Investment, something to think of when buying tools.

[caskwith]

I know there are some out there wary of investing in equipment for pipemaking. If you are happy with what you have then that's great, but I also know some would like to get a bit more serious. When looking at the cost of a large piece of tooling such as a wood lathe, drill press or even a metal lathe it can be very daunting, especially if you are limited to buying new or nearly new tools. Laying out a big wadge of cash may not seem like a good thing to do when you are only a hobbyist who isn't selling anything, and you may be right on that, for those who make pipes for themselves you probably will be better off using handtools and doing things the slow way, but if you have any intentions of selling pipes, or already are then power tools are pretty much mandatory.

So here is something to think of when trying to justify those purchases, either to yourself or your partner. Today I was looking at my lathe, aside from my sandblasting setup it is the single most expensive piece of tooling in my shop, it cost me £1000 and I have probably spent another £1000 tooling it up, but for easy math now lets just look at the basic £1000 which essentially bought me a tool I could make pipes with. £1000 is a lot of money, more than a months wages for most people and certainly several months worth of saving. The first thing I thought of is what if I were to give up pipe making, sold all my tools, how much would I get? Well it turns out since i bought my lathe second hand it is still worth pretty much what I paid for it so I could make most of my money back (more if you include tools and upgrades but we will ignore that for now), things are not sounding so bad now. This will be true for most second hand tools, you can usually get most of your money back if you decide to sell later on as the original seller has already taken the big hit of depreciation. Next I looked at it in terms of pipe sales, lets say my average pipe sells for around the £200 mark, (I know this varies from person to person and material costs have to be taken into account but this is just an example), that means that to pay for the lathe I need to sell 5 pipes. Things are sounding better. I have owned the lathe for about 5 years now, so now we are looking at just 1 pipe per year to pay for the lathe, not a bad rental price if I can turn around and sell it for most of it's initial cost.


So to sum up here, when looking at that big purchase and thinking is it worth it, try using these ideas and look instead at how many pipes you will need to sell and how much you would get if you sold it on at a later date for whatever reason. You may find that the big purchase isn't so scary at all.

[W.Pastuch]

Chris, let's just admit it, we all simply love nice and heavy tools and need an explanation to buy them

At the moment I'm considering the purchase of a drill press, I just need a good explanation for it... I have a metal lathe, so for most pipemaking purposes the drill press is not necessary, but I just want to be able to drill precise holes in stuff (yeah, all those things that you want to do when you'll finally have the time;) ) without having to chuck them up in the lathe. I was considering a lathe milling attachment, but the lathe modification is too serious to do by mysef and finding someone to do it is harder than I thought.

Anyway, I totally agree with what you wrote.
I actually went ahead and bought all the necessary tooling even before I started making pipes (of course I added a lot later too). It seemed risky at the beginning but now I think it was a good decision, having the right tools helped me a lot when I was making my first pipes.
It's also true that many tools keep their value for a long time and a well equipped workshop is worth quite some money. It also helps that pipemaking isn't very strenuous for machines, so most of them will last you a lifetime (unless you're turning cast iron in the meantime, which isn't as gentle as briar )

[jogilli]

Chris

nicely written.. my lathe was/is my biggest investment, besides briar and ebonite, but well worth the investment.. and it has paid for itself..upgrades to the the lathe are done after sales. It was a good month and I actually sold four...so I know have a quick change tool post and a cam-lock converter for my tailstock in the mail... June/July timeframe paid for my chuck from Rudat.. again a good investment as it has really eased my alignment woes...

Unfortunately I don't know how long I'll be working at my current location and with pipe making being a hobby I've bought pieces that can easly transfer to a US made machine if I move back and the German spec machine I can 'off-load' at that idepreciated value that some new hobbiest over here will enjoy

Thanks for bringing up the topic

james

[d.huber]

This is fantastic advice, Chris. Thank you for taking the time to write this all out.

Right now, I'm still getting things set up in my shop and I have yet to sell a pipe at more than cost. So... something else to consider is that it will take time to get good enough with the tools you buy to start making pipes that you can sell. It will also take you some time getting people to pay attention to what you are making. There's a lot of time, energy, and money that you invest at the beginning to get yourself going with little to no return, except for the satisfaction you get from making a pipe. I don't want to sound discouraging but I do want to communicate that while paying off your investment will be relatively easy once you begin to sell, getting to that point does take some time.

And it's completely worth it.

[Growley]

Pretty good thinking in my opinion. I also see it this way, in buying tools (assuming you have or will have some skill to make them worth it) you're creating a way to make money on the side, better and faster in most cases. While I couldn't support myself by making pipes if I lost my job, I could certainly buy some food, or pay a bill or two. It would at least help. You're investing in a way to make money which is a pretty good idea in my opinion.

On top of that, I'm having a blast making pipes. Making money off of them at this point is just pure upside for me. I have a hobby that actually supports itself, and not all hobbies do.

I reckon I've spent about $7k on equipment and supplies in my first year, and I've already sold $4,500 worth of pipes. Now that most of my big stuff is bought and paid for, those pipe sales are going to get sweeter and sweeter.

Makes sense to me!

[SimeonTurner]

Chris-

Who wrote this up for you? It's way too cogent, wise, and helpful to have come from you.

[Sasquatch]

Tools are like women.

They're super expensive but you can't do without 'em. Mostly.

[Alden]

Tools are like women.

They're super expensive but you can't do without 'em. Mostly.

Sas I think you have totally missed the point Chris tried so hard to make.
Women dont cost money, they make money.

[Alden]

And you can always sell them to get your money back.

[scotties22]

Hardy-Har-Har

Just remember who feeds ya....

[Charl]

So what did you buy this time, Chris? Was it another lathe? Or drillpress?

[caskwith]

So what did you buy this time, Chris? Was it another lathe? Or drillpress?

No more pipemaking buys, unless you count electrical tape haha. In fact for the past few months pretty much all my tooling purchases have been either consumables or DIY tools. I am happy with my 5 lathes and 1 drill press......for now

[Leus]

Nowadays I don't make many pipes. But my lathe is paid for, and the money came from sales. So I basically have something that, if the need arises, I can convert into cash.

Not a bad deal if you ask me. Plus, when I have a spare moment I can make a pipe, which is always a great thing.

[caskwith]

Nowadays I don't make many pipes. But my lathe is paid for, and the money came from sales. So I basically have something that, if the need arises, I can convert into cash.

Not a bad deal if you ask me. Plus, when I have a spare moment I can make a pipe, which is always a great thing.

Yep that is a good place to be in. I always feel better when I know a tool has paid for itself. After a lot of investment in the last year or so my tools are still paying their debt but it won't take much longer for them to be "free".