allen levine
Member
- Messages
- 12,370
- Location
- new york city burbs
wow.
Im not a great skilled woodworker, average at best, but when I look at what people have purchased from a lot of the big stores, it makes me feel like a super craftsman.
shame on so many of you for undercharging your clients for the work you put out.
Ill change the names,(you figure it out) but Ill give you some examples of what Ive seen within the past 6 months.
facy's-went there to purchase a leather chair a while back, and while they were doing the paperwork with my wife, I wandered over to the entertainment units. Tv stands,
the units were nothing more than particle board with veneered surfaces. Nothing was 3/4 inch thick, the joinery was a joke.
A lot of the units seemed to be held together with plastic/metal type fasteners, and most of the units were wobbly.
Two of the units on display already had some joinery breaking through the particle board, Im guessing someone tried to move them, and the unit just folded in on itself.
Junk. priced 700-1500 depending on size. Real crapola.
Raymond and Houligans-went to visit someone recently, they purchased a lot of their furniture there, they only wanted to show it off to me as they know I like to build things.
Their dining room breakfront/buffet, Ive never seen mullions and muntins(is this the correct terminology for the strips on the glass doors?), they were some kind of plastic veneer glued on. Glued on so bad, on one side it was 1/4 inch short, another side more like 3/8 off. Glass was just held in door with plastic type mirror holders, which I could live with, but not the glued on strips. All veneer over particle board.
Cheaply built, looks ok, but not quality, a step above ikea disposable furniture.
I was surprised, as I thought this place sells quality.
A couple of other pieces they had, looked ok, but its easy to see its just dowels and screws and cheap veneers.
And today, I got to spend 2 hours repairing a bedroom set by Gotham cabinets.
Most of the slides in the dresser had no screws as the sides are cheap particle board, with an oak veneer on outside.
The screws just break out the particle board and you cant screw them back in. I had to use other holes and redo all , yes all 14 slides. Not sure how long they will last, particle board only 5/8 thick any tug on the draws will surely break it out again, and then there will be no more screw holes to use.
I purchased this set before I built furniture.
I purchased an oak bedroom set.
The only thing that is oak on the set, is the thin drawer fronts, everything else is pine, and oak particle board veneer.
The captians style bed, had drawers with doors on them.The 35mm cup hinges on the doors, 2 of them also broke out the particle board they use for the bed base cabinet, so Ill try to redrill new holes and move the hinges.
I do remember when we purchased it, the veneer color and grain didn't match at all on the base of the bed. It comes in 2 pieces. ONe side the veneer was completely different than the other, not even close, and after we complained, we got something like 50 dollars back. Told the veneers are oak, they cant guarantee color match, or something like that.
What junk.
My furniture will be around 3 lifetimes if its wanted. While my finishing techniques are an ongoing learning process, my furniture is 10 times better as far as Im concerned then any of the 3 things I mentioned above from different well known retailers.
We may be a bunch of garage woodworkers, but our quality cant be reached by these large retailers. Dowel joinery is the way they go, mortise and tenon aren't found unless you step up to the 5000 and above range, and then its iffy.
Particle board veneers, are simply not made to last.
Once in a blue moon IM asked for a price to make something, well, now they are going up another 50%, if not, let them go to schlock city and spend 1000 less for particle board that will last 7 years tops.
Im not a great skilled woodworker, average at best, but when I look at what people have purchased from a lot of the big stores, it makes me feel like a super craftsman.
shame on so many of you for undercharging your clients for the work you put out.
Ill change the names,(you figure it out) but Ill give you some examples of what Ive seen within the past 6 months.
facy's-went there to purchase a leather chair a while back, and while they were doing the paperwork with my wife, I wandered over to the entertainment units. Tv stands,
the units were nothing more than particle board with veneered surfaces. Nothing was 3/4 inch thick, the joinery was a joke.
A lot of the units seemed to be held together with plastic/metal type fasteners, and most of the units were wobbly.
Two of the units on display already had some joinery breaking through the particle board, Im guessing someone tried to move them, and the unit just folded in on itself.
Junk. priced 700-1500 depending on size. Real crapola.
Raymond and Houligans-went to visit someone recently, they purchased a lot of their furniture there, they only wanted to show it off to me as they know I like to build things.
Their dining room breakfront/buffet, Ive never seen mullions and muntins(is this the correct terminology for the strips on the glass doors?), they were some kind of plastic veneer glued on. Glued on so bad, on one side it was 1/4 inch short, another side more like 3/8 off. Glass was just held in door with plastic type mirror holders, which I could live with, but not the glued on strips. All veneer over particle board.
Cheaply built, looks ok, but not quality, a step above ikea disposable furniture.
I was surprised, as I thought this place sells quality.
A couple of other pieces they had, looked ok, but its easy to see its just dowels and screws and cheap veneers.
And today, I got to spend 2 hours repairing a bedroom set by Gotham cabinets.
Most of the slides in the dresser had no screws as the sides are cheap particle board, with an oak veneer on outside.
The screws just break out the particle board and you cant screw them back in. I had to use other holes and redo all , yes all 14 slides. Not sure how long they will last, particle board only 5/8 thick any tug on the draws will surely break it out again, and then there will be no more screw holes to use.
I purchased this set before I built furniture.
I purchased an oak bedroom set.
The only thing that is oak on the set, is the thin drawer fronts, everything else is pine, and oak particle board veneer.
The captians style bed, had drawers with doors on them.The 35mm cup hinges on the doors, 2 of them also broke out the particle board they use for the bed base cabinet, so Ill try to redrill new holes and move the hinges.
I do remember when we purchased it, the veneer color and grain didn't match at all on the base of the bed. It comes in 2 pieces. ONe side the veneer was completely different than the other, not even close, and after we complained, we got something like 50 dollars back. Told the veneers are oak, they cant guarantee color match, or something like that.
What junk.
My furniture will be around 3 lifetimes if its wanted. While my finishing techniques are an ongoing learning process, my furniture is 10 times better as far as Im concerned then any of the 3 things I mentioned above from different well known retailers.
We may be a bunch of garage woodworkers, but our quality cant be reached by these large retailers. Dowel joinery is the way they go, mortise and tenon aren't found unless you step up to the 5000 and above range, and then its iffy.
Particle board veneers, are simply not made to last.
Once in a blue moon IM asked for a price to make something, well, now they are going up another 50%, if not, let them go to schlock city and spend 1000 less for particle board that will last 7 years tops.
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