DeWitt Woodworking
Listing #769 Listed on: 11/10/2008
WOODWEB Content Editor, Brett Hagstrom, Interviewed Paul DeWitt in September 2009.
Paul DeWitt is a one-man and two-dog shop in Palmer Lake, Colorado, specializing in Greene-and-Greene, Asian, and Shaker designs.
Paul and his wife enjoy the outdoors and twelve years ago moved to Colorado. Paul previously worked in the computer field and became interested in owning his own wood shop after working at a 1000 square foot warehouse. He now owns a 1100 square foot shop, located in the bottom floor of his house, and has been working it full time since 2005.
Paul has a lumber supplier in Denver, Colorado, and keeps about 1,000 board feet of lumber on hand at any given time. He uses cherry, mahogany, and walnut, along with quite a bit of ebony for carving handles and making splines and plugs. Thicker wood is ordered since quite a bit of re-sawing is done at the shop.
Continue Reading about DeWitt Woodworking
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Company Name: DeWitt Woodworking
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Contact Name: Paul DeWitt
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Location: Palmer Lake, CO 80133
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Year Founded: 2003
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Sq. Footage: 1,060
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Employees: 1
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Gross Sales:
N/A
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Website:
www.dewittwoodworking.com
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Product Specialties:
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Furniture - Custom Furniture
Furniture - Furniture Designers
Furniture - General
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Shop Equipment:
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Robland - NLX-31 Combo
Other - Steel City 26" Double Drum Sander
Other - Rikon 18" Bandsaw
Powermatic - Mortiser
FESTOOL - Domino
FESTOOL - Random Orbital Sander
FESTOOL - Circular Saw
FESTOOL - Jigsaw
FESTOOL - Router
Dewalt - Compound Mitre Saw
Delta - Dust Collector
Other - Jet Dust Collector
Other - Jet Air Filter
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Viewer Comments:
Posted By:
J.Talbot [11/10/2008]
Paul, I like your work and your shop especially with the template storage,clever.Whats with the silver reflective material on the walls? How do you pay your help? With bisquits??? I use trained monkeys lol
Posted By:
Paul DeWitt [11/10/2008]
The silver stuff is the insulation that covers the concrete walls in my basement. I was going to frame the walls in but realized that the silver really reflects the light and improves the visibility so I'm leaving it as is for now.
Posted By:
Nick [11/11/2008]
Sweet saw!
Posted By:
Snaglpuss [11/13/2008]
How did you get the combo machine into the basement, or do you have a walkout?
Posted By:
Paul DeWitt [11/13/2008]
Luckily I have a bigt 8 foot door, so a small forklift can just barely fit in. Then put it on 4 skates to move it into place. The Robland unfortunately doesn't have the built-in tunnels for forks so it is a bit tricky to avoid all the motors (3 of them); this was the 3rd time I've moved it and it isn't fun at all.
Posted By:
DAVID HOFFELDER [11/24/2008]
EXCELLENT PRESENTATION OF YOUR FIRM!!
WERE YOU IN ST LOUIS, I WOULD BE LOOKING TO HIRE YOU.
Posted By:
Bruce [11/25/2008]
Nice shop! I am also a one-man operation in the Chicago area. If I could pick your brian, what future do you see for the one-man shop, in any trade, in todays economy? Are you busy in Colorado? You can view my work at linnhill.com (shameless plug!).
Posted By:
Paul DeWitt [11/25/2008]
Hi Bruce - that's a good topic (maybe even for the Business forum) but I'll give my quick thoughts. I've only been full time for about 4 years so I don't have enough history to glean much insight, but I have finally (starting 6 months ago) gotten very busy and am scheduled about 3-4 months out. That is probably more a factor of being new enough that each year is better than the last vs. a statement of the economy's health.
I think it is tough to make more than a certain amount of profit as a one man shop, but I just decided that I'd prefer to do the actual wood working rather than becoming the manager of others. Since one person can only turn out so much work, I am just really looking at everything very critically in an effort to lower overhead and at the same time increasing my prices to what is enough to make a decent living. I've finally gotten to the point that I say no to more jobs than yes to, in an attempt to stick to what I like and what I'm good at. The nice thing is I know if things slowed down I could always say yes to some of the local stuff I don't enjoy as much and at least get by.
2 years ago I hired a part time helper, who didn't work out at all. A second attempt also failed so I am firmly in the camp of buying a better machine/tool to increase my own productivity rather than getting help. Also, for each additional person you would hire, you need more space and more tools so there isn't a bottleneck in the shop. That just seems too much like real work!
Good luck with your own operation,
Paul
Posted By:
Kristen Yazel [11/25/2008]
Impressive portfolio! My grandmother is a descendant of Gustav Stickley... I've always admired the work! I'm in the custom cabinet business ~ I hope to eventually learn the trade myself! Unfortunately everyone around here is too busy to teach me so I just do CAD work all day long!
How long have you been in business?
Posted By:
Rob Litchfield [11/26/2008]
Nice shop! I am an Intarsia artist/artisan who has a homebuilt shop (16' x 36'). Got more equipment than I really need for what I do, but am in love with tools and wood! You know how it is. I sell at a permanent booth (I built) at a large farmers' mkt. in a small town during nine months of the year. The traffic is heavy, about 10,000 per weekend. My stuff has been selling for an average of $200.00 per item. Now that the economy is in the crapper, we'll see what happens next??? Lots of competition for the discretionary dollar, in the near future, I'm certain! Anyway, all the best to you and . . ."God bless us, everyone!"
Posted By:
Vijay kunchum [11/27/2008]
I stay at Hyderabad in India. I am working on the same lines. But do have a few helping hands. More are a nuisance as I will have do a course on human resources, Accounting, and Business management.
As far as the present market in India goes, we are importing around 17% of the furniture produced in the world market. This was when everyone thought the boom will never end. Everyone was thinking big really big. Now that we are close to the stinker we are getting the real picture.
The situation here is people expect custom made furniture at the mass produced rates. So to a very large extent use of proper tooling is becoming imperative. Traditional methods will not work anymore. The cost of hired hands has also gone up even by Indian standards.
The people here have realised the short life of the mass produced furniture. So the Malaysian and Chineese furniture are slowly losing out.
But individuals need to deliver not just quality but also the finish. That is lacking among the carpenters here.
Let's hope the meltdown proves a blessing in disguise for individual carftspersons like us.
LONG LIVE THE CRAFTSPERSON
Posted By:
Nick [11/29/2008]
Nice shop! I could never keep my shop that clean, Nice!
Posted By:
reno [12/03/2008]
Paul, You are a credit to the woodworkers trade. The pieces you have done for us will stand the test of time. Your new shop looks great and we wish you the best of luck with it all. Keep up the great work and lets hope the rest of the world can see it too. Give the help a treat for us. Thanks Reno
Posted By:
Paul Caughey [12/03/2008]
I like your helpers...mine ditch me as soon as the noise picks up.
Posted By:
Norm Dressler [01/05/2009]
Paul, very nice shop. You must be a real sweet talker. All I could talk my wife out of, was a two car garage.
Posted By:
James [01/28/2009]
It's great seeing small shops turning out heirloom quality work. Keep up the good work.
Posted By:
B.Rose [07/30/2009]
I'm impressed with your organization and cleanliness of your shop. I love a clean and organized shop. It make working there that much more enjoyable. Thanks for sharing.
Posted By:
steve [10/25/2009]
Nice studio and very interesting comments from India by Vijay above esp what he said about the Chinese and malaysian stuff losing out...need more of that here in New Zeland with J.Bloggs public still getting sucked in by that stuff. I say also 'Long live the craftsman!"
Posted By:
Joe [11/22/2009]
Paul,
I like your set up, clean, neat and everything in it's place. Your shop says alot about your work, I would guess by the way your shop looks you do top quality work. clean, tight joints, perfect corners and lineless inlays. Koodo's to you! Thanks Paul for the peak into your life.
Posted By:
Bob S. [03/26/2010]
Nice shop, & at home to boot. I had a shop that had a fire before I moved in, the landlord painted the walls with silver oxide primer to seal the soot they couldn't clean. I saw it just before they were going to paint over it, saw the way it enhanced the light & had them leave it as is. Quite usefull.
Kudos
Posted By:
Mike G [08/17/2010]
Sweet shop. I'm a one-man biz as well, at home and I have a four legged helper. I only have 600 sq/ft to work in, so I'm jealous. I hope you are busy.
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