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Finished these two last week.





Old rickety frame on this one. No dowels. No screws. Very little glue. The joints were held together with nails.
I took all the nails out and replaced them with screws. And lots of glue.

Just finished this channel back chair for a friend of mine. It belonged to his 90 year old mother.

Striped it to the frame. All new padding in the arms and seat. When I set the back in place it didn't look right so I added an extra channel. Also sprayed the arms and legs with lacquer.


Before. Pretty ugly. The wood had some kind of black crap all over it.


After. When we delivered the chair they were amazed. They kept going on how good it looked. Thats what makes it all worth it.

Thursday I turned in my resignation. Now the folks I work for are scrambling to find a replacement. Problem is its been a long time since they have had to get out there and do what it takes to lure a new employee into there business. They've always relied on people just walking in off the street or using the local classifieds. I suggested online placement sites like Indeed.com or Workforce.com but wonder if that will be much help.

I need suggestions on how to find a skilled upholsterer.

Anybody ever do business with this company,
http://www.ereplacementparts.com/senco-stapler-parts-c-117621_117623.html

I took my staple gun to a local business who specializes in Senco equipment. After 3 weeks I called them and asked what was the prognosis. They told me the gun is obsolete and they could not get parts. This is the same business I bought the gun from 17 years ago. (Should a gun be obsolete that fast)?

The problem with the gun is the driver will not retreat back into the chamber. I figure its a seal problem so I went online and found the above company.

I've never rebuilt a gun before but there web site has the complete diagram for my model. I ordered every seal I could find and all for under $40. They said they would have them out in about 3 weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

The hardest part of making decisions is there are way too many options.

http://www.weather.com/weather/5-day/32062

Latest project.


All hardwood frame glued and dowled.


Plenty of springs, 8 way tied.


No webbing in the backs of this baby. Springs only.


Almost ready to add foam and dacron.


This thing is built like a tank. It'll last for generations.

Just finished these two chairs in a burlap bag fabric.



10 yards of inside fabric @ 22" wide
5 yards of outside fabric @ 28" wide
We had only inches to spare.
The customer said the fabric is antique feed sack material. It made an interesting project.

April will be my two year anniversary with my current employer. The subject of raise has never come up but is about to. It's been a long time since I've crossed this situation.

I've watched the profits of this company go up every year since I started and they will go up again this year.

I have a two page list of responsibility's I've taken since starting.

According to Salary.com I'm making $7000 under the average wage for upholsterers in this area and the raise I'm asking will still be $5000 under.

I have other opportunities including a shop in another state who offered more and has much better working conditions.

I've Googled this question but get mostly corporate situations. Some pointers from an employers viewpoint please.

Sofadoc brought up "incentives" in another post and I wanted to run this by everyone.

I've worked two places that offered incentives to increase productivity.

The first was a factory in NC. We were starting a new line of furniture and after 6 months we built the assembly line up to 6 or 7 employes. One day the plant manager came up to us and gave us a piece of paper showing our average weekly output. He said if we could increase our productivity he would share the profit on each of our paychecks. This only amounted to $10 or $15 each week but the increase in productivity was tremendous. Mind you the quality had to stay the same. Anybody caught taking shortcuts would see the furniture come back and thus slow production.

The second was a guy I worked for in Jacksonville. He owned an upholstery company, a refinishing company and a house cleaning company. He had about 20 employes to keep track of. His incentive was a $20 bonus if you came in on time every day and worked a full 40 hour week.

I bring this up because the place I work has a big backlog. Customers call every day wanting to know where there furniture is. Employes show up late or not at all. And when they do show up some putz around like they haven't a care in the world. It's truly no concern of mine but its very frustrating for the boss. When I bring these ideas up he tells me they want to keep a family atmosphere, incentives are more for factories and take away the personal atmosphere found in a mom and pop business.

My feeling is if you offer incentives, then when a careless employee complains about their pay or asks for a raise, you can say, the opportunity to make more money is there. Any program that lets the employee advance is both good for them and good for the company.

I just finished the coolest chair. Large barrel type with carved wood all over the place. The thing is so deep, when your sitting in it, your arms stuck out at 90*. It has two lions heads where your hands rest and carved wood up the front of the arms, across the top of the arms around the wings and atop the back. Every joint was loose and that meant a major knock down. The old glue was (I'm guessing) horse hide type. The only thing that would clean the joints off was a wood rasp.

On top of that there were 3 layers of fabric that needed to be striped off. The chair is over 150 years old and had never been taken down to the frame. It also has coil springs in the seat and back.

It took 8 hours, about 15 clamps and MANY extra corner blocks to put the frame back together. Its solid as a rock now.

The owners started striping it down then decided to have us finish it. I wiped it down with Mohawk penetrating stain then sprayed it with clear lacquer. The fabric is a beautiful light colored tapestry with red fruit and green leaves on it. The owners picked it up Wednesday and were beside themselves with joy. They are both over 6' tall so the chair fits them nicely. They said they bought the chair for $50. Nice find.

Long weekend for me. Lots of family and friends tonight. Target practice tomorrow then off to the gulf to do a little fishing Saturday. Yee Ha. Only bad thing, the wife has to work tomorrow.

Happy 4th everyone.

Its been awhile since I've worked for someone else and its interesting watching my boss solve day to day problems. 

Last week I was running late for work and couldn't find my keys. My wife and I ride the one hour trip to Gainesville together so I suggested we just use her keys and look for mine later. When I got to work I realized her key chain doesn't have the key to open the shop. Mike, the shop helper, is usually waiting for me and when I told him what happened he called the boss. The boss laughed and said he would be there in about 45 mins.

While we waited I told Mike, lets go clean the loading dock. (Always something to do in an upholstery shop). Other people showed up and waited.

Payday the boss collects all the time cards and later calls me to the front desk. One of the employes didn't punch in that day and wrote on the card 8:00, the time I usually come in. I explained to him what happened, and that Mike and I found work to do while everyone else just sat around. The boss decided not to pay for the extra time the employee was locked out.

One other thing, this is a very relaxed atmosphere where I work. Employees come and go pretty much as they please. This employee is a hard worker but usually comes in about 10 mins late every day and the boss always pays her for the missed time.

Question is would you pay her for the time we were locked out?

Here's a question for you furniture guys.

The girl who does all the sewing where I work wants to know why I don't cut my skirts at the same time I cut the rest of my pattern. I explain on a solid fabric I can do that but on a pattern, stripe or flower, I like to upholster the piece first and then cut the skirts to match. She insists the last upholsterer cut his skirts and handed them to her before he started upholstering the piece and it matched every time.

Could I do the same??? Yes!!! But wouldn't that be a quite the brain teaser??? How do the rest of y'all do your skirt matching?

The wife woke up last night and exclaimed, "I SMELL SMOKE". We both jumped out of bed and ran through the house looking for the source. I spotted soot around the control panel of the dishwasher. It made a very strong "burning plastic" smell. Today she called the manufacturer and they said that model has been recalled for this very reason. She also Googled this problem and found some homes have caught fire. The manufacture said they will either repair or replace the appliance.

Sucks doing dishes by hand.  :(

Experienced upholsterer needed in north central Florida. For more info send me a private message.

My boss is having a hard time finding  the 12 or 13 ga. 1" long nails used to hand tie coil springs.
The 14 or 16 oz upholstery tacks would work also but his supplier doesn't carry them.
We've tried the 3 main suppliers in North Florida and none seem to have them.
I'm working up a list to present to him Monday and any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

The "Florida" topic by Otlass got me thinking. How many business owners on the forum are set up in a commercial building and how many work at home. This topic has been brought up before but I thought it would be fun to see the results in a poll. It seems like, with rent and mortgage prices always on the rise, the work at home option is becoming more popular. Some may say buying commercial and owning commercial are the same but I thought it would be interesting to see how many were able to pay off there mortgage.

I gave up my commercial location 15 years ago when I moved back to Florida and have a shop at home. The guy I work for has been in business over 50 years and has owned the same building over 30 years.

Sounds like Otlass is going commercial but there may be others trying to decide which option to choose. Maybe a comment why you chose your type of work place would be helpful. And how long have you been in the same location or town.

Gonna get up to a sweltery 55* today. Cranked up the fire place for the first time this season. Been nursing a dang blasted cold since Christmas Eve. Good thing is I've been lying low and chilling out the last 6 days. I've had an interesting year and looking forward to the next.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY

Thursday morning before the holidays the boss hands me a wing chair and says it needs to be done by tomorrow. Busted my tail and by 1:00 Friday it was done. Springs tied, all new padding, sprayed the legs, the works.

Quitting time Friday, last day of work until Jan 2. Me and two other employes left at the same time. On our way out we collect our paychecks. I was last and the boss calls me to the side. In his hand is my check and an envelope. One of the other employes noticed and made a comment about me getting a bonus. His last words were, if Ed gets a bonus I'll be pissed. It was. Not much just enough to take the wife out to dinner Christmas night.

The boss could have handled this better but Tuesday morning after the holidays the pissed guy is going to question me. He's our stripper, 24 years old, when he's working he works hard but he also spends a lot of time screwing around, he could work harder. And whenever I get a chance I explain to him what it takes to make money these days. Gotta have a dream, gotta stay focused and gotta work hard.

Question is, when he asks should I simply tell him its none of his business and he should go talk to the boss.
Or should I give him another one of my motivational speeches.
I could get real snarky with him but don't see the point in this.
Any other ideas?