REDs PATRIOTIC BUNKER

I'm hoping some of you "ole timers" (maybe a youngster) can give some advise on this endeavor. I've been retired since Aug. 06' and would like to learn how to do something now or have someone involved while I hold up my end. I have a l o n g manufacturing background along with a knack.

I'm sure there are a lot of woodworkers here also... RIGHT? Well I am NOT a master woodworker by any stretch but I love designing and building things out of wood. I love building the custom toy box design I came up with and the matching children rocking chairs. The boxes are "all the same" but can be changed up to not appear cloned. I have run out of children (8) and Grandchildren (24) and friends in which to supply. I also really enjoy building the custom poker frames I designed, log bird feeders and houses and other "stuff".

I'd like to learn how to market these… "somehow" or have someone else do it while I just stay in the woodshop. I truly do not want to build, load, travel, unload, repack, travel, unload going to flea markets and such. I really don't know if they need to be marketed completely done or as a self assembly project. I'm just totally native in how to approach this and have absolutely no experience in this arena. If anyone would like to see more of the Poker Frames just PM me with your email address and I'll send pics/info. Anybody have any experience on this endeavor? Thanks… Brad

On very rare occasions I wood carve. Chiesel the main stuff, dremel, and then other bits and sanding. So, not what you are doing. I think the toy chests are veyry nice. Especially since they are on wheels. How close are you to a major college or university? Think vertically with multiple drawers. Make a bunch, go sit on the side of the road during move in weekend and I bet you would sell out asap. If you are bored...I hand carved some crosses for the nieces and nephews as gifts on confirmations (or your own religious equivalent.) They hang them on the wall.

Best of luck,
Crispin
 

Pat how do they get their cut ? Percentage, flat monthly fee, etc ? Looks interesting. I do a bit on Ebay but they are killing me with fees.
Etsy charges .20cent per listing, and that listing stays up for 4 months or until sold. They also charge 2.5 or 3% of the sale and DO NOT charge fee on shipping charges(or they used not to). You also gotta remember paypal takes their cut, too.

There's a lot can be done with it, just start fumbling around the site and see what others do that work, copy what they do.
The garage sale section folks and threads are very helpful also, for ideas.
 

Meh I consider myself well versed in tax free money, what I do well with, and one takes no skill is, go around in the cold months, find them paper wasps nests..they sell like hotcakes, some people want them polyurethaned, others like em all natural, I get upwards of 200 bucks for natural nests...the outdoor guerilla growers of a certain green plant love them, cause honestly, most folks out in the woods see a wasp nest, they dont wait around to see if its occupied or not.

the other thing that pays well, and its best to have a dog you can train to sniff em out, is take sheds ( antlers ) and make windchimes out of them, or chandeliers the lights can get you huge bucks, the chimes pretty good too.

Dont know if that stuff interests you but it works for me.

Mike
 

I'm sure there are canals all over the place. I rented a pontoon boat for the day and a fishing stick....still no luck. The only time I ever caught a fish was when I was fishing off my parent's dock and it got tangled up in the line. It didn't actually bite the hook...I just had so much line out there it got stuck in it. I think fishing is one of those things that has to be taught. My random attempts have been haphazard at best. One of these days I will catch a fish the real way.


When I was a kid( a LONG time ago,still am at heart though)we used buger lines,a piece of fishing line wrapped around your finger,I'll tell you one thing,we pulled in some mighty BIG catfish.That was in Jacksonville,loved them canals!
 

Red,

I just wanted to stop by and wish you good luck with this thread. I hope it sticks around. I'm not much of a hunter so I probably will not contribute much. I hope there is plenty of room in the bunker for everybody to have a seat.

Thanks.Theres plenty of room for everybody.Youre welcome to be here just as long as the rules are followed.
 

BC1969:

Do you find more sheds on the ground or in the trees?

Happy New Year to All,

~ The Old Bookaroo
 

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We will NOT go quietly into the night!

I love the latin...I had to look up a couple of words. Very powerful stuff. I remember reading something way back about TJ saying something similiar.
 

NHBandit:

You have a garage and all those tools. Why don't you try a "do it yourself" auto repair facility? Folks come in, use the equipment for an hourly fee, help each other fix their own cars. Start slow with your car club buddies and see where it goes.

You might have to section off a part of your facility and check tools in and out if too many get friendly and walk away...But it could bring in some extra cash.

Happy New Year to All,

~ The Old Bookaroo
 

meh I think once I found a half a rack in a scrub tree, don't know if it was rubbing or not, but mostly my doggy finds rotting deer that got shot or hit and never found..I once used my chainsaw to saw off the head of a rotting buck...when it popped in my face...bleh tasty lol

Mike
 

Etsy charges .20cent per listing, and that listing stays up for 4 months or until sold. They also charge 2.5 or 3% of the sale and DO NOT charge fee on shipping charges(or they used not to). You also gotta remember paypal takes their cut, too.

There's a lot can be done with it, just start fumbling around the site and see what others do that work, copy what they do.
The garage sale section folks and threads are very helpful also, for ideas.
Pat is it simply a storefront ? No auctions ? I know I can just go check it out but I'm lazy & you're already here so I'll just ask you... The wife has about 300 antique straight razors to sell that she inherited.
 

NHBandit:

You have a garage and all those tools. Why don't you try a "do it yourself" auto repair facility? Folks come in, use the equipment for an hourly fee, help each other fix their own cars. Start slow with your car club buddies and see where it goes.

You might have to section off a part of your facility and check tools in and out if too many get friendly and walk away...But it could bring in some extra cash.

Happy New Year to All,

~ The Old Bookaroo
An interesting idea and we had something similar at our disposal when I was in the Air Force many years ago. The problem with me doing that is that I only have 2 bays and they are usually full of my projects. I have no problem with moving one out to use the lift if I'm working on something for the public to make a few bucks though. Just have way too much money invested in tools and collectible gas & oil stuff to allow strangers to be in there unsupervised. And If I have to be there watching people I might as well do the work and keep all the money. I did stop at an antique shop yesterday that also sells used cars and I did a quick 10 minute fix for him on a Chrysler mini van that wouldn't idle in exchange for $15 off the price of something I wanted to buy. Now he wants the option of being able to call me when he has a problem which is fine with me. I simply haven't been here long enough to establish any contacts like that but with time I'm sure I will. I like doing work for used car guys.. they prefer to pay in cash and I prefer to work for cash.. It's a win/win situation.
 

Pat is it simply a storefront ? No auctions ? I know I can just go check it out but I'm lazy & you're already here so I'll just ask you... The wife has about 300 antique straight razors to sell that she inherited.
Those straight razors could go on a trade blanket at a black powder shoot.
For those participants recreating a historic persona,besides their intended use for shaving they would work for patch knives with a handle replacement on most.
(Limitool) For a wood worker to sell/trade at same event the wooden "cassette",trade box /chest,flat topped,slight hip roofed, shaped like a tradesman's tool chest for camp storage,(while not historically correct one can be foam lined for a cooler and blend in). Also period chairs and tables, wooden beeswax lined canteens.. A limited market so great inventories would languish possibly but a sample of each might encourage orders.
Like hope chests and blanket chests a limited number of perspective buyers.
Cross bow racks for storing on wall start around forty bucks. Not a lot of choices out there but with more being allowed for hunting demand should increase a little.
 

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Pat is it simply a storefront ? No auctions ? I know I can just go check it out but I'm lazy & you're already here so I'll just ask you... The wife has about 300 antique straight razors to sell that she inherited.
Doin a lot of scalping back then eh? :laughing7: (j/k) :laughing7:
You shoulda known I couldn't let that one go by...... LOL!

Yes, strictly store front, no auctions, unless they changed something when I was cat-napping (for 5 mnths). :laughing7:
She could also do ebay, and discreetly cross reference. Some folks blah blah blah on pinterrest, facebook, everywhere, I ain't in to all that.
I find, if you tell an interesting story, got cool stuffs, the word gets around somehow..... :dontknow:
For me it goes in waves and spurts. I do it, till I get tired of it, lay it own a while, do something else, come back to it.......
lather, rinse, repeat.......
such is life.......
 

I love the latin...I had to look up a couple of words. Very powerful stuff. I remember reading something way back about TJ saying something similiar.

The first phrase Th. Jefferson actually used in a famous letter to James Madison, that is where your remembering it from.....

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We will NOT go quietly into the night!
 

I tried to fish, I am awful. I paid to go on a guided fishing trip with 25 other people. I was the only one who didn't catch a fish! lol. One person felt so bad they offered me a couple of their flounder filets. I don't know what I was doing wrong...same boat, same bait, same water...operator incompetence...

Me to. Same experience Salmon Fishing in a boat load of people off the mouth of the Eel River in N. CA, I didn't even get a bite all day, and we were trolling with everyone using exactly the same lures. When I was a kid I spent most of my time untangling line while my dad laughed. We didn't have spinning reels then, and the ones we had would back lash if you cast wrong, which I did all the time. My best luck catching trout was in the high Sierra Nevada in August when the fish were really hungry. They weren't very large, but they fried up well and were good eating. The truth is, there were some kids in camp, and they had caught so many trout that they would stand in plain sight next to the stream, and try to pull the fly away before the fish got it, and they still caught fish. That's the only time I really did any good fishing. I've done much better in life hunting, but will still attempt to fish from time to time, although in my dottage I'm having real trouble trying to walk on river or creek cobbles.
 

And I am currently a bow hunter, as it is much more challenging.
Is that by choice or necessity, lol?

Crisp, Tammy took her grandson (11 yrs old) on the Sea Legs II down here, he caught 18 snappers and a big trigger fish, and won the fishing pool!
I've been on the Sea Legs drift boats before. Been years though, speaking of which, I used to catch all kinds of stuff off Haulover pier before hurricane Andrew took it away.

I'm hoping some of you "ole timers" (maybe a youngster) can give some advise on this endeavor. I've been retired since Aug. 06' and would like to learn how to do something now or have someone involved while I hold up my end. I have a l o n g manufacturing background along with a knack.

I'm sure there are a lot of woodworkers here also... RIGHT? Well I am NOT a master woodworker by any stretch but I love designing and building things out of wood. I love building the custom toy box design I came up with and the matching children rocking chairs. The boxes are "all the same" but can be changed up to not appear cloned. I have run out of children (8) and Grandchildren (24) and friends in which to supply. I also really enjoy building the custom poker frames I designed, log bird feeders and houses and other "stuff".

I'd like to learn how to market these… "somehow" or have someone else do it while I just stay in the woodshop. I truly do not want to build, load, travel, unload, repack, travel, unload going to flea markets and such. I really don't know if they need to be marketed completely done or as a self assembly project. I'm just totally native in how to approach this and have absolutely no experience in this arena. If anyone would like to see more of the Poker Frames just PM me with your email address and I'll send pics/info. Anybody have any experience on this endeavor? Thanks… Brad
Sell them on Craigslist.

Pat is it simply a storefront ? No auctions ? I know I can just go check it out but I'm lazy & you're already here so I'll just ask you... The wife has about 300 antique straight razors to sell that she inherited.
Some antique straight razors are worth hundreds of dollars each, not to mention the stones to sharpen them. You should check the values on those before you try selling them. straight razor in Vanity, Perfume & Shaving | eBay
 

As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
I retired early in 2010 and I'm playing with hot rods & muscle cars but there is no money in it since I don't sell my "toys".. Zero experience with wood working other than turning a garage sale coffee table into a display table for my Civil War stuff. But I am also looking for something to keep busy and put a few extra bucks in my pocket at the same time. I'm a retired auto mechanic and have a fully equipped shop with lift, air compressor, welder & enough tools to put 5 guys to work but having only been here in Tennessee 2 years I have no contacts other than the members of the local car club I belong to. Watching this for ideas I can steal. Not wanting to work with wood though. I still have all my fingers... lol Only suggestion I have for you is to go to alot of flea markets and craft shows and then think of something nobody else is doing.

Bandit.... FYI, I still have all my fingers... today. Yea I know I could get an enclosed trailer, stock up on stuff, load and then go. But, I'm really not the "people person" it takes to deal with those who want to dicker and wheel & deal. It is (price) what I tell you it is... period. Problem is I never over price and in fact I could probably always could get more if I was patient. With my manufacturing background and engineering skills I could actually produce these fairly fast and with high quality. But I hate to leave the shop to sell. I'd like to become a supplier to someone and sell these as self-assembled kits. The shipping boxes would be much smaller and the toy box would be completely done as 6 panels. Not counting the lid hinge just 8 3" screws puts the box together when purchased. I guess I'm just trying to find someone who knows how to approach the "world" under this concept. Something like a Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel, or any outlet store who carried such items.

Now I'll enter your world..... I built a V-8 Vega back in the early 80's. It was a BLAST! It had a push button 1pc. tilt front end, narrowed 9", totally tubbed out with M50's. I put a 2 x 4 tube steel chassis under it with a 4 link. Started out with a slightly built 327 and a Muncie trans. Ended up years later with a 406 SB and a really built short tail 400 turbo. It was not for the faint hearted and was entirely street legal. Had a white lacquer paint job with a red flip flop overcoat. 1st wife came home one day and said it's her or my car.... The next week I loaded up the kids and left with them and THE CAR!!!! That's a true story....
 

I believe I asked all to put thread back on topic and even quoted my own post to make it stand out....

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We will NOT go quietly into the night!
 

I said mods will handle all issues.
 

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