Any advice for making some money from woodworking?

[Adam]

it would have always gone back to the originator for final approval and authentication before general use.

Yes, and if they returned a copy for me to review I would. They have rung me for the odd dimension I've missed before.

My point is that proper working drawing(s) should be able to be sent to any person in any part of the world (who can understand English) and the component or job should should be able to be built without them having to 'work out the rest'.

I'm not arguing that, I'm saying whose responsibility is it to generate them. If you are happy to do that on behalf of your magazine, and feel you fee reflects that - then great. I'm saying you can expect them to have a good stab at it, based on some rough sketches, but the overall output, once they have worked on it, should be approximately the same. Good working drawings. I don't wish to produce them, as it would take longer than the project itself (given I don't work to plans), and don't mind if thats reflected in my fee.

To labour my point still further, imagine for a moment if Rolls-Royce sub contracted Pratt & Whitney in the USA to make the RB211 turbojet (the current version of which is fitted into BA 747s) or even part of it and only gave them the rough outline drawings and then said ..."here you are chaps, rough outline only I afraid, but you're 'Murricans, you can work out the rest of the engine and see what needs to be done" :shock:

I don't see the relevance to this? We are talking about small woodworking magazines, and the difference between you sending perfect drawings and for them to be altered, redrawn and amended, or you send them a sketch, only for it to be altered, redrawn and amended. I know which I'd rather do!

Good, unambiguous working drawings are fundamental to good engineering and manufacture. They are another form of communication and should IMHO be done and presented to the best of your ability.....if you don't know how to, that's a different argument - Rob

99% in my CAD module thankyou 8). They said they wouldn't give 100% regardless of it was perfect. Maybe its a difference in philosophy. I'm out to enjoy my hobby and make a odd few quid from an article - therefore if I get bogged down in writing and drawings it takes the edge off it. I'm doing it for "play" money. If the magazine will take a sketch, I see no reason to go any further, given I know they are going to re-draw / amend / alter the drawings to how they want it in there "style" for the magazine. They never present them as actual CAD drawings in most magazines that I've seen, despite that being the potentially best format to have them in.

Adam

 

[Gary S]

To labour my point still further, imagine for a moment if Rolls-Royce sub contracted Pratt & Whitney in the USA to make the RB211 turbojet (the current version of which is fitted into BA 747s) or even part of it and only gave them the rough outline drawings and then said ..."here you are chaps, rough outline only I afraid, but you're 'Murricans, you can work out the rest of the engine and see what needs to be done" :shock:

With respect, Rob, a piece of high tech engineering like a turbo jet is slightly different to a plan for a coffee table...!!

Whilst I think it's imperative to have a guide as to the dimensions of the piece and things like the thickness of the wood and lengths of tenons, I don't think it needs to be of engineering-type accuracy for someone to make one themselves. Most of the plans I've built from I've 'tweaked' a bit along the way to make personal preference adjustments.

The outcome was that the project was still successful and I was happy with the outcome - it would be a dangerous thing for someone building a turbojet engine to do though, "Oh, sorry - I just fancied adding an extra propellor, I thought it looked nicer!" :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

Most people live to their means I guess, and when you get promotions and pay rises you tend to get a slightly nicer car or a slightly bigger house.

Ain't that the truth :shock:

Our joint income is 12 times what we got when we married, but I'm still as broke Nicer cars and much bigger house though (+ kids) - and there's the LNs of course.........


Out of interest, what's the national average income? 50-60K for both working?

 

[woodbloke]

To labour my point still further, imagine for a moment if Rolls-Royce sub contracted Pratt & Whitney in the USA to make the RB211 turbojet (the current version of which is fitted into BA 747s) or even part of it and only gave them the rough outline drawings and then said ..."here you are chaps, rough outline only I afraid, but you're 'Murricans, you can work out the rest of the engine and see what needs to be done" :shock:

With respect, Rob, a piece of high tech engineering like a turbo jet is slightly different to a plan for a coffee table...!!

Whilst I think it's imperative to have a guide as to the dimensions of the piece and things like the thickness of the wood and lengths of tenons, I don't think it needs to be of engineering-type accuracy for someone to make one themselves. Most of the plans I've built from I've 'tweaked' a bit along the way to make personal preference adjustments.

The outcome was that the project was still successful and I was happy with the outcome - it would be a dangerous thing for someone building a turbojet engine to do though, "Oh, sorry - I just fancied adding an extra propeller, I thought it looked nicer!" :shock:

OK....the point is hugely OTT and as I said, laboured, but for me anyway, good working drawings for something that I do is important and I think the underlying principle is sound, that is if you want to effectively communicate your ideas to a third party then a good set of working drawings is essential. With just rough and ready sketch all sorts of problems might arise which wouldn't be there if a decent set of drawings were to hand. As ever, I appreciate that we all have our different ways of doing things but a respectable set of drawings has always been part of my making process - Rob

 

[Scrums]

I think Steve Maskery's original post was about the closest to the truth.....I'd like to think that Dom is right too.....but then I'm an optomist.

As for the Water Board, they want their bit from me, I don't have water (..well, it comes from some dead pigeon infested tank 3 floors up), I don't have mains drainage, I don't have any gutters/downpipes that actually work.....but they want money for '....taking away surface water'

Chris.

 

[mr]

Out of interest, what's the national average income? 50-60K for both working?

'05-'06 national figures show an average household income after tax and benefits of approx £26K

Cheers Mike