Brainstorm: wood can become clay. What would you do with it?

[Carol]

Hi all,

I need some help brainstorming here for a project I am doing with some local students.

Hypothetical situation, my students and I tried to create a new kind of wood stain. Instead, we accidentally created a solution that will, temporarily, give wood the consistency of a stiff clay. After a few days, the wood becomes rigid again. (just pretend this is all scientifically possible for sake of discussion )

Now that we have our amazing "wood clay" we want to go in to business, making wooden shapes. We do NOT want to sell the clay, just our services doing things with the clay. We have virtually no connections, but that will not stop us, we are ready to pound the pavement and knock on doors.

We envision building a professional services business, and hopefully get rich...but how? None of us are woodworkers. We've made this amazing stuff and we don't know what to do with it.

Who could use our shape-making professional services? Museums? Building contractors? How would they use them?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.


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[Sukerkin]

You are essentially dealing with an alternative 'material' for the applications that currently use timber that is turned or steam-bent. It might also substitute for some plastics applications.

What thickness of timber will the solution work on and does it impart any other desirable properties, such as resistance to decay? Also, does it prevent the grain from opening when you bend and twist it whilst it is in it's malleable state (and does that property persist after the wood has taken it's 'set')?

 

[Carol]

You are essentially dealing with an alternative 'material' for the applications that currently use timber that is turned or steam-bent. It might also substitute for some plastics applications.

What thickness of timber will the solution work on and does it impart any other desirable properties, such as resistance to decay? Also, does it prevent the grain from opening when you bend and twist it whilst it is in it's malleable state (and does that property persist after the wood has taken it's 'set')?

No other desirable properties. No other undesired properties either...no moreso than if wood were cut to that particular shape.

For thickness....many different thicknesses. Our main restriction is actually length. Our magic solution was mixed up in an old bathtub we store in an outdoor toolshed. The wood has to fit in the bathtub that's in the shed, we don't have the financial means for any other method right now.

For the grain, the consensus is generally yes, the grain would keep from opening, and it would stay that way after it is set. (great question!)


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[Sukerkin]

Something that just occurred to me when it comes to uses you can put this temporarily plastic wood to is as a cheaper and easier way to make stained glass windows. The grain staying closed is important here because you will be dealing with very thin strips of wood. Because the wood can be smoothly bent and shaped you don't need to have any woodworking skills to do it, just an artistic eye (other than cutting a slot(s) in the timber to take the glass). You could even lay the design out on top of normal clear glass and still have a very pleasing effect.

 

[Sukerkin]

Another application that would be most interesting but probably would require some carpentry skill is to make 'strap' furniture. Being able to weave different timbers would make for some great chair backs and seats.

 

[Carol]

These are some excellent ideas!! And you're provoking some great questions from the students as well -- such as...do we save our pocket money to bring in a carpenter to consult with us? And....when do we show people the invention (the magic clay itself) instead of the finished product that was made with the clay (which has since returned to the properties of normal wood).

What about something we could do with a mold? My friend working with me wondered about an old house that might have some ornate millwork that is in disrepair. Perhaps we could make a clay impression of an intact piece of millwork, make a mold, and use the wooden clay with the mold to produce sections of millwork...which might only be viable if we could do this for less cost than what it would take a millwright to make. Or perhaps we could create a mold that make a fancy picture frame?

 

[Sukerkin]

That's one that slipped by me entirely - using plasticised wood as a casting material :tup:. Being able to make mouldings and trims out of exotic hard-woods with no waste is a viable business idea on it's own.

 

[Carol]

Excellent! Ahhh....if only this stuff were real

For my friends and I, we're hoping that by brainstorming through these scenarios we can come up with some real ideas for entrepreneurship, and by placing real constraints on a make-believe product, we hope to identify potential pitfalls/challenges in the process. Originally we were hoping to enlighten the students we are working with to give them a feel for real-world business.....but to be honest, the discussions they are having and the ideas they are coming up with, I think they would like an entrepreneurial path just as much as we do.

 

[Sukerkin]

It's a very cool process, Carol both in the imagination and when you do if 'for real' - it just takes a lot more intestinal fortitude when it's your money on the line .

An important point to make to your friends (if they don't already know) is that, as with speculation on the stock market, the big constraint on business when you start out is not spending more than you can afford to lose. Because when you start that amount is very small indeed it is tempting to gamble on success and secure big loans on things you really don't want to lose, like your house.

I started out working the open air markets when I was eleven, funding my stock with my work on a milk round and a paper round (all be totally against the law these days of course ). When I started university at eighteen, I had enough capital to run a mail order business during my studies - it never made a fortune but I was one of the few students back then who owned my own car and finished each year with more money than when I started. Things went belly up further down the line (bloomin' bike accident ) but my point is that, other than in a very few cases, business is time and work for incremental returns more than it is luck and big returns.

The real trick is either to see that gap in the market that noone else is filling or be able to supply a market cheaper or with better quality than someone else. One other thing that seems counter-intuitive at first is getting your pricing right - charge too little and people will think your product is rubbish, too much and they won't buy at all, so you need to find the point on the scale that sends the right 'message' for your target market.

 

[Carol]

It's a very cool process, Carol both in the imagination and when you do if 'for real' - it just takes a lot more intestinal fortitude when it's your money on the line .

An important point to make to your friends (if they don't already know) is that, as with speculation on the stock market, the big constraint on business when you start out is not spending more than you can afford to lose. Because when you start that amount is very small indeed it is tempting to gamble on success and secure big loans on things you really don't want to lose, like your house.

I started out working the open air markets when I was eleven, funding my stock with my work on a milk round and a paper round (all be totally against the law these days of course ). When I started university at eighteen, I had enough capital to run a mail order business during my studies - it never made a fortune but I was one of the few students back then who owned my own car and finished each year with more money than when I started. Things went belly up further down the line (bloomin' bike accident ) but my point is that, other than in a very few cases, business is time and work for incremental returns more than it is luck and big returns.

That is a VERY good point that bears repeating. Our model starts with no money...literally. We secure an old bathtub from the town dump. One of my friends who has a backyard shed for his motorcycles decides he could make enough room to fit a bathtub. We haven't even touched upon growth or loans yet (that's going to be much trickier).

The real trick is either to see that gap in the market that noone else is filling or be able to supply a market cheaper or with better quality than someone else. One other thing that seems counter-intuitive at first is getting your pricing right - charge too little and people will think your product is rubbish, too much and they won't buy at all, so you need to find the point on the scale that sends the right 'message' for your target market.

That's the challenge we're ultimately targeting! It is definitely not an easy thing to do. Can we identify the niche? Can we find a solution that will fit? Is the solution realistic? And then finally...is the solution believable? Time, work, networking...these will all do a lot of things...but there has to be motivation to do them. Something that I learned when our workshop fell apart is that it didn't fall apart from lack of energy...there were a few of us that turned right around and created this project. It fell apart because ultimately we didn't believe in it any more. It was time to walk away.

Before we came up with the magic "wood clay", the students actually wanted to build a bicycle. They wanted our fictional product to be a plastic bicycle that was both lightweight and strong. But my friends (especially the 225 pound motorcycle aficionado) expressed reservations over how sturdy strong such a thing would really be. What if he were out riding and the thing broke apart on a trail 10 miles from the nearest road? Ultimately, the plastic bicycle idea was abandoned...because we didn't believe in the concept.

 

[Sukerkin]

Another good point there, Carol - if you don't believe in your product then it's for certain that noone else will :nods:. It is very important not to get 'target locked' with an idea. I recall seeing someone on Dragons Den a couple of years back who was at the knocking on for two MILLION dollars expenditure mark for an idea because he could not let it go. It wasn't a bad idea by any means (a form of baby carriage built in to a bicycle) but the market just was not there for it and he should have let it go much earlier.

 

[K-man]

Super beat me to the moulding idea but anything that stops wastage would be welcomed. As to the transition from imagination to reality, I watched a documentary on George Lucas, of Star Wars fame, last night. It described how he used current reality to design a futuristic model. They had to revamp all the special effects machinery to cope with his imagination. Now, thirty years on we have a bionic arm based on Luke Skywalker's hand, a thinking robot similar to R2D2 and weapons systems based on what he portrayed in his movies.

So dream on Carol and make it your reality. Basically, these days if you can come up with a great idea, someone can make it happen. :asian:

 

[oftheherd1]

I read this pretty fast so I may have missed it, but when this make-believe thing gets close to reality, you need protection from patents and maybe other things such as copyrights and licenses, depending on what all might be offered. An hour with an intellectual attourney would not be cheap, but could save a lot of make-believe money in the long run.

 

[Carol]

I read this pretty fast so I may have missed it, but when this make-believe thing gets close to reality, you need protection from patents and maybe other things such as copyrights and licenses, depending on what all might be offered. An hour with an intellectual attourney would not be cheap, but could save a lot of make-believe money in the long run.

Excellent point and strategy! Especially where one of the students already touched upon secrets (do we show a master carpenter our magic clay, or do we just show him the finished product), I think its time to work that in to our next discussion.

As a tie-in to martial arts, an hour with a defense attorney (usually cheaper than an intellectual property attorney) can do a lot to keep MAists out of hot water, especially if they plan to carry....tools.

 

[Nomad]

Yep, first priority is to get the solution and the process of "plastifying" the wood patented so no-one else can reverse engineer it and start mass producing it. I think your best option on bringing this hypothetical product to market is to illustrate the process with a few concept pieces (some of which have already been suggested above), and then look to license the magic liquor to others. Avoids having to scaleup the process, potentially greatly increases the creativity of what can be done with it, and gives everyone involved a nice steady royalty check in the process...