I'd like to hear your SB success story

[80grit]

I'm planning on getting a SB soon and, hopefully, using it to transition into a full time thing. I'm nervous about what direction I will go with it and the unknowns of running a business. My experience is in furniture, but I want to keep an open mind.

For those of you who have a solid business using a SB, if you are willing to share, I'd to hear about what worked for you as far as what you make and how you built your business.

How did you come about finding a product in demand?

Did you advertise?

Is most of your clientele local or beyond?


I would also like to hear any tips about what didn't work for you. Any golden nuggets of wisdom will be appreciated.

[twelchPTM]

there are a lot of storys on the forum, especially in the show and tell, here a link to a thread a posted a few months back...
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17301

[Bob Eustace]

Andy just do a search of Eugene Kings posts as he sums it up pretty well and also sells plans for some of his products to get you kick started. Eugene also teaches one to use up every bit of time whilst the bot is cutting. Truly you can make just about anything on the bot and your whole manufacturing concepts and methods will change. As you already do furniture why not think of value adding by incorporating lots of v carving? Yesterday I took a crappy chest of draws, took the top off and v carved the top of Mike Tylers Paradise box by scaling it up. Looks absolutely stunning and took 26 minutes!

[MogulTx]

I was buying machined components from a company in another state. They kkept raising prices and their quality control was terrible- and their performance to their quoted lead time was even worse. We got to a point that we had a major quality failure of a part that slipped past MY people. I decided-that day- that I was going to fix that problem. I already knew a guy local to me that did CNC cutting on a ShopBot. I showed him the kinds of parts I needed to have cut. He said: "sure. I can do that." We took him several jobs, but he was 35 miles from me. I eventually bought a machine and started learning how to cut on a 4x4 PRT. It was "OK". Within a couple weeks after getting it ( with NO idea how to run it)... I got a rush need for my shop, to cut a precise template. I told my partner I could do the job (in my garage. on my used shopbot!) I went home that night with a drawing and an idea and cut the most perfect template our company had ever used. When I saw the look on his face, I knew I had a winner.

After that, we started cutting a lot of our own materials. I sold the PRT and bought a 48x96 PRS Standard. Last year I saw a PRS Alpha in a 60 x 120 and I sold the 48 x 96 in a heartbeat. I have learned a lot in the last 3 or so years... I still don't know nearly enough. The three machines have all been fantastic.

The thing is: I started with a NEED. And I went into shopbotting without an expectation that this would replace my daily income. My big machine gets used about 8-10 hours on the average week. I do not have a full time employee, I did nearly 100% in my evenings and weekends. It has built up a nice little extra nest egg for me. But I had a plan, and I followed it. I didn't just buy it to se if I could learn CNC. It has come at an expense to me and it was worth every penny and every drop of blood I have put into it. ShopBot is the way to go, because of the simple, sound platforms that are available and the awesome customer service. Don't hesitate. But DO have a plan and a reason to succeed... and then go do it. Learn all you can. Be polite. Ask many many questions- with the goal of understanding. Then GIVE BACK to the community in a constructive way. And also tell us of YOUR successes. (And maybe a hiccup or two that we might learn from!)

Have fun with it too.

MGM

[gc3]

https://www.facebook.com/VectorStudio22

[genek]

Mr. Hardy, You can make good money with a shop bot. What it takes is the willingness to learn, to get out there and sale yourself, and Your product.

The shop bot can make almost anything that Your heart desires. What I recommend is that You set your goals and go after them. Listen to people here on the forum, ask questions. Learn from our mistakes and also make your own mistakes, and share them with us. We learn from doing we learn more from out mistakes. Find a product that you want to make, make it but also have back up product that will sale. I have my stand by product that I make all the time (they are the ones I have offered for sale on the cd) then I have my High end products that I sale (by the way my high end are $250.00 and above) My high end sales slow but it sales My stand by product sales at a steady rate. My stand by product pays my bills and keeps me making money, Then when my High end product sales I make even more money. My biggest recommendations is to use your imagination. Keep looking for ways to make money, have fun doing it, if you are having fun half the battle is won.

There are people on here that will help you in any way they can.
Shop bot has free on line classes Get in touch with TJ at tjchristiansen@shopbottools.com get him to send you information when he is having a on line class, I try to take everyone that he has even if I know how to do what is being taught ( I learn something everytime). Tj is a great teacher, Shop Bot Has a great product. They back up Their cnc and have great technical support team.

Most have hear me say this a lot. Think out side of the box.

[Bob Eustace]

Andy have a look at what fellow furniture maker Andrew Pitt is doing on his little Desktop. Have a look at the video on his home page as its a brilliant example of marrying your existing business to CNC.

http://andrewpittsfurnituremaker.com/index.html

Heaps of detailed video on his Desktop on Utube BUT the only way to find it is to plonk in Shopbot CNC and scroll down until you spot an Andrew Pitt. Most of the vids have had way over 1500 views. Anyway he has a nice online store and gets $110 for simple small signs so this should answer you original question.

[80grit]

Thanks for the info, everyone. I'll keep digging through the forum to learn all I can.

I started building furniture when I was 15, and from the time I got out of college to when I met my wife at 30, I worked 20-25 hours per week part-time building. Deep down, I was hoping it would materialize into something full-time. I built up a nice clientele strickly from word of mouth, but I sucked at quoting prices and ended up essentially making minimum wage most of the time. The big pieces that were fun to make were just too time-consuming to make money on. I felt like I was giving the stuff away. While they all apreciated my work, few really could understand the expense of it. After I got married, I built a house and spend all my spare time working on stuff for us. I haven't sold anything in 5 years, though people still ask all the time.

I am currently a registered civil engineer in my mid 30s. I have a good job with excellent benefits. What's the problem, you ask? I've reached a point where I dread sitting in a cube all day writing reports. My passion is working with my hands being creative, and I think professional experiece will make the learning curve shorter, as far as the SB.

[genek]

Mr. Hardy: you hit up on one of the problems most people have (quoting prices) Even I have that problem from time to time). The best advice That I can give is set a minimum price per hour for your time, Your equipment and for your supplies. I make high end furniture, I never quote a price on the furniture until it is finished unless I have done one similar to that piece.
When I do custom work I tell my customer that it will be per hour plus material, if i have done something like it before, I tell them that price plus and additional $100.00 and that it may be less, however if I have never done anything like that, I tell them that I have never made that before, and that it will be strictly time and material. One can sit down and figure out how much material he will need, one can calculate how many hours will be needed, then add 50% on top and that should cover any extra, customers always like to hear it is cheaper than what was quoted but never that it went over.
the way I do is I take my material, times it by 3,000% and that is my price.
most of my patterns that I make every day is that or above.

My advice to you is start part time making The things you want to make,
keep track of how much time and material take pictures and set your price accordingly. Have small items (like kitchen times that are your main stay or as I call them my stand by product.) to Sale or Wholesale ( or both like I do) Then as your high end items sale replace them. Never let your client talk you down on Your price, When people try I look at them and explain that I do not make things to give away, this is how I make my living.

At some point in time all of my High end pieces sale, the right customer will come along and pay what I have to have, but till then my stand by product pays my bills.
Read my Post on waste wood.

Start out making small items that sale fast and a few High end furniture, find some local festivals or craft shows and do them. Start it as a Hobby or part time job. This way you do not but your style of life in jeopardy.
My company started out as a hobby and a way for me to pass the time after I retired from the Navy, now it brings in more than my retirement.
It has been a life saver for my wife and I.

Anything you do make sure do good quality work. Always do Quality work above quantity. The quantity will come as the quality improves.

[gundog]

For me I had a successful small business before buying the SB not having a business plan and buying equipment seems backwards to me.

I was outsourcing parts that could be made in house and bought the tool. The SB opened up a lot of new products with the ability to design and make more things than I could not have with manual machines.

You say you build furniture the SB will allow you to build things not practical to build by hand and way more accurate. For example just making a radius corner or some special shape yes you could do it with a band saw by hand and then sand it to shape but the time required to do that is the difference between making a profit and not IMHO.

If you have a need the SB is a tool that may open up some new work and profit for you but I would not buy something to make an unknown widget in hopes of making money. I suspect the question here is to try and find new uses most folks don't mind sharing techniques but would probably not like to have their nitch business copied by another fishing for ideas here.

Sorry if that comes off wrong but it was how I read your question.

I won't name names but a guy on here has a successful sign business that he created and was posting all his work next thing you know several are wanting to do exactly what he is because he is making money at it and he takes offense understandably. If that was not what you were trying to find then I am wrong but this is a good example.

Mike