Hacker News Reader

Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

I need to give up my woodworking hobby first — it needs a lot of (garage) space.

DIY furniture is not cheap compared with mass-produced even without considering time, so giving up the hobby is a sound financial decision. For huge cost savings, there is a large market of used furniture available private-party.

Edit: Hobbies certainly aren't practical, but there is often a practical aspect associated with them used as a justification, e.g. for having fresher vegetables or unusual varieties not sold in a supermarket/co-op. I bring up cost with woodworking as it's a notoriously expensive hobby, especially second-order costs such as the decision to own a single-family home or a larger vehicle.

Isn’t the “it’s not cheap compared to mass produced.” sort of the description of a hobby? I bake (on and off) as a hobby and while that is comparatively simple in terms of equipment, if I start considering the time and actual costs, the pretty expensive hipster bakery starts to look more and more appealing. Same for the vegetables we grow in our garden.

Nobody gets into woodworking to save money on furniture. They do it because it’s a hobby they enjoy.

Ah yes hobbies, what we do solely for profit... Some of the people posting on HN really makes me lose all faith in humanity

There are a number of serious flaws with what you wrote. The first is what others commented on.. you confuse "hobby" with "for profit".

Next is this :

> DIY furniture is not cheap compared with mass-produced even without considering time,

Do you honestly believe that "mass-produced" furniture is anywhere near the same quality as DIY?

Ikea - Where you can buy a bookshelf which will not be able to hold the weight of books.

DiY - Where you use dado's and plywood and end up with bookshelf's which can easily hold a few hundred pounds.

My most prized possessions are the quilts my mother made for us, the jewelry and furniture my father made for us and my grandparents (and I've since inherited) and us. I would rather have those things than all the money in the world. Yes, my parents could have traded in their stuff 30 years ago and invested the money, and handed me a pile of money instead, but I would have lost my soul, my heritage, my history. I'm grateful they didn't, and I hope that the parent commenter doesn't either. I hope the parent commenter keeps making furniture that is meaningful to them and theirs.

There are things worth far more than money.

Yeah it is because DIY wood working usually needs real wood, not particle board.

What if you don't want to inhale the stuff mass produced furniture is outgassing? With DIY you have at least a slight chance to avoid that, by choosing your materials accordingly.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com