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In 2023, I started selling solid wood rolling trays designed by my little sister and I on Etsy (The Stoned Craftsmen). Almost immediately I was making $1200-20

In 2023, I started selling solid wood rolling trays designed by my little sister and I on Etsy (The Stoned Craftsmen). Almost immediately I was making $1200-2000 per month. Some months can be big months (especially around Thanksgiving/Christmas) where I'm getting $75-200 a day in sales, but some months can be dogs (July and August this year were literally $0 months - the only 2 on record - I think an algorithm changed on Etsy and we got punished or something). When the sales were growing, the work was fun, when they plateaued then dipped, it made it hard to feel energized to do the work. The first year I spent a lot of time optimizing everything on the manufacturing side. Better tool paths, less tool changes, better speeds to not break everything, better use of materials, better use of disposables. I tried optimizing my Etsy store, but I couldn't get anything to increase sales, and moving to my own Shopify was a waste of $40/mo for 6 months because driving my own paid traffic from social media (which has rules against paraphernalia) was hard, so eventually I dropped that and stuck with Etsy and tried to wholesale to dispensaries and headshops around me, but my wholesale price is too high, and I don't want to offshore my manufacturing to get my price low enough. I had grand plans on growing the brand. I was in talk with major brands in the space for collaboration, but our wholesale price point was too high, and 1 celebrity brand said the gap was too large, the other never got back in touch after sending them our wholesale sheet. So I think I'm just going to have a nice side biz as a niche maker of solid wood rolling trays.

iandanforth 2y ago
TIL a "rolling tray" is a tray designed specifically to aid in rolling joints.
- dgan 2y ago
  Took me a couple of minutes, a google search, and then another couple of minutes to understand what a "rolling joint" is. (not native English speaker)
  - qup 2y ago
    I'm not sure you got it, because you referenced it as a noun, not a verb. Rolling is the verb, the joint is the noun. Rolling a joint is rolling a cigarette, except with marijuana.
    - dgan 2y ago
      I did write the comment using it as noun, incorrectly, on purpose, to convey my confusion :)
PUSH_AX 2y ago
As a CNC enthusiast I wondered what this was and what the market was like (I don't partake so hadn't heard of a rolling tray). A quick look on Etsy and it seemed super saturated, do you push through the noise somehow?
- jermaustin1 2y ago
  The niche I went into was making rolling trays I wouldn't mind my grandma seeing, because they don't look like the cheap steel Rick and Morty trays that they sell at head shops. I don't know why I'm able to make so many sales. A lot of the other shops that are in this space don't sell as many, so maybe it is design + price point? At crafts shows (which I haven't sold at), similar sized but much "trashier" trays sell for double what I sell for on Etsy, but I'm not able to increase my price at all on Etsy (fucks the algorithm up).
mrexroad 2y ago
How much of your woodworking is CNC? I’ve been thinking about selling a slightly different take on fountain pen trays, but I’m just routing by hand and/or with jigs.
- jermaustin1 2y ago
  When I started selling them, 50% was CNC, 40% was me and a bandsaw, 10% was me and a sander. After a 20 months of optimizations, its now 80% CNC, 20% sander. There is a specific product that my CNC barfs on 100% of the time, so I have to do a batch of like 30 at once so the failures don't have any real impact. My next big purchase will be a small drum sander ($1500) so that I can leave an onion skin (1/16" - 1/8" thick) on the bottom of my stock and let the sander remove it. But I need a good Christmas season to make that happen.
  - sasq4atch 2y ago
    What CNC do you use if you don't mind me asking? I do some hobby and small sales woodworking but run into requests where a CNC would make it easier. Would love recommendations.
    - jermaustin1 2y ago
      6 months ago, I would have recommended my Carbide 3D Pro line, but starting 6 months ago, parts started failing one by one, it is now a CNC of Theseus. I had to buy a new controller board because sensors kept failing and Support would send me new sensors gratis, but I'd be down for a week while I waited and then attached the new one. After a handful of those, they guessed (still don't know how correct that guess is) that it was the controller board, but they didn't send that gratis, I had to buy that. When waiting for that to arrive, I received my most recent replacement sensor that was DOA. So I had to do some wire splicing and create a few Frankenstein's Sensors to get me through the holiday. So far my splices are holding up, but I don't have faith they will for long. After the Christmas Season, I need to decide if I'm going to keep repairing or go for a much better machine. In the $5k price range, they are all SO MUCH BETTER than what I have, and I paid nearly $4k in 2022.

iandanforth 2y ago

TIL a "rolling tray" is a tray designed specifically to aid in rolling joints.

dgan 2y ago
Took me a couple of minutes, a google search, and then another couple of minutes to understand what a "rolling joint" is. (not native English speaker)
- qup 2y ago
  I'm not sure you got it, because you referenced it as a noun, not a verb. Rolling is the verb, the joint is the noun. Rolling a joint is rolling a cigarette, except with marijuana.
  - dgan 2y ago
    I did write the comment using it as noun, incorrectly, on purpose, to convey my confusion :)

PUSH_AX 2y ago

As a CNC enthusiast I wondered what this was and what the market was like (I don't partake so hadn't heard of a rolling tray). A quick look on Etsy and it seemed super saturated, do you push through the noise somehow?

jermaustin1 2y ago
The niche I went into was making rolling trays I wouldn't mind my grandma seeing, because they don't look like the cheap steel Rick and Morty trays that they sell at head shops. I don't know why I'm able to make so many sales. A lot of the other shops that are in this space don't sell as many, so maybe it is design + price point? At crafts shows (which I haven't sold at), similar sized but much "trashier" trays sell for double what I sell for on Etsy, but I'm not able to increase my price at all on Etsy (fucks the algorithm up).

mrexroad 2y ago

How much of your woodworking is CNC? I’ve been thinking about selling a slightly different take on fountain pen trays, but I’m just routing by hand and/or with jigs.

jermaustin1 2y ago
When I started selling them, 50% was CNC, 40% was me and a bandsaw, 10% was me and a sander. After a 20 months of optimizations, its now 80% CNC, 20% sander. There is a specific product that my CNC barfs on 100% of the time, so I have to do a batch of like 30 at once so the failures don't have any real impact. My next big purchase will be a small drum sander ($1500) so that I can leave an onion skin (1/16" - 1/8" thick) on the bottom of my stock and let the sander remove it. But I need a good Christmas season to make that happen.
- sasq4atch 2y ago
  What CNC do you use if you don't mind me asking? I do some hobby and small sales woodworking but run into requests where a CNC would make it easier. Would love recommendations.
  - jermaustin1 2y ago
    6 months ago, I would have recommended my Carbide 3D Pro line, but starting 6 months ago, parts started failing one by one, it is now a CNC of Theseus. I had to buy a new controller board because sensors kept failing and Support would send me new sensors gratis, but I'd be down for a week while I waited and then attached the new one. After a handful of those, they guessed (still don't know how correct that guess is) that it was the controller board, but they didn't send that gratis, I had to buy that. When waiting for that to arrive, I received my most recent replacement sensor that was DOA. So I had to do some wire splicing and create a few Frankenstein's Sensors to get me through the holiday. So far my splices are holding up, but I don't have faith they will for long. After the Christmas Season, I need to decide if I'm going to keep repairing or go for a much better machine. In the $5k price range, they are all SO MUCH BETTER than what I have, and I paid nearly $4k in 2022.