Junk Mail?
A few weeks ago I had to buy some bed rail hangers for Sonja’s bed. It brought me to this site where upon ordering a few things, I unknowingly signed up for a few things. My name and address were now pooled with those of other great wood workers. Well, I have you know that when you are grouped with such elite members of society you get sent some cool stuff in the mail.
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the valpak coupons that mysteriously show up at you door step. With such great offering like, vinyl siding scams, address labels, and kitty checks, how could one not tear open that mailer. Well, in my mail this week, I recieved the “Products for Woodworkers” promotional envelope FTW!!! I shredded that thing open like a birthday card from grandma (yeah I said it, don’t tell me you’re not guilty of doing this) looking for the goodies inside. Well to my disapointment the deals inside were a bit disapointing, but the story they tell is a bit disturbing.
One thing I like to consider whenever I’m looking at advertising is it’s target audience. In this case, being a new member to this elite group of Americans, I thought what do advertisers think woodworkers are intrested in. Well, let me show you.
Project 1: Code name… Sonja’s Bed
Just because you have the equipment, watched years of Yankee Workshop, and you’re willing to waste a lot of money, doesn’t mean that you can build a sturdy piece of furniture. But why not try.
I settled on a plan i found online for a platform bed, cause why not make something fancy. Spent an entire nap session resizing it to twin size, (well, i did also catch up on the most recent episode of Heroes) bought a new planer, and headed off to Curtis Lumber for wood.
Suddenly I stepped into a new world of projects. Buying hardwood. Before this buying lumber meant going to the store, seeing the right size lumber, and paying what the tag said. WTF is Board Feet. There I was, at the counter getting a crash course in wood volumes, species and board foot prices. My head spinning in confusion, i settled on ash. Why ash, well, it’s cheap, sturdy, cheap, and not pine, oh and it’s cheap.
Step one, make the legs for the head board. Well this should be easy, take two peices of wood, glue them together, bam, done. Well, 90 minutes of cutting, planing, planing, planing, oh, plaining, and planing, i had four 3 x 1.5 in boards, ready for glue. Clamped one up and all glued, success. For today.
Oh and when Sonja woke up, I put her to work, cleaning up all those wood shavings. :)
