Auto Repair vs. Woodworking

Repairing my table saw and having an auto repair shop loosen a bolt got me to thinking. Why are we willing to pay $50/hour to have our car repaired, but feel guilty charging someone $35-$45/hour for woodworking. I understand that auto shops have large overhead. So do woodworkers. Yea you can buy a router, circular saw, and a hammer for a few hundred bucks, but you have your shade tree mechanics that can do the same with a set of wrenches. Your more organized woodworking shops will have a higher overhead. It's not uncommon for a shop to have a $10,000 wide belt sander and other expensive tool that a "shade tree" woodworker could do without.

There is also tools that are specialized to make the job faster. You have your pocket hold machine, Plat joiner, 6" joiner, routers set up for specific jobs, or a dust collection system. There is a trade off for time and machinery. The more you invest in your shop, the faster a job can get thru the system. You have a lower labor time, but your labor rate had to increase. Sometimes I look at that and think that it's just a wash, because a lot of the time the end price is the same. Even though that may be true, another factor that increase at the same time is QUALITY.

The quality of a product gets better the more efficient a shop becomes. This is, I believe, because of three reasons. One, the specialize machine elimiates steps and repeats the action the same way each time. By eliminating steps, you eliminate time and chances to mess up. The action that is repeated is always the same. You can rely on the outcome. The steps after that don't have to be measure or adjusted each time. The another reason is you don't feel as rushed during a job. The parts you are doing manually can be slowed down. It's more of a mental thing, when you feel you're ahead of schedule. The last reason quality improves is just a better way of doing things. Take for example my Pocket Hole Cutter. Before Pocket holes, items were glued and nailed. The only thing the nails are used for in woodworking is to hold the piece together while the glue dries. They have very little holding power by themselves. Now with pocket holes I can use a hidden screw in the place of those nails. The holding power has increase expandable. I read an article comparing the holding strengths of different joints in wood. They compared the pocket screw hold on a butt joint, dove tails, tongue and groove, and maybe some other fancy joints. Their scientific testing demonstrated that pocket hole held better the all the others, even the dove tail which surprised me.

How did I get off on the subject of joinery? Anyway back to my original problem. Both industries, woodworking and auto repair, have overhead expenses. With us we also have a showroom to maintain.

Another area is the learning curve. Someone once ask how long it take to build a certain piece of furniture. I told them 14 years. After the shock, I explained. It took 14 years of experience to get to where I am. It should take less than a week for the actually building. Woodworker and auto mechanics alike don't just wake up and say "I'm going to start in a new field of work today and be exactly where I need to be". Like most industries that is impossible. I would not necessarily take 14 years, but some hands-on experience is needed.

It is accepted to pay a fair rate for auto repair, and we should not be ashamed to ask for a fair rate for our services too. If we believe in our products, then there is no need to back off. The product should be worth it. One last note. I keep comparing the two different industries, but did you notice. I, the woodworker still needed the services of an auto mechanic to fix my table saw.

Thanks,
Chris