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Comment by bradly | Hacker News Reader

I left my dream job at Apple to pursue woodworking. If anyone is interested in dipping their toe in, I help out at a 2.5 day weekend workshop on the central coast of California where you come and make a piece a furniture with a master woodworker. We get a lot of software engineers from both the bay area and Seattle.

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How do you make a living? I do woodworking at a local workspace. It seems like the margins are pretty tight unless making very high end furniture

Unfortunately not from woodworking yet, but I’m hopeful. I have some rental income, some savings, and I still do some consulting a few months out of the year.

Dining tables seem to be the best margins, but I don’t have enough work to do commissions, so I’m going out of pocket to build on spec. The good news is a lot of high end furniture is very simple. I good sense of design goes a long way.

Thanks for sharing your experience! That is similar to what I heard from others too. I wish you the best of luck with building the business!

this this right here will make a great YouTube channel.

I've thought a lot about a book or course on woodworking for software engineers. Bits to Bits was my "clever" name :)

Most people end up doing carpentry/subcontracting to make ends meet. If you make very artistic or high concept pieces and can develop a following, that's a good way to make much better margins. A bit like selling paintings.

Fort Bragg? Is that the central coast? I'd love to get out there; I build furniture professionally, and my training is very much in the period American tradition, but my tastes run a lot more contemporary.

Paso Robles!

Jory Brigham?

Edit: Nevermind. Answered down thread. Lucky you. Beautiful area and Jory's work is phenomenal.

Thank you. I do feel lucky. I cold-emailed him two years ago asking if I can come sand or sweep and he invited me up. He and his family have been great and I’ve met amazing people there.

His workshops are my favorite weekends of the year, and I’m working during them, so I highly recommend it if you can swing it.

I've looked into some workshops, including his. It's not in the cards for me now, but something I'd like to do someday. I also enjoy coming back to the central coast (I went to college in SLO). Jory did some videos on his Hollister credenza for the TWW Guild. They captured (possibly unintentionally) the laid back central coast vibe with the open doors and the birds chirping in the background.

Good cabs and good craftsmanship. Paso Robles is one of California's gems.

I was just looking at Esty wondering if it's time to start making some smalls to see if I could make a living off of them.

What's the name of the workshop?

Jory Brigham Workshop

https://www.jorybrighamworkshop.com/

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