tools will last many years

[pwatc]

Awesome work. I had hypothesized to myself about the gloss coats with a satin coat; glad to hear it confirmed.

[michaelvonneupert]

For not being a fan of the wood, you certainly made a great peoduct out od it! If you had to do it over again, would you just use a thinner shellac barrier or would you use a different product? I'm also kind of curious about the color/surface of the base they'll use. I would think anything other than a solid color and simple structure would take away from the ambrosia tops. Great video!

[joeerich]

Great work as always. Pro tip from your colleagues at TimberFire Studio - Get a Festool STL450 Inspection Light & Tripod to provide consistent raking light down the length of your boards. We've use it to light up to 14 feet end to end. Our buddy at Greenwood Bay Woodworking recommended it to us and it has been a game changer for both sanding and finishing. It's designed for drywall finishers but perfect for furniture. We suggested it to our Festool-sponsored influencer friend, Tommy Mullaney, (who you may know) and he absolutely loves it.

[carlnolte]

Hi Keith. Yeah, I'd say for this project get 90-100% of the money upfront. If half of your business was working with slabs, then maybe get 50% down payment. I always request 50% down before starting on a client project. Currently I'm dealing with a client who changed their mind on the design when I was 60% done. The change was significant and required me to start over. However, I did have a section in the contract talking about change requests. Personally, I don't do slab work.

[scottsevigny]

Keith. Love the videos. I think we have all lost money building furniture but for us little guys, it’s devastating. Glad to see the pro’s sometimes have this happen as well although I wish it didn’t for you.

[MCsCreations]

Beautiful, Keith! Fantastic work! 😃
Too bad you won't make the rest, I'd love to see it!
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[michaelholmstrom]

Thank you Keith, I found Willard Brothers because of this video. So much closer to me and I can have my gas pumped for me in NJ.

[Garrett_Brown]

Can’t wait to hear the next podcast to find out what tool might of taken a trip across the shop when you found out the bad news. Sorry KJ, hoping if I ever take a client build (other than family and friends) I can learn from this

[zaineridling]

We can never have foresight of every complication, but this video demonstrates your master recovery skills. Impressive.

[dc]

Here is a trick for joining pieces.
Double stick tape the piece you want to joint to the bottom.
Space the top piece with another of the same thickness as the add on.
Use a saber saw and do NOT cut a straight line, more of a long squiggle, ramble type of cut.
Because the top and bottom are cut on the same line, they should match up quite well and because of the "show pattern" of the wood, the line will be almost invisible.
A straight cut, even with very matching grain will almost always show, because it is a straight cut.
A long squiggle line won't catch the eye as much as a very straight line.

Try it on a piece of scrape and see what you think. The scrap has 2 sides so straight cut on 1 and a squiggle cut on the other.