A son’s request for pocket money is the spark for a burgeoning father/son woodworking business!
Recently, someone asked for input on the ROI of a Digital Wood Carver, and out of the many great comments that customers gave, one in particular caught my eye from Tim Maneval who lives in Florida...
“My son (9 years old) and I use it so he can earn a little cash. We make flags and some basic signs. Usually three signs a month pays for my DWC2440.”
Tim is using a DWC2440 CNC together with his son to build things that also can bring in an income. It seemed to me that a Digital Wood Carver could really present a wide range of practical learning opportunities for young people, and I sent Tim an email to see if he could elaborate more.
There’s so much great information in what he sent back to me, I feel like it’s better that you just read what Tim had to say. His story is full of great ideas for involving kids in hands-on activities where they can learn all sorts of practical skills and responsibilities, as well as ideas for those initial sales when you’re just getting started in a new woodworking adventure and would like to be able to justify the investment with some sales! I’ll turn it over to Tim...
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“When I was young, my dad took me to a friend of his once a week who taught me woodworking. After I went to college, I served in the Army for 8 years. During that time I picked up my wood working again between deployments. I often would lose interest because each time I found a new project, it usually meant I needed to buy another piece of expensive equipment.
Tim in Iraq
“I think that is why the CNC really hit home with me because it is so versatile.”
Tim is now a supervisor for a manufacturing company and his teams program and run machinery, so he’s familiar with how they work.
“At Christmas time, my daughter asked me to help her make "pallet wood Christmas" trees. My kids are 9 year old twins, son and daughter. So I pulled out my equipment and really started searching the internet for CNCs again.
The Pallet Christmas Tree!
“About the same time, my son asked for some money. Being old fashioned, I asked if he would want to earn it. I showed him some flags being made and we talked through making them. So we made a plan to hand make some flags and sell them until we saved some money for a CNC.
“Our first flag was Dremel etched stars. WOW, that took hours and didn't look really professional. The guys that have the patience and talent for that are amazing. Then we made vinyl stars on a Cricut which worked nice but lacked the real woodworking touch.
“Fortunately for us, this is when our local woodworking show was coming to town. So we went to the show and found the DWC team running samples and current owners bending over backwards to help us decide.
“Like most people, I had seen super small Asian models being sold everywhere but were way too small and lacked any software. Looking back, I was really close to a few of the other cheaper brands...
“I am so glad I went with the DWC. My son and I were able to set it up in a matter of hours, follow the YouTube videos of set up, and were cutting right away. I'm not sure my son would have made it through a 2 day install.
“Also looking back, I see a lot of the other machine owners always buying upgrades, aftermarket add-on parts, etc. The DWC worked straight outta setup.
Laney actually had a class on making a flag, we followed the part about making a star, wrote our program on V-Carve and it ran perfect on the first try and we just kept repeating it.
“My son likes these types of projects because we can get them done. When I was young doing hand woodworking, projects would take us months to complete. We can do a few flags in a day or a one-piece flag on the machine can be done in hours.
Obviously, his generation is very digital so he likes to be able to combine his computer skills with a machine. To him, it is like playing a game but it tells the machine to make something.
Being nine years old, sanding and staining helps burn off his energy. Using the tape measure, he is reinforcing the fractions that he is learning in school. We are even working a little on a budget for us.
So our "business" plan was to make a stockpile of flags, take them to our monthly neighborhood market and then to sell on Facebook. Well, we made the first few for family and friends and then decided “Why don't we have all the 9 year olds in our Cub Scout pack make their own flag?”. So we spent 3 Cub Scout meetings and each Cub Scout made a flag with their parents helping some.
“The referrals from family, friends, and cub scouts that got those first flags are more than we can keep up with. The neighborhood market has been cancelled with the COVID-19 issues and we have enough sales that we haven't advertised on Facebook yet. We now have our flags pretty nailed down, so we are looking to try some other products.
“We made some Quarterboard signs following Laney's YouTube video for my daughter’s horseback riding instructor. Same thing, we gave her one and now people are asking for some.
“We are also looking to combine the use of our Cricut with our woodworking. A future step is for us to also learn epoxy resin projects. Many projects are easy to try since VCarve is fairly universal. We can buy a file on Etsy for a few dollars and try it. Much easier than spending hours trying to draw it ourselves.
“I got my son involved by promising him he could earn money. I also let him do the transaction when he gives the flag to the person, he collects the money, and he separates his portion out.
Scouts Project
I got the cub scouts to try it just by showing them a finished project and saying show up on Thursday nights and we will make one. It really helped that their parents came over and watched while 13 kids worked in my garage all at once. They thought the nail gun was the coolest thing ever.
These type of projects with the CNC have really nice quality and they look better finished than the average nail together build project that kids often do in Cub Scouts and etc. This looks like real woodworking. My next upgrade I hope is to add the laser so I can put a logo and etc on the back of our projects. But I had the kids sign with a burn marker and then burned it on. They were really proud of that.
Growing Sales and ROI
So far getting customers has been easy - get a few products in the hands of people and they show friends. I ended up setting up a dedicated email, and I learned how to ship from the UPS store. The referral network is a lot bigger than I expected. We have shipped to NY, PA, North Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and we live in Florida!
My initial thought was to buy the smaller unit [DWC1824] and that would have done a lot of the flags and projects we have tackled so far, but I'm really glad that we went with the bigger unit [DWC2440], it gives us a lot more options to try with and to set up two projects at a time.
We used our bank for a small personal finance loan. At the current rate that we sell flags, we can pay for the wood, pay my son's work, and pay the loan back with four flags per month. Our flags are fairly cheap for our area, I know people selling similar flags that could pay the monthly payment selling one flag.
Quarterboards sell extremely high in my area. Also corn hole boards sell really high. In general we do two or three flags a week depending on how motivated we are. School at home during COVID19 has made it harder. We are easily making our payment and saving up money for other tools.
Support from Digital Wood Carver
“In general the DWC team has made the project a success. It was a complete kit, no add-ons, upgrades, aftermarket fixes, etc.
“The software does what is really needed. I see owners of other equipment who get poor quality from a good machine due to software issues.
“And then SpindleTV is a bonus. We don't always make the live videos, but we watch them on the channel later. The process has been so easy, that I haven't even used the free training course for new buyers. I don't have any questions to ask. The couple questions I have had, other owners answered before I even needed to reach out to Laney or your team.”
We would like to thank Tim for sharing his experiences and perspectives with us. And also we want to wish him continued success with this new family woodworking business!
Contact information for Tim:
Email: mainstreet727@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mainstreet727/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MainStreetInnovationsLLC/