Shop Tour with Woodpreneur of the Week: Daniel West
Big Ass Slabs came to be when Daniel West was working with a local farmer in Ontario, Canada, who had a sawmill. This venture is where Daniel got his background in woodworking. At the time, the farm had a woodmizer that could handle slabs up to 28 inches wide. However, they found that they were encountering even bigger logs as time went on that the mill couldn’t handle.
Daniel decided to get an Alaskan Mill to complement what they were doing on the farm. When they eventually parted ways, Daniel decided that rather than go out and get another job, he would instead jump into the deep end and try his hand at being a small business owner.
Shop Tour: Inventory, Equipment and the Back Office
For the beginning of this shop tour, we’re going to talk about inventory—everything from species, offerings, and inventory management.
Big Ass Slabs specializes in domestic hardwoods like Maple, Oak, Walnut, Ash, and Cherry. They also work with a few other local species. The logs Daniel sources are urban timber that needs to be taken out. He has spent many years building up contacts with municipalities that allow him to give these trees a second chance. The logs Daniel works with have often even maxed out the Alaskan Mill at 59 inches!
Process and Offerings
Daniel handles the complete process except for taking the trees down. However, once it’s on the ground, Daniel will mill it, dry it, flatten it, surface it, and do some finishing work.
Finished work is not the central part of Daniel’s business, but that part is expanding. He hopes to be able to take a tree from someone’s backyard through each process to a dining table for their house.
As far as inventory management, this is where Big Ass Slabs has an advantage. When the pandemic started, Daniel got forced into overhauling his entire website and inventory management system. In hindsight, he says he probably should have done it sooner, though, as it’s been paying off from a marketing perspective.
Daniel realized that he needed to put it in front of them if he wanted people buying his stuff. Now people can shop from home, and they can either completely purchase things through the website or use it to narrow down the inventory and decide if a drive to the shop is worth it.
It has also helped Customers who are builders as well because when they’re dealing with clients in the initial stages, they can pull up the website and look at exactly what is available. It really streamlines the process and cuts out a lot of back and forth.
The Workshop
Big Ass Slabs has an Alaskan Mill, Slabmizer, Woodmizer LT 15 Wide, Bandsaw, Kiln, and a few other pieces as well. In the future, Daniel would like to add some log handling equipment and upgrade his truck to something that can haul a large trailer. He also hopes to get a skid steer for better lifting capacity around the shop.
Daniel also has aspirations to get a wider bandsaw mill. Once he can get that, he will have the capacity to deal with 95% of the logs he encounters.
Daniel adds value to the raw materials he sells, like drying and surfacing. Many of his slabs and pieces go to builders and hobbyists who might not have the larger equipment pieces like the mill or the kiln but have finishing capabilities.
This means that he spends a bit of his time talking to folks who want to take woodworking from a hobby to a business and giving them advice based on his experience doing the same!
Daniel doesn’t believe in competition as more customers are out there than he can serve independently, and there is also more than enough product. For him, helping others grow and succeed in their wood businesses only adds to a circular economy. Ultimately helping them grow their business also, in turn, supports Daniel’s own business.
The Back Office of the Workshop
We’d be remiss not to talk about the branding aspect of Big Ass slabs. The name is bold and an excellent way to qualify leads. Daniel can’t recall any negative reactions to the stand-out name, but he knows his ideal customer and knows that he best likes to work with folks who have a good sense of humor, so it all works out.
The Philosophy of Big Ass Slabs
“I want to position myself to be able to help people with any step of a project. If all they need is someone to mill, and then they’re going to tuck their material away to air dry until they’re ready to use it, I can do that for them. If they’ve had it milled somewhere and they need it kiln dried, I can do that. If they need something surfaced, I can do that. Basically, I want them to know that I can help them turn their idea into a reality.”
-Daniel West, Big Ass Slabs
Adaptability
Daniel also does some timber framing, including backyard gazebos and pergolas. With this last year and the pandemic, that side of the business really ramped up as more people were upgrading their backyards because they were spending more time at home.
Being able to adapt has been a huge strength for Daniel, from the website inventory expansion to scaling up his equipment to handle more and more material. This Woopreneur is continually upgrading his business, and it’s an inspiring thing to see. Daniel even built his own dehumidification kiln.
Advice for Aspiring Woodpreneurs
“I would suggest doing lots of planning and prep. Don’t quit your day job until you know that you’ve got something really solid with your woodworking. In my situation, I ended up leaving the job I had before I was ready to go full time into woodworking, but sometimes you do what you have to do.
For people who are already in the industry, just make sure you’re meeting your customers’ needs. Look after them, and they’ll look after you.”
-Daniel West, Big Ass Slabs
To see more from Daniel and Big Ass Slabs, check out the links below!
Website: Big Ass Slabs
Instagram: @bigassslabs