On to the point. I went driving around last week to cabinet shops, of which there are probably 15 or so within a 10-15 minute drive. Naturally, I was looking for scraps. One yielded some REALLY nice results, in my eyes anyway. The guy, who I find out later is the owner's father, was real friendly and generous and gave me a large pile sitting against the wall. Mostly the wood was mahogany. Some maple thrown in and I think a good sized piece of teak and a piece or two of light/soft (?) maple. He said I was welcome to grab anything out of the trash bins too. Smaller pieces were in there naturally, but I'm not picky. I'm just stocking up. He invited me to come back anytime and grab more scraps.
Tuesday I go over there and he wasn't there. Another worker got me in contact with the owner and he seemed less willing to give stuff away, but said to come back a little later and he'll be there to let me pick up some scraps out of the bins.
I showed back up and meet with the owner. He basically said that they've been working with a lot of teak lately and he doesn't really give any of that away. I know nothing of the wood at this point, so it doesn't make a difference to me what type I get. Free is free. He said I can pick through the trash bins. Obviously I'm not getting any large cuts like I did the first time.
We chat for a bit and he warms up to me some. He ends up offering me a job helping out, making furniture, etc. Another job offer, wow, but I'm not complaining. I couldn't stress enough that I lack any experience, and I basically tell him I wouldn't be any good around the shop, plus I've got a few trips planned soon and I'm leaving in 2.5 months so I wouldn't want to commit to anything.
He's persistent on hiring me and asked if I'd be willing to come in whenever I want and help keep the shop cleaned, and even learn about woodworking and help them out. After clarifying how little I know about woodworking, I graciously accept. He said I could write my own ticket, he'd pay me $10/hr, and hinted at some better scraps.
So I showed up yesterday for 2.5 hours and today for about 3 and just cleaned up the sawdust and shavings. Today when I got there he said he had some scraps saved for me, and showed me to the back where he had a good number of decent sized cuts of maple, Douglas fir (apparently 'fir' wasn't in my phone's dictionary)... And teak! By this point he had explained to me quite a bit about teak. He pointed to a few boards and told me they were worth about $8,000 in total. And he said the 7-9 pieces he gave me were worth about $40 each at a woodcraft store.
Come to find out, their current project is an order from MGM Grand in Las Vegas! Pretty awesome. Hence all the teak.
It's not the largest shop I wouldn't think, and there's only 3 guys that I know of besides the owner.
All in all, I'm really happy and thankful for this experience. It's pretty cool and unexpected. A nice side gig and "free" wood too! I was on the motorcycle today so I only took about 1/4 of today's stack and put it in my large backpack. I use that thing for about a week's worth of groceries frequently. I rode home with long cuts of teak hanging out the top for all to see [emoji1] haha
Here's what I've brought home so far, minus a large pile of small pieces that are sitting in the trunk of my car. And I still have quite a bit at the shop waiting for me.
Just had to share.
