In this episode of Whatcha Making, hosts Alex Adams (Type A Furniture) and Alex Duffy (Duffy Woodcraft) catch up on all things happening around their benches—from tracking an 11-foot walnut dining table crosscut to shipping out a fleet of custom 3D-printed articulated dragons.

Then, the boys welcome a special guest: the king of Etsy woodworkers and co-host of Another Wood Shop Podcast, Daniel Dunlap (Daniel Dunlap Woodworks). Daniel dives deep into how he successfully scaled his business to over 10,000 sales on Etsy since 2021, shifting from custom bow ties and zero-clearance inserts into high-end, luxury space-saving furniture.

• The "Glorious Hole": Daniel breaks down how he and Braden (Little Bug Woodworking) recently hacked his CNC bed to allow for vertical wood holding, paving the way for flawless, dog-bone-free finger joints.
• Etsy Ads & Strategy: Why Daniel believes spending money on ads is a requirement for Etsy growth, how to avoid the "race to the bottom," and why you should design your products around standard box sizes.
• The Power of the $5 Impulse Buy: Alex Duffy shares how adding simple laser-engraved fridge magnets to a sandwich board netted him $700 in a single weekend.
• Capitalizing on Captive Audiences: Alex Adams talks about making $400 in a single Saturday by setting up 3D printers and selling custom fidget toys to desperate parents at his son's swim meets.
• Maker News & Shoutouts: A look ahead to the Pinewood Derby at the Texas Woodworking Festival this September, a massive congratulations to Yesse (@KnockOnWood) for her new HGTV gig, and why you should check out Scrollsaw and Scribbler, Keys Carvers, and Chad's Custom Creations.

Support the Show: Want more behind-the-scenes content, exclusive perks, and early episodes? Join our community over on Patreon at patreon.com/whatchamakingshow.

Whatcha Making is proudly sponsored by Next Wave CNC.

This week on Whatcha Makin, hosts Alex Duffey and Alex Adams dive deep into a topic that every maker, content creator, and small business owner knows all too well: Burnout. Whether it's the "little b" weekly exhaustion of administrative tasks or the "Big B" bi-annual creative wall, the guys talk about how they recognize the signs of getting overwhelmed and share their personal strategies for finding a beachhead, reclaiming their sanity, and getting their mojo back.

But before they get into the heavy stuff, there is plenty of shop talk to go around! Alex Duffey celebrates the arrival of his highly anticipated, modified Next Wave CNC Shark 644 rail-system machine (despite a classic shipping mishap courtesy of FedEx) and drops some exciting news about a potential gift shop partnership with a regional museum. Meanwhile, Alex Adams takes us through a nerve-wracking, high-stakes panel glue-up for his massive walnut dining table expansion project, shares his updated setup strategies for local summer markets, and breaks down his recent 3D printing inventory workflow.

• Alex Duffey: Unboxing the new Next Wave steel rail platform, filming upcoming YouTube content, and celebrating a surprisingly massive win with a brand-new $5 wooden magnet strategy at a freezing, rainy Saturday market.
• Alex Adams: Fighting glue squeeze-out with 40-grit sandpaper, planning a basement track-saw setup to beat the humidity, upgrading 3D-printed articulating animals to PETG for better heat resistance, and inheriting a flood-damaged bookshelf turned filament storage rack.

• @belusionsam – An incredibly realistic carved pear queen falcon that will make you double-take.
• @evergreen_daydreams – Hyper-realistic wooden mushrooms featuring stunning spore detail.
• @silver_hair_and_sawdust – A gorgeous, salvaged whiskey cabinet masterfully crafted entirely out of walnut offcuts and scrap wood.
• @citruscedar – An organic branch lamp with a brilliant freehanded angle-grinder channel for LED light strips.
• @ridged_oak_woodworks – An impressive, completely hand-routed and hand-painted "Stay Squatchy" sign.
• KGW Woodwellcraft – A mind-blowing, multi-carved Alice in Wonderland themed Mad Hatter and White Rabbit totem pole.

Special Month of June Sponsor Note: Whatcha Makin is proudly sponsored by Next Wave CNC. For the entire month of June, Next Wave is running an incredible accessory special: purchase any new HD6 series machine and get a 3-horsepower spindle included absolutely free! Because as they always say, more horsepower, less problems.

Want to support the show? Pull up a stool and join our community! You can support us directly by checking out our various tier benefits over at patreon.com/whatchamakenshow. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube to help the channel keep growing.

As always... Don't burn out in your shop, burn out in the parking lot!

Welcome back to another episode of What You Making! After a brief hiatus, the guys are back on the bench to catch up on life, share their latest shop updates, and dive into the messy world of product and project failures.

• Life Updates: Alex Duffy returns from a two-week medical leave following leg surgery. He shares how going stir crazy on the couch drove him to tackle some light laser work and an upcoming backyard mushroom-growing project. Meanwhile, Alex Adams celebrates his anniversary and discusses his recent yard-seeding adventures.
• On the Bench: Alex Adams showcases his beautiful, custom laser-engraved cherry wood plaques made for graduating senior runners, detailing his process for converting photos into line drawings using ChatGPT and Lightburn.
• CNC Adventures: Alex Adams recaps his first experience installing and flattening his new NextWave MDF spoil board kit, navigating the learning curve of Vetric software, and surviving his first emergency-stop battle scar.
• What Went Wrong: The guys talk about workshop hiccups, including phone overheating issues while filming in a hot garage, the absolute mess of carving black MDF without a dust collection system, and a terrifying, ritualistic discovery in the backyard that leaves Alex Duffy praying he didn't offend the local crow population.

• Laser Engraving Tip: Alex Duffy shares a technique for making wood engravings pop by doing a double-pass burn, applying a clear coat, filling the engraving with black paint, and sanding it flat.
• Budget Landscaping: Need a lot of soil? Check local hardware stores for broken bags of garden soil, which are often heavily discounted just to clear inventory.
• CNC Zeroing: When you're brand new to a CNC machine, using the paper method for micro-adjustments on the Z-axis can be a safer, nerve-saving alternative to a metal touch plate while you learn your machine's movements.

• Support the Show: patreon.com/whatchamacallitshow
• Alex Duffy: Instagram & YouTube @DuffeyWoodcraft
• Alex Adams: @TypeAFurniture