I had this comment on this video that I thought would be an interesting topic for a post on here:

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

On the face of it, I don’t think anyone would disagree with this. It is after all the best approach to take – to do the work as well as you can within the limits of your knowledge and ability.
It’s also usually the most cost effective, since doing it right more or less guarantees that it won’t have to be redone at some time in the future.

However, as with nearly everything else in this imperfect world, there are degrees of “right”. We can set out to build something that is perfect, but lack the best materials to build it with; or don’t have the skill and experience to cut that ship-worthy joint; or don’t have the knowledge and ability to produce that immaculate finish. These and other limits are common restraints whenever you make something, and the true craftsman is able to work within and around them to get the job done.
So:

“Done is better than perfect”

Are words to live by, especially if your goal is to make money from making things.

When I started out in woodworking, I just wanted to make things that I thought I needed. I wasn’t overly concerned that what I made (box, table, shelf, speakers, etc.) were aesthetically pleasing, I just needed them to function properly.
As I got older I tried to make them look better and was often frustrated by the limits I listed above – poor materials, lack of skill and experience, and short on the knowledge and ability to achieve the results that I wanted or envisioned.
And often I gave up on projects because I knew I would not be happy with it when finished. All too often, actually.
But for me that was a big part of the learning process, the successes and the failures. Especially the failures, as they taught me to work within the limits.

In the video below I talk about a desk I built when I was much younger, and the problems I had. Without going into the details, the desk was large and although simple to look at, it was fairly complex to build.
The biggest challenge turned out to be applying the Formica to all of the surfaces and how I made a couple of mistakes while building the parts that compounded this.
In the end, it took much longer than I originally expected to get the work done. And by the time it was finished, I was not happy with the work and I felt resentment toward the client because he was getting so much of my time for so very little. It sounds absurd, I know, but it’s absolutely true.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that desk build as a turning point. One of several throughout my career. What that build taught me specifically is that there’s no money in making consumer grade products on a small scale. If you compare a similar item from a big furniture retailer, you can basically count on a custom built one costing as much as 10 times more, just to make a decent amount of money from it to cover your time and any warranty issues. And only the truly wealthy or insane will pay that much.

I’ve often heard it said that you should charge what the materials cost for the project as the labour cost to build it. That is a formula for poverty and a diet of cat food straight from the can, since labour cost long ago outpaced material cost by a wide margin.

While not an exact example of the work I used to do, this custom made vanity took me several days to build and finish.

Another key turning point happened for me when I switched from working for an employer to being fully self employed. Even though I was doing the same work, I had to radically adjust how I went about it.
I had to be more efficient, since extra time spent doing a task does not make more money, like it would when I was employed. Working on contract means you are locked in to the price you gave to do the work, and you need to be able to complete it on time.

So, the extra little things that I used to do when I was working by the hour were set aside to get the work done. And not necessarily in the fastest time possible, as most people believe. Instead it was to strip away the stuff that is not strictly needed to get the job done competently and efficiently.
This was really driven home when I had the opportunity to inspect the work done by others in my field. While the work was not shoddy, it certainly wasn’t as well done as the work I did, even when I maximized efficiency. And the remarkable thing was that they were getting away with it.

On the surface, that’s kind of depressing since we all want to do work that I can be proud of, and not just get away with. It is the hard reality, though.

So in conclusion I would say that trying to make a living from woodworking will be a tough go for even the most experienced. And that is especially true if you hold yourself up to a high standard.
Better to do something else to earn your living and do woodworking on the side as a hobby. That is unless you can find those extremely wealthy or completely insane customers I mentioned above. They are out there…

This video starts with my response to the reaction my “iron cross” fidget spinner got from a number of viewers. Skip ahead to 6:30 for just the woodworking part: