Wasn't sure how or were to drop this topic. i was interested in yalls opinion for an after work hobbies/ extra source of income. I dont expect to earn money right away but i was curious what yall that had the bigger ROI, knife making, welding, leather work, custom metal work, wood working. I have interest in these skills but no experience yet, i wanted to get into something to develop a new skill that could potential earn some money if i get good. What are yalls thoughts on a skill that i could work on from a garage and turn into somethign?

From what I have seen people who try to turn a hobby into a business rarely succeds finacially

I would do something you like and enjoy doing

The question is how much money do you have to invest in the tools/equipment needed to pursue a hobby income? That’s the deciding factor in my opinion. It really boils down to what you enjoy doing, if you don’t know I’d suggest finding someone local to give you a crash course in a certain thing and see if you actually enjoy it.

Being an old welder, I can tell you the equipment will cost you many thousands of dollars. And to get good at welding, where someone will pay you, is a little bit of instruction and a WHOLE lot of practice. I am 27 years in, having been doing it sometimes daily, and always weekly, and I am still learning new things.

I have also made some knives. That equipment can start to add up as well. Go look in the knives section of this forum. We have some real artisans. Their knives fetch a premium, because they are good at what they do. That also takes lots of experience.

Not having put my hands on leather working yet, I have been looking into it. The tools you need will not be terribly expensive. You will not need a giant work space, and it seems that leather workers are always in demand.

What Ol Thumper said. I’m into woodworking, as a hobby. All the tools cost me way more money than I’ll ever get back, but making money was not my goal. If money is the objective, out here where I live there’s a shortage of welders, plumbers, electricians, and general house repair folks.

To be profitable your service or product must be...

Better than average.
Something no one is offering.
Something no one wants to do or produce.
And be able to market it.

The more goals you meet the better your chances for success.

thanks yall for the replys. I appreciate it. these are all great points, i know it gonna cost a bit to get in to the hobby, honestly i like metal working more then wood. im a bow hunter and wanted to try my hand at making broadheads. there is a forge class here in town i was intesteed in checking out. And to weldign i know that is gonna be one of the harderst things to learn.

thanks yall!

Don’t plan on making much money as a knife maker. I did it to relieve stress when I was working and it’s a good skill to make you well rounded about both wood and metal though.

A hobby isnt to make money. Once you try to start making money at a hobby its called a job and you need a new hobby.

Hobbies are to have fun and sometimes relieve normal life stressors

When I was young I did pipe fences on the side. There is money there, especially when you can get the people who want entry ways only. Set post on Saturday, weld it in on Sunday. You can make a weeks pay on an entry way. Not fun, not a hobby, potentially very profitable. Or it was in the 90s.

I ran a Handyman Service on the side for 15 years in Frisco I made good solid money. I had the tools and the knowledge so starting was EZ. The whole thing happened by accident, but when neighbors kept asking can you do this and that I thought well heck yes.

I have a lot of interests; guns, knife making, fishing, raising fish, in depth study of financial markets, investing, hunting/shooting and more.

It now is exercising to get my 80 year old body back into shape after hospital visit.

Building fence sucks, it’s pays decent if your good at it

On any of the "hobbies" you mentioned, you have a better chance of doubling your money by folding it and putting it in your pocket.

I do consulting on the side, 10-15 hours/week (process engineering). This will segway into my retirement plans within the next 2 years.

After work. My hobbies were camping, hunting, fishing, with people i Love, cherish.

didn't make money doing it though.

actually cost money.

So throw that out the window.

Just my & have learned it's my own fault I'm
Low-income worker.

don't wanna bring ya down ta my leavel..

To me it makes more sense to advance your day job to make more money working what you already do rather than working when you're not working. Maybe that doesn't make sense for your situation though.

I'm in this boat, with that said a back up trade that cant be automated might not be a bad backup plan. Welding is a good one. But it is an investment up front

Have you looked into mobile knife sharpening? I think for a couple hundred you can get a decent setup. Put it in the back of an SUV or truck and you're good to go. Or have them mailed in. I think people were charging $1 an inch per blade.

Maybe power washing houses and sidewalks. Be careful if you go this route.

Whatever you decide try to find someone in your area doing the same hobby and ask if they would mentor you. Lot of the olds have excess tools materials they no longer use that you could buy to get you started.

How much time are ya wanting to devote to it? Maybe not the activity, but learning the skill? The price involved for items is always material costs + labor… so if the projects themselves don’t require a lot of materials, it may be more laborious. As it has been mentioned, equipment costs play a part too

I like the idea of finding something you’d be interested in doing as a hobby, then see if you can profit on it. It’ll help justify the expense of equipment/materials. My wife likes to make candles and wreaths. The equipment was pretty cheap. The supplies can be a bit, but because you have to buy in bulk. So much gets produced, whatever we don’t use, she mostly gives away during the holidays because the materials are cheap enough per piece she doesn’t feel like she wasted time. Basically she just tries to sell enough to make enough to buy the next batch of supplies

I operate far different than my wife though. She likes to dabble. For myself, if I’m going to dive into something, I’m going all the way in. I spent 2-3 years learning tobacco, how to create blends, etc., but was easily able to do it in my time outside of regular work so that when I did create my first cigar blends, it was an easy transition

We also do some other fun stuff. I make and sell (tobacco) pipe racks out of used bourbon barrel staves from a local distillery. They’re fun, they sell well, and they look great. The materials are super cheap, but having the equipment to do it right is what counts. I will say, I didn’t have a drill press in my garage because I never justified it. I hand made a couple of the pipe racks and sold until I had the money to buy a drill press, then we cranked out a ton of them and that money went towards funding other fun stuff around the house

We look at that income as just fun money. It comes in spurts, but the nice thing is, we only do those projects when we feel like it

I’ve also spent time learning to code, but gave up on that pretty quick

Lately I’ve been teaching myself CAD programs to design a couple patents I’ve made. Fortunately the designs are simple, but it saves me from having to pay an engineer to do the drawings and such

I’m always getting into something new…but again with me not being able to just dabble, I wind up with a ton of extra crap. A few years ago I literally said I just wanted to learn how to blend cigars, then wound up with my own company. That type of stuff happens too….

This right here...AutoCAD and SOLIDWORKS. Learned on my own. Seat licenses can be expensive up front but you should be able to make that back very quickly. Factor it into your billable hour(s).

You can make very good money sitting in front of your PC at home sipping "Gin & Juice". Let someone else do the manual labor.

How is Solidworks? I’ve not done well keeping up with the various CAD programs. I’m a whiz at Photoshop, I’ve been using that for 20 or so years and have always taught myself the new version and such. Seems like these days, most of these programs you can just do a monthly license for a fairly low cost relative to what it used to cost to buy the programs outright…

I hear that aftermarket load delivery kits for drones is an emerging market.

I use AutoCAD for PFDs, P&IDs and some E&C schematics. SOLIDWORKS FOR BIM modeling and equipment skids (2D & 3D). SOLIDWORKS took much longer to learn and navigate.