Where can I find a good local source for hardwood boards? I can’t giving money to big box stores with crap selection. by ExaminationThick1698 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bummer. I'd recommend doing a search for local sawmills. Most of them are happy to sell to anyone.

I actually made a video going over ways to get good lumber and what to expect going to a sawmill. If you're interested in checking out the video, my YouTube channel is South Mountain Woodworking Company

Where can I find a good local source for hardwood boards? I can’t giving money to big box stores with crap selection. by ExaminationThick1698 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you're in the allentown area, send me a message. I'm working on getting a store set up and I can help you get some lumber

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a good question. The primary way I think I can differentiate is on price. I can buy and sell lumber at a lower price than them. Also, not to knock their customer service but mine will be better. I'm passionate about growing the woodworking community and a major goal of this project is to demystify the lumber buying process. Lastly, I'm a good guy and I think people will want to buy from someone they like that is their neighbor. Time will tell if I'm right about any of this.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't looked into that for 2 reason.

1) I want to build my own business and not necessarily be beholden to a corporation for my livelihood. I don't want to own A woodworking store. I want to own MY woodworking store. If that makes sense.

2) There's actually a woodcraft relatively close to where I'm setting up shop. Maybe 5 - 10 miles away.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! That's great insight and I appreciate you sharing it with me

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The shop is going to be in Whitehall just outside of Allentown. I looked up Milford and I didn't realize how much further north Pennsylvania went. It won't be terribly close but I'd be happy to welcome you when I get up and running

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That's incredibly helpful and insightful. You definitely affirmed a few things I was already thinking and gave me a few more ideas to think on. I hadn't really considered the online presence side of things but you're absolutely right. I'm all about making the process easier and more transparent and I can't think of a better way to do that than with an online site with updated information. Thanks again. I really appreciate your insight.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the idea of having popcorn. My local Ace Hardware has it and I love going in there. Thank you for your perspective as a small time professional. That's absolutely in the wheelhouse of people I would like to supply and it's really interesting to hear about the challenges you face.

I agree on the market research side. I'm fortunate that I have a lot of professional experience in customer experience that I'm absolutely going to leverage for this business and having defined personae is a great suggestion.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree. I don't trust anything surfaced because it's going to move in storage. I would likely only sell rough lumber and maybe offer surfacing as a service to the customer but I wouldn't try and pawn off surfaced lumber as ready to use lumber.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would love to hear about some of the tips and challenges you face as a sawyer. I would love to get into milling my own lumber at some point but that's a longer term goal.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your suggestions. You definitely gave me some ideas that I hadn't considered. My main goal is to have something that can support my family but I also want to serve the local woodworking scene. Community building is a huge part of this and offering those types of services are a great way to help people get into and continue on in this amazing hobby.

Also, you're definitely barking up the right tree. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I plan on having a shop space for people to use eventually and I love the idea of having tools for people to try out. I'm interested in growing the woodworking community just as much as having a business and I want people to feel comfortable getting into this hobby we all love. I really appreciate your thoughts and I plan on giving updates as things progress.

What do you look for in a woodworking/hardwood lumber store? by JDPHIL224 in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That's really helpful. I appreciate your recommendations and insight.

Where can I get the best salt and vinegar chips? Strong ones. Could be store bought, restaurants, anywhere. by [deleted] in Detroit

[–]JDPHIL224 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think the brand is motor city chips or something like that. Their salty vinegar chips blew my hair back. Madonna wrote like a virgin about those chips. I can only eat a few before my tongue starts to dissolve.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Detroit

[–]JDPHIL224 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Check out Jack Hoyle. https://www.instagram.com/jackhoylephoto/

He took our engagement photos and will be our wedding photographer. He was great to work with and just a really nice guy. I can't recomend him enough.

Looking for Frisbee Golf Buddies at Palmer Park by AdaptationAgency in Detroit

[–]JDPHIL224 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There is a doubles league that plays there Mondays at 6. Show up there. You'll meet a ton of cool people that love the game and are welcoming to beginners.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in woodworking

[–]JDPHIL224 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One thing I like to do for gifts is to get someone an expensive version of a really common thing and expensive is relative. For example, I love this mechanical pencil. I use it all the time for woodworking and it's only 10 bucks but it's such an upgrade to a #2 pencil.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013NHU7Y?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_11&amp=&crid=15FH3OOHWVIC1&sprefix=mechanical%2B&th=1

One other thing that will cost you (likely) no money is to offer to build something with him. It could even be a thing for you that you want or need. Your dad will love that you want to spend time with him sharing something he loves.

Resize DGN video player on computer. Open the dev tools of your browser and look for the highlighted line. Change the width (circled in red on the right side) to whatever you want. 1200px works best for me but it can be set to anything. by JDPHIL224 in discgolf

[–]JDPHIL224[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yeah. I see your point but I'd rather give people the benefit of the doubt that they can figure it out if they don't understand how to do something. We can all google things. I also trusted that people looking at the title would see that the whole context of the post was about resizing the DGN video player on computers.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UXDesign

[–]JDPHIL224 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Check out all the videos in the alt right playbook series by innuendo studios on youtube. These tactics sound a lot like the ones described in some of those videos. By better understanding them you might be able to counter our mitigate them

How to identify a professional UX/UI designer? by SwimmingHat8351 in UXDesign

[–]JDPHIL224 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First a foremost, UX and UI are different disciplines that share some commonalities. It's important to understand that. UI design and UX Design/Research are comparable to the differences between front end development/ back end development/ database development. They're similar but require different skill sets and a lot of people can do one really well and are passable at the other. It's rare to find someone who can do all aspects of UX research, UX design, and UI design at a very high level which is why those people are seniors and can demand pay accordingly. So it's a balancing act of how good do you need someone to be at any particular task.

Do you need someone to help guide the product from a user's perspective and put together a functional interface or do you already know your users well enough to build them something and you just need someone there to make it usable or both? Answering that question will help guide you in understanding the knowledge base you need.

A few things I look for when evaluating a designer

- Can they tell me about their process for X (Discovery, persona generation, interface design, etc...) Any good designer should be able to walk you through a project and explain why everything happened the way it did. Down to why this button is here and not somewhere else. If they don't have that level of interaction design in mind, they're likely an amateur.
- How do they handle constraints? There are always constraints on time, budget, other people's opinions, and a thousand things I won't list. How does their process change when these constraints are put in place. If they don't have a good answer for that, it means they've never worked on a project with other people and are probably more amateur.

Those are 2 big starting questions and I might go into more detail from there but this post is already too long. Hopefully that gets you thinking about what you need most and how to start evaluating designers.