Good Evening Friends,

A lady came to my shop today and brought a chair with a broken leg and wanted to know if I could fix it?

I looked the chair over and told her that we would have to shoot it because the leg was too far broken, just like you do a horse when it breaks his leg in a race. She exclaimed Really? Then I started to laugh and she then settled down. 

She stated that she had an awful time finding someone with knowledge enough to fix the leg. She also stated that if she had not found me on the internet that she didn't know what to do with the chair.

She further stated that our work in repair and restoration is becoming a thing of the past and I informed her that when I am no longer here that it would be even harder to find someone because no one wants to learn the trade anymore. She came from 50 miles away.

 

How do you all feel about this topic?

Edited December 8, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
tags added

good one Ralph....

I use to do what you do now..

I wonder how many hear do the repair and restoration...

Unfortunately, we are becoming a disposable society. Craftsmanship is dying, since those who practice it can no longer make a living. Everything is made by the lowest bidder, and when it breaks, it is relegated to the local landfill! There are still a few around who will travel 50 miles, and pay for your services, but they are few and far between. And youngsters don't want to enter the trades, since that would mean leaving their video games, getting up off their keesters and actually DOING something! Geeze, Ralph, you HAD to get me started on this?

John

How do I feel about it?

I'm just glad she found you, Ralph.

hour of time to fix it.  $50 please.

 

"what?"  it's just a broken chair leg?!  fine, fix it yourself.

 

i don't do this for money, i design and build things for my own pleasure.  but if you want something made or fixed, i'm going to charge you for interrupting my day.

Just horsing around there eh Ralph ? 

Edited January 17, 20179 yr by CharlieL

Ralph, you're not wrong.  This is a dying art.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot of money in it.  If we charged what we should then no one would want anything repaired.

Ah, couple of drywall screws and plastic wood and stain and she'll be good as new...  

 

I think it's probably a good thing if you can fix it (some things just aren't fixable)...   and hopefully she's willing to pay the price to keep it in a repaired state. 

26 minutes ago, Ron Dudelston said:

Ralph, you're not wrong.  This is a dying art.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot of money in it.  If we charged what we should then no one would want anything repaired or made.

 

fixed it for you.

 

if i have $400 worth of lumber in an item, it makes no business sense to expect to buy it from me for $300 or less.  build your own stuff.

 

"oh, but you do such awesome work"

 

fine, pay up.  or feed me dinner.  for a year.

 

people like hand crafted items, but they don't like the idea of paying for hand crafted items.  have a nice trip to Ikea.  enjoy your particle board!

41 minutes ago, Ron Dudelston said:

Ralph, you're not wrong.  This is a dying art.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot of money in it.  If we charged what we should then no one would want anything repaired.

 

So very true Ron

So very true.  I'm known that I can fix about anything.  Went a little over the top the other day.  A lady brought her favorite umbrella over, it had blown inside out.  Too many broken pieces.  It was a well made umbrella though.  Not the dollar store type. 

2 hours ago, Stick486 said:

good one Ralph....

I use to do what you do now..

I wonder how many hear do the repair and restoration...

 

Me!

 

But you're all right above. 

"$300 to repair!  I only spent $150 on it new!"

 

I was a bit shocked when a customer a couple weeks ago had me order and install a $200 part on a recliner.  By the time she paid labor, she was probably close to the price of a new one.

 

I used to do a lot of work for local stores and delivery companies on new furniture.   A lot of it (even the trendy, expensive stuff) was pure junk, broken right out the box, or so poorly made that it would not last long.  I can remember one delivery company that would get in the "7 piece bedroom set for $799" and six of the seven pieces would have manufacturing defects, often in 3 or 4 spots on each piece.

 

I used to describe some of the customers as "serial decorators" -- get new stuff every 5-7 years.  

 

Often, if the new stock could not be effectively repaired, they'd just have the store throw it away.   Last year, I did some warranty work on a sectional recliner.   One of the cable releases had broken and it was a style I don't stock.   They just replaced the whole chair for that $20 part.

Edited January 18, 20179 yr by kmealy

Hey Keith,

You are not that far from me and one of these days I may just drop in on you or you can come up to my shop. Give me a call and we can talk about it. 740 506 3012

48 minutes ago, Ralph Allen Jones said:

Hey Keith,

You are not that far from me and one of these days I may just drop in on you or you can come up to my shop. Give me a call and we can talk about it. 740 506 3012

I don't know if you remember, but we met at the Columbus Wood Show a couple of years ago.    I stopped by your shop once when I was passing through, but you were away at the time.

5 hours ago, Ralph Allen Jones said:

we would have to shoot it because the leg was too far broken, just like you do a horse when it breaks his leg in a race.

there are a bunch of guys here that will be wanting to keep their distance from you....

I'm retired and do WWing as a hobby rather than a commercial business. If someone brings something in for R/R, I'll do it (if I can) and charge them some low amount, like $5 or $10, or do it for free. If it takes more than an hour, I will charge them $10/hour.  

4 hours ago, DAB said:

 

fixed it for you.

 

if i have $400 worth of lumber in an item, it makes no business sense to expect to buy it from me for $300 or less.  build your own stuff.

 

"oh, but you do such awesome work"

 

fine, pay up.  or feed me dinner.  for a year.

 

people like hand crafted items, but they don't like the idea of paying for hand crafted items.  have a nice trip to Ikea.  enjoy your particle board!

You know DAB, sometimes it isn't all about the bottom line.  If someone brought in a family heirloom wanting repaired, I'm just enough of a sap to fix it even if it cost me money.  Guess I'm a Renaissance man.  By the way, those jobs have a way of bringing in business in the long run.

Ralph, first I must tell you that I really enjoy reading you posts. Now I will tell you about a repair that I did for a dear friend. She is in 70s and had a table that her grandmother gave to her. It had usual ware and tare, but it had hide glue and was coming apart. It also had structural problems. She would only trust me to repair it. I worked on it as carefully as I could, by leaving it as it was and reinforcing the structural integrity. When I was done and she saw it, she cried. I could not charge payment, but we did go out to dinner with her husband. 

I think when Matt (Seiler) was moving his shop he commented that we have become a Walmart/Ikea society. Craftsman (and the cost of it) is no longer in demand. I believe that to be true of everything, not just woodwork products. Appliances do not last as long, tools are almost all Asian imports, and things that used to be metal are now plastic. We my wife first became disabled we had to get a powered recliner for here to sit in. We tried to find a quality USA made one hoping it would last. We did find a USA made one, but even so within 18 months the entire seat frame had collapsed and was rubbing the floor as it moved up/down. It's the world we live in, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

I'm an optimist. Things will turn around.