Are you envious?

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors woodshop.

-- Josh // "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." - Jack Handey

Me either Bert.
Wish I could have that kind of slush fund.
But I manage to get by and am just proud to live in a country where I can control my own destiny. . . so far.

Many years ago I was on a fox hunt with some friends and we visited the studio shop of the owner of the hounds and the estate where we were hunting. This guy had a shop much nicer, and larger than my house. I was not onto woodworking back then and did not recognize the value of his tools, but I now think there must have been a few hundred carving chisels laying around, a giant band saw and many high end work benches and clamps everywhere. Turn out the guy builds and repairs carrousel horses. He had many at various stages of completion. He had a few he had made into rocking horses. These things were huge and very ornate.

Maybe one day I’ll hit the lottery and have this kind of hobby.

Whenever I get to feeling like that, I ask myself: “If you could roll the dice and randomly trade places with another person on the planet that the dice chose for you, would you?”

-- Quote from ebay tool listing: " Has nicks and dings wear and tear dust and dirt rust and pitting but in good working condition"

He earned it, good for him and may everyone

enjoy the fruits of their labor.

It is fun to see that someone has a really nice shop. But for me, the shop I have is pretty close to the shop I want. On the one hand I want a shop that gives me the capability of doing the projects I want to do, but on the other hand I want to get good use out of everything I have. I’ve pretty much achieved the first goal, but I’ve got a long way to go on the second.

-- Greg D.

We all use our discretionary money in some way. Some go out to eat for lunch and dinner and spend additional $12 at Starbucks every day. That is a house payment by itself. Others buy stamps, coins, guns and so on. Very few give it to someone in need. This man has obviously increased the value of his home with that investment.

-- earthartandfoods.com

I wish I could be more creative and come up with interesting unique designs and I envy those who have this ability.I have all the basic tools that I need although 90% of them are used.
My point is it doesn’t matter how big and fancy my bandsaw is ,it’s use is still limited to what I can produce with it.

-- Ken from Ontario, Canada

Doesn’t matter what you spend on a hobby, someone’s going to spend more.

-- "Lack of effort will result in failure with amazing predictability" - Me

There’s a fellow in my area who bought a new Omga chop
saw, Northfield #4, the latest Martin panel saw, big
jointer, etc. I reckon he must be an engineer or something
and do the woodworking part time to drop that kind of
dough. The work I’ve seen pictures of is just straight
forward kitchen cabinets with raised panels and book
shelves… the stuff you could do with $1200 worth of
used machinery. I discovered the guy when he tried
to sell the Northfield and Omga saws – his prices were
unrealistically high because having got them new he
was trying to get some of his money back.

Anyway, to make a point, the guy with the fancy tool
investmentment may not be doing very interesting,
technically demanding or even inspired work.

You can build some really cool stuff without a lot of
fancy tools. The machines make woodworking look
easy, but they don’t replace creativity one bit.

“The machines make woodworking look easy, but they don’t replace creativity one bit”
Very true.
The only thing I was trying to communicate is that I am surprised that someone could afford to spend that kind of money for a hobby (even if he sales his production).
I am not envious at all especially since he is a heck of nice guy.

-- Bert

I do envy the big square footage and the fellow with a
forklift though. ;)

I’m a little cramped but my machines do what I need
them to do well enough.

Unless you have seen it personally, assume that there is a certain amount of smoke blowing here.

Regardless, more power to him. You can only work with what you have. Worrying about what he has accomplishes nothing. It’s OK to dream, just don’t live in the dream.

-- Nature created it, I just assemble it.

Good to hear that a nice guy has money to spare. Too often it seems it’s just the jerks that have cash to spare. Must be a great shop.

-- Karen - a little bit of stupid goes a long way

I suppose it all depends on your goals. If you do woodworking to produce something, then I think you’ve got to be concerned with efficiency, return on investment, margin and things like that – even if you are just making furniture for your family. If there is more to it than production – that is, if the experience of woodworking itself is a major part of why you are doing it, then you can have that experience for very little money. I have a fair amount of stuff in my shop, but little time to enjoy the experience. So, if I would envy anybody, it would be the one who is able to make it a full-time family-sustaining profession – as long as not overwhelmed by stress working 18-hours days just to pay the bills. I have admired the LJ called “Rogue” who seemed to be doing that. I haven’t seen him post here in awhile. He has his own website.

-- I intended to be a woodworker, but turned into a tool and lumber collector.

I hope to be able to go visit his shop soon.
Monte, no smoke here. I trust the guy 100%.
At work this guy probably makes well over $200 000.00/year without counting what he makes selling his production.

-- Bert