Bittersweet

I'm in a glass case of emotion!

May 13, 2026

I have a pretty wide range of emotions these days. I have loved my time here so much. The people I’ve met are amazing. I’m so proud of the work I’ve done, but even more so I’m exceedingly grateful to have been challenged and given an opportunity to do this work every day, as much as I want. I think for some in this program they feel a little burned out and ready for a break, and that’s completely understandable. But I have never been more passionate about this craft and I’m so excited to keep designing, building and challenging myself to improve. I’m excited about being forever a part of the legacy of this school and I’m eager to make them proud.

But I am looking forward to coming home. I miss the familiarity and comfort of home, family and friends. I’m excited to bring back what I’ve learned and experienced, to redo my shop in a way that works better, based on what I’ve experienced at CFC. I’m excited to come back to my house and my community. Leaving here will be one of the more bittersweet experiences of my life.

(As a side note, There’s a whole sub-culture in the woodworking/DIY-er world around shop organization and having the nicest system of organization, french cleat walls with holders and organizers made specially for every single tool so you can display them proudly, etc, and you know what? That’s all just noise. I don’t need a special caddy for all my glue stuff to hang on the wall. Just throw it all on a little shelf and call it good, ok? I’m happy to be rid of the notion that a shop’s organization needs to be fancy.)

Also, in a wild turn of events, I ended up landing that software developer job I mentioned a couple of posts back. I interviewed this job in January of 2025. They did not need me to interview again. I just told them when I was available to start and they have a team for me to join that’s willing to wait for me. So I start on June 1st, two days after this program ends. In some ways, my decision to come here to CFC was out of sheer hopelessness of ever finding a job again. I know I already did the work to get this job, but it still feels like it’s totally just fallen in my lap. I’m almost still in shock. I’ll be working remotely, so Emily and I still stay here until June 12th and then head home. It will be very nice to have that financial security again and to embark on yet another new adventure.

I continue to consider what a furniture business looks like for me, and I still plan to pursue it in earnest in some form. I hope to set up a shop somewhere other than my current garage, but I’ll still have to make my small 1-1/2 car garage work for the time being. I’ve gotten very accustomed to having a large shop and nice machinery at my disposal, but those are things I’ll just have to work up to. At least I have a shop. As far as the business side goes, I’d like to start taking commissions eventually, but I have a few things to build for our house first, now that I have the luxury.

At CFC, we’re in the chair segment now. With several people doing lounge chairs, I chose to instead do a counter height stool. I’m really glad I took this route because it’s given me an opportunity to do a deep dive into jig making. I plan to make 3 more of these when I get home, so jigs are crucial for batching them out. That way I can also make more if anyone wants to commission a set of them from me (hint hint, if you’re reading this). I’ve been sticking as close as I can to my drawing, though I’ve learned not to rely solely on my drawing for critical angles. A inaccuracy of a fraction of a degree can result in being off by inches on the other end of a rail or leg, for example.

I’ve taken many pictures, written myself lots of step by step instructions (which have already come in handy!) and am trying desperately to set myself up for success when I get home and want to make more.

Jigs are great for maintaining consistency between parts. I could use templates with double sided tape, but that’s a lot of tape and every time you remove a template you risk breaking it.

The drawing is also critical for transferring layout lines and maintaining accuracy. My drawing is a bit of a disaster right now with how much I’ve been drawing different lines on it. It’s hard to tell the lines of the chair itself apart from joinery lines, oversized part stock lines, extended curves, etc. But it’s still generally helpful and I think I may need to make a new drawing in pen for better clarity.

There’s a tool we have here at CFC called a multi-router. It’s a big heavy chunk of cast aluminum that has a bed riding in an X/Y plane on linear bearings with a router attached to a vertical piece, riding on a Z plane. It’s designed primarily for mortises, but it’s an extremely versatile machine all around. I can’t imagine being any kind of production shop without it and was able to snag one used a few months ago for less than half of what they go for new. It’s in great condition and I’m excited to be bringing it back with me because it’ll make all of these chairs a lot easier. I’m so excited! Here’s a pic of it in use. This is sure to make it very clear how it works (it will not).

Here’s the joinery I was able to crank out with that. These are the side rails coming into the back leg:

A lot of the joinery in this chair has been very challenging and difficult to figure out. Logs of angled mortises, angled and cranked tenons, angled mortises, etc. Joinery being my favorite part of woodworking makes chair making, as I expected, very fun indeed. I don’t know how anyone can turn a profit on them though. All of what I’m doing now would generally be the prototyping phase which people don’t usually expect to get paid for. Or if they do, it’s baked into the overall quote and they end up making $2/hour by the end of the commission.

Anyway, here’s what my chair looks like now. I’m expecting to have this done by the end of the program in a very short 3 weeks!