I need some ideas

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I need some ideas for adding to my income, I have lots of tools, indoor work space, and am looking at 4 months of idleness over this comming winter. My skills are in construction and metal craft, I am seeking a product that can be made at home and sold. At the moment a profit as small as $10.00 per day would make a big difference. Are there any things you have seen or remember from the past that might apply? My work space is a spare bedroom so truck repair is not doable; I have mobility limits so slaying dragons would not apply; start up funds are tight. I am listening....

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 02, 2001

Answers

Hi Mitch,Wondered where you went when you left countryside. You might want to check out this site: http://freeplants.com/ Has some real good ideas. I've been doing small engine repair,but the income is not steady. Good luck to ya in WV! Long way from home. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

Hey Mitch! Handmade wooden clocks for walls or desks. Scrap lumber can even be used and fit with a quartz movement. If you're interested email me. I've done it in the past and will help all I can. old hoot. Matt.24:44

-- "old " hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), November 02, 2001.

Daryll, I have not left Countryside, I still post there and sometimes at A Village Commons, with CS I keep hearing the same sick goat questions only the email address is different and almost any conciveable question has been asked and the same for the answers. If posters there were to read the old answers they would be hard pressed to come up with a new question. Here I have an apprecative group of readers and I feel that I can add usefulness to their lives.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 02, 2001.

Mitch, I am not for sure where you live, but around here barnwood anything is hot. A friend of mine made me a barn wood hutch complete with leather straps. His wife traded it to me for a perm. He sold the other three in 2 days for 250.00 a piece!!! He does well with barn wood window boxes, planters, mirrors,almost anything that looks like it is 100 years old. I just recieved a cataloge that had little barn wood beds(girls had picked fences as headboards or playhouse looking headboards, where the boys had farm barn head boards and plain wood head boards with horse shoes burned into them.)also had dressers,coat hangers ,etc. -Good luck and God Bless!

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), November 02, 2001.

Hello Mitch, I make children and doll furniture. I sell it on Ebay, does quite well during the holidays. Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.


How about picture frames? My cousin in Oregon makes her living (a very lucrative one) making holiday wreaths out of grape vines, ribbons and wood carving figurines. Or maybe fireplace metal implements (pokers, ash shovels, etc.)?

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimspon.com), November 02, 2001.

Bluebird houses and simple bird feeders are always popular, the Boy Scouts used to make and sell them years ago, often out of the feed stores or the extension office at the courthouse in town. They use up scrap lumber and plans can be had for free from the extension office.

I have seen them go for anywhere from 12 to 20 dollars, and it would be almost all profit and take up very little space to make.

Bluebirds are making a comeback in the area here and over where you are, so that should help sales.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), November 02, 2001.


Quilting frames to make quilts or quilt racks to display quilts would sell especially at quilt or craft shows. Good honest people, usually, to deal with as well. Jennifer

-- Jennifer (none@none.com), November 02, 2001.

Hey Mitch, Since you said metal crafts, I remembered a woman asking about being able to bake bread on top of the stove. One person said that she needed some sort of box thing. Maybe you could weld together a stove- top oven that would work on propane camp stoves and the like. I'd love to have one if you ever figure out how to do it and not burn the bread. Hmmmm, just thought of something ... maybe a welded box with a pizza stone in the bottom. Heat the box and then put bread on stone without the stove heat on???? Might work. Good luck. Iris

-- Iris (Sar_India@msn.com), November 02, 2001.

A lemonade stand, its got the goods. Maybe you should start your own riddles website, and write a book of the best riddles or something. It might do really well. You seem to like that. Or maybe just write a book of humour observations and jokes.

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), November 02, 2001.


Mitch, this is so simple I had a JA group do it as a project one year and we won most sales and most profitable company. Make good, heavy, heavy duty battery jumper cables with heavy gauge copper cable and good, heavy strong spring clamps. Make them in a couple different lengths. Start up funding might be a challenge as the profits are in buying the cable and clamps in bulk from a distributor or welding supply house rather than at the hardware store. With copper prices down right now you still ought to be OK. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), November 02, 2001.

bat houses, too

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.

Hey Mitch, I guess being a male exotic dancer is out, huh!

Did I really say that????

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.


Yes Ardie , you did say that and its now in print for everybody to see for the rest of time, and due to my age and infermities I cannot dance; being uglyer than bin laudn also; I must get by with other assets.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 02, 2001.

Well, at least we haven't lost our humor! ROFLMAOPIMP!

-- Ardie/WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.


Mitch, I use to make Saddle Stands out of 1" x 4" pine boards (3 8' boards or was it 4) and a couple small pieces of scrap plywood. I would paint some, stain some, tack a horseshoe on some. I sold some at horse auctions and put some on consignment at feed & tack stores. They always sold good around christmas. Good Luck!

-- Mark in N.C. Fla. (deadgoatman@webtv.net), November 02, 2001.

Ardie????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Jennifer (none@none.com), November 02, 2001.

We make bird houses out of old barn wood with tin roofs..they sell like hotcakes..I read somewhere that even in a recession/depression folks will always spend $$$$$ on their pets or wild birds..works for us! BTW, we sell ours for $15 to $20 each... the crummy ones I have seen over the net sell for alot more! God bless.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), November 02, 2001.

Hey Mitch! One of the ideas I had for you in metal work is tuned winchimes. Brass, aluminum, copper pipes cut to specific lengths to be harmonically tuned. A medium-large aluminum Bflat sells for around $100. One you get the measurements down it should be pretty easy for a skilled craftsman.

When I lived in an area with cyclone winds, I hung my collection of brass firehose nozzles from the limbs of a big apple tree. It played beautiful music and made the wind tolerable.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 02, 2001.


Yes, Jennifer?????

-- Ardie (ardie54965@hotmail.com), November 03, 2001.

Lots of good ideas here folks, but I really cannot see saw dust or metal bit in the spare bedroom carpet, so I am going to try to get up a shed of some kind before snow starts. I have an adequate amount of used lumber and the tools to create wrought iron. It will be too cold to spend much time out there, but I can build a pot and pan rack in about 3 hours that sells for around $50.00, flower carts take 10 hours but sell for $350.00 and up, plant stands take less than an hour and sell for $15.00 or so. Thats the plan, and with Christmas comming these proverty pocket people around here might like what they see.....

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), November 04, 2001.

There's a older guy around town that makes small wooden plant holders in various shapes. My daughter bought me one for my birthday, it's a little wagon (you stick a potted plant in the box). It's made of rough wood (scrap, I'm sure) about 3/4" thick, the wagon is a simple box 14" long, 8" wide and about 6" tall. Wooden wheels about 5". On the front is a "tongue" that sticks out about 5" and the pull handle is just another piece of wood about 13" long, attached to the tongue and slopes back against the front on the wagon. This thing is not painted, sanded, or anything, it's about as rough as you can get. The guy also makes these in the shape of little wheelbarrows, etc. My daughter bought this one direct from him for around $10. I saw the exact same thing being sold at Payless/Rite Aid here in town last spring for at least $15. (I'm sure the same guy sold a bunch of them to the store.) I kind of remember seeing some at the grocery stores too. They didn't last long, were sold out in a few days. Some of these wouldn't take much time, effort or $ to put together and might make a good seller, especially at the Christmas bazaars. I'm sure you could find a pattern for these at the library, but you could probably make your own patterns without much trouble.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 04, 2001.

You shocked me, Ardie! :) Love ya! Jennifer

-- Jennifer (none@none.com), November 04, 2001.

If you take Hoots wood clock idea let me know I would like to order one from you.

-- mindy (speciallady@countrylife.net), November 05, 2001.

Help me sell barn boards and beams !

-- Patricia Walters (PattyWLand@aol.com), January 07, 2002.

I have a barn that I am tearing down. The boards are unpainted and in good shape. Would they be worth anything? I am looking into selling them and wondering how to go about doing that.

-- Tim Natzke (jess_ica98@hotmail.com), June 03, 2002.

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