Al Fortunato Furnituremaker

09/09/2022

A cabinet I recently redid. From rags to riches. (Electronics restoration by For Your Listening Pleasure.)

https://www.facebook.com/100064003390850/posts/416275660515877

05/15/2022

A CONVERSATION ABOUT PERCEIVED VALUE:
A customer asked a contractor friend of mine how much it would cost to do this project.
My friend gave him a proposal: $4500
The customer responded: That’s seems really high.
My friend asked: What do you think is a reasonable price for this job?
The customer answered: $2500 maximum
My friend responded: Ok, then I invite you to do it yourself.
The customer answered: I don't know how to.
My friend responded: Alright, then how about for $2500 I'll teach you how to. So besides saving you $2000, you'll learn valuable skills that will benefit you in the future.
The customer answered: Sounds good! Let’s do it!
My friend responded: Great! To get started, you are going to need some tools. You will need a chop saw, table saw, cordless drill, bit set, router, skill saw, jig saw, tool belt, hammer, etc..
The customer answered: But I don't have any of those tools and I can't justify buying all of these for one job.
My friend responded: Ok. Well then for an additional $300 I can rent my tools to you to use for this project.
The customer answered: Okay. That’s fair.
My friend responded: Great! We will start the project on Monday.
The customer answered: I work Monday through Friday. I’m only available on the weekends.
My friend responded: If you want to learn from me then you will need to work when I work. This project will take 3 days so you will need to take 3 days off work.
The customer answered: That means I’m going to have to sacrifice my pay for 3 days or use my vacation time!
My friend responded: That’s true. Remember, when you do a job yourself you need to account for unproductive factors.
The customer answered: What do you mean by that?
My friend responded: Doing a job completely from start to finish includes time spent to plan the project, pick up materials, travel time, gas, set up time, clean up, and waste disposal amongst other things. That’s all in addition to the actual project itself.

01/11/2022

A recent completed cabinet. Before and after. Hardware. electronics, and re-assembly by "For Your Listening Pleasure"

08/05/2021

Some of you may find this morbid but I found it very interesting. It's amazing how automated the construction of a wood casket is.

HIGH QUALITY CASKET MANUFACTURING IN USA

08/01/2021

Another table I just finished. Had to reglue many of the pieces and fix the lose sliding dovetail legs and refinished it. All hand made, and every one of those pieces is a different size.

07/31/2021

Here is a recent repair and top refinish of a Duncan Phyfe card table. The legs are attached with sliding dovetails and they were loose and broken. The top had deep scratches in it.

What looks like molding around the top are two pieces that make up the card table top. You rotate them 90 degrees and then open them up, and you have a surface twice the size to play cards on.

This is a very high quality table. It was all hand made, including hand plane marks in the top pieces, the pedestal is hand carved, and the leg end caps are brass castings (vs. thin stamped brass plated metal). It's all Honduran Mahogany which is unavailable today unless it has a chain of custody with it.

05/29/2021

04/26/2021

Ron Carey says, "Logging in the northwest," Thanks for sharing.

04/19/2021

Another cabinet restored. Be sure to click through the pictures to see all the beautiful woodwork especially the top which I had to re-veneer.

04/17/2021

https://fortune.com/2021/04/13/lumber-prices-2021-chart-price-of-lumber-futures-short-squeeze-home-sales-cost-april-2021-latest-update/?fbclid=IwAR3rNns93fYTcVdFy1K5qNv9Fh5g2W4P-CcmOyHdZwZClffoA2WXwqjZxHI

"It’s clearly a short squeeze."

04/16/2021

A recently completed cabinet, reassembled by For Your Listening Pleasure.