# Cherry shaker end table with drawer



## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

heya guys. just a quick post. This here is a Cherry Shaker end table with a drawer i made for a client. it features hand-cut dovetails and solid wood bottomed drawer with a hand turned pull. It's also got a unique drawer stop, something of a secret :yes: The Cherry i used was quite beautiful. i had picked up a nice wide board, about 10" that was just chock full of mineral deposits. I was able to to use it for the top, aprons and drawer. turned out beautiful. The wood was definately one of a kind. Thanks for lookin :thumbsup:


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## jaxonquad (Jan 26, 2011)

A beauty! I can only imagine the pride you get when turning it over to the customer.


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## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

Thanks! and yea, definitely a good feeling, the look on their face and how impressed they are is what strikes the chord.


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

That's a job well done!

I'd love to see closeups of the drawer and top.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

That is very elegant looking. I'd love to see more pics of the top. Well done!


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## tcleve4911 (Dec 16, 2006)

Well done
Traditional shaker lines and proportions.
oh yeah ....nice shop......where were you in the "let's see your shop" THREAD ??


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## sanchez (Feb 18, 2010)

That is very nice. Thanks for posting. Nice shop, too!!


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

Very nice work. I love this style.


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## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

hey guys. thank you for all the kind comments. you guys asked for some closeups. so here they are! on and by the way. this isn't my shop, i wish it was though. i'm at the Vermont woodworking school in VT. I used to be a student here and worked a deal with them to get a bench and a place to stay so i could come and just plain work for a month. so you're seeing several students benches in the backround. It's a very good deal for me so i'm in the shop quite often lately :thumbsup: also, i'm still quite young and inexpierienced as far as woodworking goes. so any flaws you see, just keep that in mind


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

Ok, I saw one little spot where it looks like a pin blew out. But flaws? Don't sell yourself short. You have fantastic skills. That's a top notch job. 

I can't get over the figure in that wood. This last bunch of pics really shows it off.


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## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

hey brink, if you're talking about the top lefthand side on the corner of the drawer that's shown in the picture, that's actually a mineral deposit. my shoulder lines could be a bit better. that is really what shows on all the corners, the shoulders. Anyways, thank you for the praise, nice to hear that sometimes. 

The figuring is amazing indeed. i don't think anyone realized it was going to be so beautiful when it was in it's rough sawn state.


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## Chris86 (Aug 27, 2011)

Looks good to me:yes: Nice work:thumbsup:


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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

Those dove tails are far and away better than my last attempt... A beautiful piece.


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## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

hey guys, i'm just curious what you guys might charge for a piece like this? I'm still trying to find a decent price point and am always unsure of myself. it took me all in all probably 2 or 3 days. and about 60 in materials.


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## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

How much do you want to make per hour? ;-)


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

tymann09 said:


> hey guys, i'm just curious what you guys might charge for a piece like this? I'm still trying to find a decent price point and am always unsure of myself. it took me all in all probably 2 or 3 days. and about 60 in materials.


Pricing is always a challenge in this business. If you have 3 eight hour day into it or 24 man hours it would seem entirely fair to rent your time to some one for at least $60 per hour or more. After all any good mechanic or plumber would charge that at least. So $1440 for the labor and then you should mark up the wood by at least 50% as any plumber or mechanic would, that's $120 for a total of $1560.00 plus shipping and handling, plus tax. The worst thing that could happen is the client would say just go ahead and keep it.

The problem is our consumers always remember the lowest price they have ever seen for such an object, and if he ever shops at IKEA the price stuck in his head is about $79.00. So now the client needs to be educated, you have to tell him why it is worth the money to have a table hand made by you over a mass produced item from the big store.

I've had better luck selling kitchen cabinets than custom furniture. People need something to hold up their countertops when they build a house and they look at a cabinetmaker more as a plumber or electrician, a tradesman providing a service, whereas the furniture-maker is more like an artist and the consumer expects that he must be starving. 

I've sold the occasional piece of furniture and an get commissions once in a while but I don't give the stuff away. 

Another way of looking at the situation is from a production perspective. Lets say you made ten of the tables at the same time. You could probably make ten of them in less than two weeks and could do quite well selling them at $800 apiece, your customer gets a good table for half the price and you make $90 an hour instead of 60. That's economy of scale.

Custom art type furniture is a tough business to make work. It is frustrating for me because I can make more money nailing up trim and hanging doors than I can making beautiful heirloom furniture. 

My $0.02, Bret

Oh, BTW, NICE SHOP!


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## sanchez (Feb 18, 2010)

Thanks for the new pictures. The wood you chose is beautiful!


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## tymann09 (Mar 4, 2011)

thanks for the input guys. Bret there's quite a bit of information that you gave me that i find very useful. I 100% agree that one can make a much better living doing a trade other than furniture. I work as a carpenter in the spring summer and part of the fall and make good money and work is always readily available. But like anyone, i'd like to try to make a living doing this, which is what i love. I can see how you came about the price that you did. I thought about this a bit and i feel that 60$ is way out of my league right now. like i said, i'm still young and a little inexpierienced. I think i would feel comfortable charging 30 and hour max, right now as i make 15 an hr in the carpentry buisness. which would bring the price you estimated down to aprx 700. I happen to think that is a pretty reasonable price if you ask me. i value your input greatly though.

Sanchez, not a problem with the pics!


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## 240sxguy (Sep 13, 2010)

$700 seems reasonable (on the low end) to me. Nice table!


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## Lola Ranch (Mar 22, 2010)

tymann09 said:


> thanks for the input guys. Bret there's quite a bit of information that you gave me that i find very useful. I 100% agree that one can make a much better living doing a trade other than furniture. I work as a carpenter in the spring summer and part of the fall and make good money and work is always readily available. But like anyone, i'd like to try to make a living doing this, which is what i love. I can see how you came about the price that you did. I thought about this a bit and i feel that 60$ is way out of my league right now. like i said, i'm still young and a little inexpierienced. I think i would feel comfortable charging 30 and hour max, right now as i make 15 an hr in the carpentry buisness. which would bring the price you estimated down to aprx 700. I happen to think that is a pretty reasonable price if you ask me. i value your input greatly though."
> 
> Did I mention that I don't sell as much of my furniture as I'd like to. $700 is probably a more "real world" price. That being said, I don't think that $15 an hour is enough wage to support a family. I would work for any wage if I was desperate enough but with my experience and expertise if I can't get at least $30 an hour I'l just stay at home and work in the shop. If you are licensed and insured it's hard to work for any less than that.
> 
> ...


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## H. A. S. (Sep 23, 2010)

tymann09 said:


> heya guys. just a quick post. This here is a Cherry Shaker end table with a drawer i made for a client. it features hand-cut dovetails and solid wood bottomed drawer with a hand turned pull. It's also got a unique drawer stop, something of a secret :yes: The Cherry i used was quite beautiful. i had picked up a nice wide board, about 10" that was just chock full of mineral deposits. I was able to to use it for the top, aprons and drawer. turned out beautiful. The wood was definately one of a kind. Thanks for lookin :thumbsup:




Fantastic work, Tymann! Very nice design.:thumbsup: And it still looks handcrafted, to boot.


If I had bookoo dollars, I'd have Bret make me a whole set of his tables. Fantastic design, Bret!


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