\"The New Furniture\"

[Raymond Beausoleil]

Mike,

I consider myself just average. I guess those others you mentioned are below-average!

Mark,

Though I can't take credit for it, It is a great quote, just passing it on.

Another quote I like came from the eCabinets help manual - \"Easy software is simply software you understand\". Hats off to eCabinets software architects for a great product.

Ray

[Michael Yeargain]

A large group of professionals built the Titanic !

Unfortunately all of them combined still can't build an unsinkable ship. but one man built the Ark. Like you said.


With regard to topic on Typical homeowners. It seams like a very touchy subject. Although, I understand the dilemma, I still won't go to college to learn heart surgery, to do my own by-bass.

Let's get real, for a moment in time, about the meaning of the words typical homeowner. To one (in my parts) a typical homeowner is the average Jack and Jill, get up, go to work, dinner at home, sleep... etc. I can't say I know a Jack or Jill who would want to do that.

On the other hand If Jack and Jill were senior citizen, looking to retire, building their custom home for a place to close their notebook, I could see there might be a computer intelect out their who may try and save themselves some money in the meanwhile.

There just always seams to be a way around problems. Such as a very simplified version of HTML loaded drag and drop your own design. Click your own design from our leading designers and get a quality ready to be assembled 30 thousand dollar kitchen cabinet set drop shipped to your front door.


That's just my opinnion.

Yall come back now...

[Rick Palechuk]

Unfortunately there will always be a level of amateurs
in our profession. You don't need to go to trade school to know how to bend a nail. But that level of work IS needed out there, because that's what make the professional woodworker or joiner shine.

[Mitch Cain]

I guess I'll chime in here since I was mentioned in the post earlier. I teach cabinetmaking classes at the CT Valley School of Woodworking. I teach methods that can be used by amatuer woodworkers and professional woodworkers alike. My students range from curious housewives to professional carpenters and builders who are looking to add cabinetmaking capabilities to their business.

One of the aspects of the class is to focus on using software in the design phase of the cabinet and kitchen. I demonstrate this capability using ecabinets. I did ask Thermwood for permission to do this prior to implementing and was granted that permission. I've probably taught around 150 students how to make basic bookcases and kitchen cabinets.

I can tell you that Ray was NOT an average student. He has built some amazing pieces under the guidance of folks like Phil Lowe and Garret Hack, and when he expressed a desire to go to the next level, I introduced him to Bill Rutherford, who worked with him to produce his first cabinet. Is that a typical situation? Not really...in fact most of the students lose interest after taking the class and move on to other things, once they find out that its not all that easy to build great cabinets. I have had a couple of the pros send me pics of what they've done since the class, and thats great, but nobody is \"losing work\" over this.

In my classes, I stress that you can make your own doors if you want to, but you can buy them ready to finish and it makes more sense to do that. Same with drawers. I also show them a cabinet that is milled on a CNC with Blind Dado construction, and show them how easy it is to assemble that, but they make their own joinery during the class. This does generate some leads for my shop, and for Bill Rutherford and Dave Hall, who are both local to the school (relatively). So in the end, I guess the eCabinets members do benefit from the exposure.

Micheal Yeargain hit the nail on the head. If more of the computer literate people had access to a design and layout program like this, the upside would be a direct link to a Thermwood shop that can mill the parts and ship to the front door. That is something I DO talk about in the class, and Bill was savvy enough to supply me with flyers to hand out to those who want them. I do believe that this is the classic implementation of \"The New Furniture\".

[Michael S Murray]

Thanks Mitch, now were just a little clearer on the average homeowner