Table for two, please.

Talk about crushing out builds lately. Here I am, Saturday night, its 8:26 pm. My wife’s out for the night. Baby is in bed. I’m down in my shop watching the Scotties, (hooked up a TV in the shop) writing a blog and having a taste of Ireland’s finest whiskey. I’ve changed, and you know what, I’m pretty cool with it. Actually, who am I kidding!? I was at Sportsman’s last night. I’m exhausted and have a headache.

Anyway, into the build. This one is for the same customer as my last build. For a little girl who just turned one! A pretty special birthday and some pretty great parents asked me to build a little table and a couple of little chairs for her. I got this one out pretty quick. I’ll go through the build process in pictures below.

But first, this build is going to be my last commissioned build for at least two months. I have to start building 51 sandwich boards. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with this. I woke up at 2:30 last night and started running numbers in my head and realized I made a mistake in the quote, I think!? There I am at 2:30 am, calculator out, making sure I did things properly. There are a lot of different things I needed to cover in the cost. For example:

Screws – over 1000 of them
Glue (a bunch)
Hinges (102)
Stain (Not 100% sure on this)
Polyurethane (same as above)
Staples (2000)
Chain (100 feet, 33.33333 yards)
lumber (102 1 x 6 x 6)
Black dry erase boards (102)

The dry erase boards are coming from Cincinnati and 102 of them need to clear customs in US currency and I’m trying to figure out how much HST I’ll need to pay. I ran the numbers 987106 times but I keep thinking I may have missed something. Quoting is f***ing hard and I want to be as fair as possible. That’s my business model (in my head anyway). I’m just a guy trying to run a small business with zero experience!! I may have gotten in over my head. But with any great businesses, mistakes will happen. The only way to grow as a business and as a person is to try new things and take risks. Calculated risks are probably the best. I’ll get there. I’m sure there are going to be a few growing pains.

I will definitely keep everyone up to date as I try to find my way through this mass production. It will be fun to document the learning curve as I tackle my biggest order to date! Again, I’ve been getting great feedback and I appreciate it.

Let’s get to it, to do it!

First, I ripped the table top down to size.

Next, I took a 2 x 4 and ripped that in half for the legs and cut to length.

Marked the length of the stretchers and cut.

I fastened everything together using pocket holes.

I ripped 1/4 inch off a 1 x 4 and used that to hide the edge of the plywood.

I brad nailed the edge banding onto the table top.

I rounded over all the sharp edges. Safety first! The focus on that handsome bastard.

I’ve never built chairs before but they turned out pretty sturdy.

IMG_1233 (1) — I filled in all the holes with putty. Once I sanded them flush you couldn’t even tell they were there.

I put a round over bit in my router table and rounded over the seat and all the hard edges.

Next, I sanded everything smooth till it was like butter.

I spray painted everything white. I used a cabinet paint which drys really hard and won’t stain as easy. I also put several coats of poly on the table top for extra protection. Let me tell you about how much I hate painting. I don’t like it. I went the depot in a hurry and bought the first paint gun I saw. Went home, filled it up with paint. Turned the sucker on and pressed the trigger. Paint started shooting out in blobs. It looked more like I painted the chairs with a paintball gun. I took a quick look at the box and it turned out it was for making popcorn ceilings…. I’m still trying to clean up the paint. Could have happend to anyone though… right!?

Finished! My little helper showing off the finished product. She’s a great help. I love her.[/caption

I also got some good tips on how to improve my writing from my good buddy. He also wrote a book called “The Supperstar Curriculum”. It’s a must read. Check it out at http://www.ryankeliher.com

That’s it. Another build, another blog. Stay tuned as I begin my next big adventure.

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