What's in YOUR wallet?

[woodbloke]

The news that a couple had won £56gazillion (and 20p) set the grey cogs whirring yesterday. I don't begrudge them the dosh for one minute (they seem like a very pleasant and well adjusted coupla folks) but if you came into that sort of unlimited funding, what would your workshop look like and what would you put in it? - Rob

 

[studders]

what would your workshop look like

An Axminster branch housed in an Aircraft Hangar.

what would you put in it? - Rob

Several 'Manservants' to do all the crappy stuff.

 

[CHJ]

For the first few years I would not be in one place long enough to use a workshop, what bit of the world I've managed to see leaves me with enough places to visit to keep me occupied for some considerable time.

Having said that it would be a big shed located somewhere pleasant and convenient to live, and I mean big, several thousand square feet with the facility for independent craftsmen to be able to use it to do their thing, making an honest living without undue pressures other than producing quality products.

A modern day 'Cotswold Craftsmen' setup with the 'distributors' vying to come to the place rather than the other way round.

 

[kasandrich]

For the first few years I would not be in one place long enough to use a workshop, what bit of the world I've managed to see leaves me with enough places to visit to keep me occupied for some considerable time.

Having said that it would be a big shed located somewhere pleasant and convenient to live, and I mean big, several thousand square feet with the facility for independent craftsmen to be able to use it to do their thing, making an honest living without undue pressures other than producing quality products.

A modern day 'Cotswold Craftsmen' setup with the 'distributors' vying to come to the place rather than the other way round.

Thats nice, so you would do something for woodcraft and the people who do it.

 

[matt]

I wouldn't need a workshop etc... I'd be in a state of paralysis brought on by suddenly having enough money to pursue too many interests but not enough time to do all of them and no ability to choose which one to pursue. I would just need a room in which I could sit rocking back and forth each day.

 

[CHJ]

Thats nice, so you would do something for woodcraft and the people who do it.

Certainly, I take great pleasure in watching a true craftsman work, I have done so since my early days watching a man in a little holiday home in a remote field (results of wartime bombing) do some incredible artistic work with the most basic tools, sometimes with armed guards stationed nearby because of the value of the treasures he was working on.

Having managed workshop facilities (two aircraft hangers worth with multi megawatt usage) the thought of being able to provide the facilities of a professional machining, heat treatment, plating and finishing capability for the the convenience of modern skilled craftsmen is a dream I've carried for years.

With that sort of money I'm sure there would be enough 'spare' to allow a good accountant to keep the books even for a few years to provide time for such an enterprise to settle down into a working solution.

 

[would not]

Thanks guy I've been wondering for ages - what should I do with all my money" :lol:

I'll be back in a second - the alarm clocks going off"

:?

 

[wizer]

A win of that much really really would spoil a person I think. Not that i'd turn it down!! As Chas says, I'd travel for a good few years before I settled anywhere. I'm quite certain I'd not be based in the UK for the majority of each year either.

In terms of the ideal workshop, well I'd have everything. Absolutely everything. With 56mil, you really don't have to think about the bank balance, at all.

But then, with 56mil in the bank, I think I'd find it hard to figure out why I was doing woodworking. I'd probably get bored to be honest. At the moment I do it partly for self gratification but mainly to build things we need.

Tricky situation. I wonder how much they will give away?

 

[Dibs-h]

What I can't understand is the desire for publicity - I don't think many of the large winners have had happy every after lives. Relatives crawling out of the woodwork, getting inundated with begging letters.

If I won anything - I certainly wouldn't open my gob! Might have mystery presents turning up at a few peoples houses, etc. but would certainly never say it was me.

I suppose the problem would be to hide the handful of cars that would get acquired.

 

[Henning]

I would buy a mountain farm in need of some serious restoration and get it perfect and build myself a workshop with everything needed to do both wood and metalworking, and then retire to that with all the tools and equipment i could think of. And i'd be well happy too!
And SWMBO could finally have all the animals she would have liked.
And i'd make sure not to let the world know anything about my fortunes as well.

In reality, i believe that that much money can only mean trouble, though.
Although it's nice to dream of a really big workshop with Festool, Sauer and steiner and whatnot else

 

[eggflan]

Im with Dibs , my lips would be firmly sealled and we would just drift away in the night ..

Someone asked me once "If you won the lottery , what would you do about all the begging letters ?"

My reply was simple , "oh i will carry on sending them" :lol: :lol:

Good luck to the couple who just won , i really hope they enjoy it , they may regret going public though ...

 

[Jake]

I don't think they had much choice, they would have been hunted down by the press anyway.

 

[woodbloke]

I've always maintained that winning a vast amount of money simply swops one set of problems for another...the only thing you haven't got to worry about is fundage, or the lack of therein
Like others, travelling would be No1 priority, but I'd also have to have a workshop big enough for what I wanted, so I'd have a separate hand/machine/wood storage areas in it (I think) and equip it with something like Felder gear or similar - Rob

 

[pren]

56M.... :-k

I think I'd use half of it to set up a grant fund to support budding self-employed woodworker types like myself. It would fund, say, 6mths workshop rent/overheads as well as startup costs and a minimum wage salary. It may take the form of CHD's vision and be a group of units that the candidate can occupy FOC for the grant period. It would also pay for a couple of staff to act as small business advisers and tutors/mentors.

The caveat would be that a chunk of the 6 mths would be spent on 'good causes' (community projects, OAP's, those in desparate need...). Any other work take on would be charged for at an appropriate rate. If no work comes it - there is still a small wage to fall back on and no overheads to worry about.

At the end of the 6mth period, the candidate can choose to either rent the space at a subsidised rate or move on if the business failed to take off. I'm sure there would be some way to attract contracts from local businesses to supply joinery/carpenty work.


The other half of the money would be spent similarly to others. Buy a smallholding in the Welsh hills, create workshop of dreams and retire (VV early). Much world travel would also be included in the grand plan.


Well, that was a nice departure from reality...

 

[newt]

I suspect that you may run out of time to use the high tech wksp, you would be trying to do a lot of other things. I think they will have some problems trying to cope with that amount.

I read about someone who became very rich, he move house but the beggars caught up, he moved again and again. He moved into circles where folk had a different idea on life, he became ill due to the change in diet and life style. He survived but gave most of it away. Some of the winners make it ok. However that amount would frighten me.

 

[woodbloke]

I read about someone who became very rich, he move house but the beggars caught up, he moved again and again. He moved into circles where folk had a different idea on life, he became ill due to the change in diet and life style. He survived but gave most of it away. Some of the winners make it ok. However that amount would frighten me.

Like I said Pete, you swops one set of problems for another :wink: - Rob

 

[Froggy]

If I won anything - I certainly wouldn't open my gob!

I thought the same as you Dids - but one Saturday night in the local club whilst playing snooker someone put the live lottery results on the tele and I had the first 3 numbers and shouted at the top of my voice so that everyone could here 'S**t I've got the first 3 numbers'
I would imagine it's a very hard thing to keep quiet!!
By the way, that's all I got...3 numbers

 

[lurker]

Cue a joke:


You lot must all have an internally fitted Doshwisher

 

[jlawrence]

I think it would be:
a) a while before I was in the country long enough to even think about a workshop, and b) a while until I was sober enough to touch a piece of machinery again.

 

[BMac]

I spoke to a man who won a lot of money on the Irish Lottery. He told me that he now worries about his investments, about the integrity of the advisers he used to invest the money, about the amount of tax he is paying and that his accountants are doing a good job for him. He told me that the advice he got when he won the money still haunts him and that was "When money meets experience, experience gets the money and money gets the experience".

Another Irish winner who played in The Saw Doctors said that the biggest problem he had was finding a bank that would allow him to deposit the money and let it make modest interest as savings because the banks wanted him to invest the money in high-interest schemes.

As said before, you would end up with different problems but, saying that, I wouldn't mind ending up with modest problems.

Brendan