pmspirito

How many man (person) hours does it take to build a project such as the chiffonire or the secretary desk? I realize skill and experience comes into play but is it 50 hours or 500 hours?

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ejant

Projects with lots of intricate joinery will take hundreds of hours most of which will be setup times.

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Mike

And then comes the joy of sanding!

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Mike
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reible

If you were "Norm" you could do it in two days...........

Too many factors come into play to give any good est. but all I know is they always take a lot longer then I think they will. A lot of it is in your planning, you think you can just walk into the shop and make something without good planning it will not happen. It is a lot like being a general contractor I would guess.... gettting in the hardware, wood, special tools you might need ..... waiting for glue to dry or waiting for the clamps so you can do the next parts (this is often one of my hang-ups). A lot of the time can also be used up making fixtures/patterns/special clamping needs....

Ed

ejant

They you forgot something and have to order it, well there goes another week.

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pmspirito

BOB AND RICK; I NEED HELP. They are all making this query too difficult. Man hours assumes: that you have all of the tools, materials, hardware, glue, clamps, etc. Everything you need is in the shop. You do not count the time it takes for the glue to dry. You only count the hours spent actually working.

reible

Without see plans or a simular piece I will think about a piece I have setting in my living room..... to make that in actual hours of just woodworking, no jigs/pattern. All the wood ready to rip and joint and using the tools that I have I could make it in less then 100 hours. In fact maybe about 75 hours if I pushed it.


Now if the rest of you people put in your estimates!

Ed

kp91

Always 2 days more than you estimated, plus 3 extra trips to the store because you were sidetracked by a tool sale and forgot what you went into the store for....

but seriously,

The closest I could give you without knowing what project you are describing was my entertainment center, which was two cabinets on the ends (one for component stereo, one for CD storage), with a larger cabinet in the center for the TV with 3 big Videotape drawers. This was my first big furniture project which took about 80 hours for construction and 20 hours for finishing. I cheated and used a 1/2 blind dovetail jig for the drawers, and used a biscuit joiner for some of the edging. That time estimate includes the time spent drawing the project, laying out cut diagrams, etc., which doesn't seem like productive work, but saves a ton of time if done right. Also, making sure you do all your dado/rabbetting operations at the same time saves on set-up time, (especially if you only have one router). I also made sure I had something else to work on while the glue dried.

Don't forget that finishing takes a LONG time. Not only sanding, tacking off, first coat, second coat, etc...... if you rush it, and put on too thick a coat and have to go back and sand it off and start over.... (I hate finishing)

Start early, you won't loose any points for finishing early, but you will Definitely loose points if you don't have it done by the time you promised the Mrs.

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Doug
1 John 1:9

BobandRick

When going to College 20 years ago I was building custom furniture as a way to make money and was completing a bedroom suite in about 35 hours working time. That is three pieces the bed, dresser and armoire...I don't do the finishing.

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Rick and Bob
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pgeer

It seems to me the finishing takes longer then the building.

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Paul