Survey: Best town for a woodworking business

Re: Park City, UT

Glenn Madsen - on the road from SF


>We lived near there, for a few years, before I took up the craft as a hobby. The thing to remember about Park City is that everyone who is there goes elsewhere, too. IF you can get their attention while they are 'there', you can potentially sell to them. But the folks furnishing the mountain cabins and homes will very likely have been in the world's cities, mostly fairly recently, and seen much of what is available globally.

The mountains of Utah are incredibly lovely, however.

Stephen Shepherd used to be there.

Dan Donaldson

Re: Park City, UT

thomd


>Could be, though the other side to that is that they may be there for other reasons. That's why if I was looking to make something other than kitchens etc... I would be looking in a place where people really want to buy furniture of the type I like to make. Some of these places might be more mountainbike or ski orieted.

I was on canoe trip up north and stopped at this big general store huge place tight against the highway. In their furniture department they had a lot of stuff made out of huge rounds. We both really like it because it fit in with what the Muskoka experience can be like. But after a few days I would be back to turning my nose up.

Re: NYC

thomd


>I think we have come full circle relative to this and my other post a while back. There is a Starbucks up the street from here, and several others in the area. This is the area where people are willing to spend 500 bucks for a couple of shelves in a cupboard they already have, and real fortunes for some badly hung drywall converting the basement into a familly room. It's a waste of time to try to sell decent furniture. It doesn't mater how rich people in Park City are it's not the best place for a wooden ship shop, and it isn't just because people are landlocked.

It looks like...It sounds like...It seems like...

Roy Anderson


>It looks like location depends a lot on what you want to make. If you want to be a cabinet maker and install custom built in kitchens, Park City or any other tourist destination would not be your kind of place. If you want to make studio art furniture, Dollywood is not your kind of place. If you want to make rustic furniture, Manhatten is not your kind of place.

Anyway, thanks for all the different points of view. It's been an interesting discussion.

All over Vermont... *LINK*

VTAndy4


>... there are dozens of furniture makers, so in some respects it must be a good place for them. Outside of the Burlington area, real estate is fairly inexpensive. And while there are a lot of tourists, the impression I get from the cabinetmakers I know is that their client base is elsewhere. The location also puts them close to the source of some of the hardwoods they use.

Here's a link to one of my favorites. John has a workshop in a renovated barn in the Champlain Valley (in a village not far from Middlebury) but he also runs a gallery up in Stowe, which is a ski town enjoying its fair share of urban tourists. The style is arts and crafts, and in the gallery he also sells raku pottery and Tibetan rugs that compliment his furniture.

-Andy


http://www.cotswoldfurniture.com/

Re: All over Vermont...

Warren in Lancaster, PA


>Vermont is the only state I've seen where the state puts up signs for woodworkers. You can drive down the highway and see a sign "Bristol 4" (arrow ahead} and a sign "VTAndy Cabinetmaker 2" (arrow right).

I was told when I started my business here in Lancaster County that there were two thousand woodworking shops within 20 miles. Hardly a month goes by when I don't find out about a shop I never heard of before, sometimes within two miles.

One time I met a man who moved here from Massachusetts and set up a bookstore. To get shelving made he sent specifications to a dozen shops asking for bids. He got no replies. He ended up getting them made in New Hampshire. I told him that around here everyone is so busy you have to beg them to work for you.

Re: All over Vermont... *LINK*

VTAndy4


>Hi Warren,

Those signs along VT state roads are called "Official Business Directional Signs" -- they are put up by the state for a very small fee ($75). They also let you customize a part of the sign, within limits. These were a comprimise because the state ruled against having billboards or other large advertising signs with 25' of any state right-of-way. I put a link to the info about them, below. At my pace, it will be about 30 years before I requisition one of those!

Interesting about the number of workshops in Lancaster. I guess one thing that Lancaster and VT have in common is that people from elsewhere attach positive meaning to having something made there. (Similarity exists between Turkey Hill Ice Cream advertising "Imported from Lancaster County and Ben and Jerry's pushing the VT image -- the similarities probably end there -- except perhaps for the caloric content!)

-Andy


http://www.aot.state.vt.us/maint/OBDS.htm

Ummmm...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA


>Adult campground? I don't know about that one. Sure does get the mind going this morning...

Re: Ummmm...

VTAndy4


>He he -- I don't think that the folks who made the website noticed the exact content of the picture beyond that fact that it contained the signs. Well, it's a state known for civil liberties, so there you go... we've got all kinds of campgrounds... at least the sign didn't say "Adult Woodworker", whatever that would mean!

-Andy

Re: How many of us make our living with wood anywa *LINK*

Gary B in Central NY


>That's a good question moses, I consider cabinetmakers to normally build kitchen, or bath cabinets, maybe some built-ins, like I used to. now I consider myself a furnituremaker because I mostly make Conference tables, Large reception areas, desks, etc. I think it's probably splitting hairs though. This is what I do at work (warning! use of hand tools very minimal here)


The Day job

Cabinetmakers

Warren in Lancaster, PA


>There are two types of cabinetmakers. One makes kitchen cabinets and built-ins (no hand work) and the other makes fine furniture (lots of hand work). Though they share the name, they are two separate trades, worlds apart.

Maine does the sign thing too

Bob Hackett


>For a fee just about anyone can have a state installed sign.

The bad news is that in many places there are so many of them that you don`t have time to extract any useful info unless you stop and read,thus they are easier to just ignore.

MB

Re: How many of us make our living with wood anywa

Gary Karner


>My guess that any furniture maker that can make a rocking chair could easily make a kitchen cabinet, but I doubt that a lot of cabinet makers could make a proper rocking chair.

ace

And they are all trained the same

Andrew F in Australia


>A cabinetmaker where I come from is a trade, and you have to know how to cut inlay, gallery quality dovetails, the ins & outs of joinery, repair antiques, design and manufacture one off items, insert cup hinges and other knock down/system 32 joinery, set up boring machines, program a CNC router to break up a panel or drill holes appropriately, make a kitchen and install the thing as well as to make a reproduction Goddard secretary if desired.

Your mileage may vary.

Andrew

Don`t know how this got here.

Bob Hackett


>I posted it as a reply to one made in the "best woodworking towns" thread.

Hmmmm...

MB

Bob, I can put it...

Ted Owen, Moderator


>in the right place, if you just tell me exactly where.

Best, Ted

Thanks Ted

Bob Hackett


>It`s a response to a thread that`s now on page 2.

Subject-Re:All over Vermont

Posted by-Warren in Lancaster PA.

Date-Thursday 28 September 2006 at 8:38 AM

You`re the best Ted.

No,really.Everybody who thinks Ted`s the best raise your hand!

See Ted,I told you so.

Look at all those hands,that many people can`t be wrong.

MB

I see, now...

Ted Owen, Moderator


>it's in the right place. It's just that the early messages of the thread have scrolled to page 2, as you guessed.

Best, Ted