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Now, I just finished the largest and most expensive project that I've ever attempted. It was a $70,000 conference table that measured 18 ft long, which I believe is almost 6 m. And the top alone is about 1,000 lb. The base was another
A $70,000, 18-ft conference table project reveals the challenges of shipping, assembly, and protection of large custom furniture.
Key Takeaways
- Shipping large custom furniture requires specialized logistics beyond typical freight services.
- White glove companies may avoid difficult or oversized shipments despite their advertised services.
- Proper packaging and teamwork are critical to safely transport heavy, delicate pieces.
- Personal involvement in assembly can ensure quality and reduce risk of damage or misfit.
- Protective finishes like N3 Nano enhance durability and appearance of wood furniture.
Summary
- The video covers the creation and shipping challenges of a $70,000, 18-foot long conference table weighing over 1,500 lbs.
- Standard shipping methods were inadequate, requiring white glove and specialty freight solutions.
- White glove shipping companies mostly declined the job due to the table’s size and weight.
- A $20,000 quote was received but deemed excessive; a freight company quoted $5,400 for transportation.
- The table was carefully wrapped with blankets, high-density foam, and plastic for protection during transit.
- Loading the heavy table required assistance from construction crews and creative lifting techniques.
- The table top was shipped separately from the base due to construction site constraints.
- In Austin, a crane was used to move the table top through a third-story window into the building.
- The maker traveled to Austin to personally assemble the table to ensure quality and fit.
- The video also promotes N3 Nano wood protection and a new wood cleaner, emphasizing furniture care.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the $70,000 Conference Table Project
- 01:09Challenges with White Glove Shipping Companies
- 02:07Packaging and Preparing the Table for Freight
- 03:27Shipping the Table Top Separately Due to Construction
- 04:29Importance of Protective Finishes for Furniture
- 06:35Concerns About Assembly and Installation in Austin
- 07:34Assembly Process and Final Installation Challenges
- 10:40Reflections on the Project and Unexpected Difficulties
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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500 lb. And what I didn't realize when I took this project on was just the transportation of it was going to be such an absolute undertaking. Normally when I ship a table, even a pretty large table up to maybe 12, 13 feet long, I
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just build a crate for it and then I load it on the skinny end in the back of a semi-truck. And it really isn't that difficult. Unfortunately, because this table was so big, that was not going to be an option. This is where you get into
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what is called white glove shipping generally anyway, where they have these specialty companies that move really expensive things, you know, high-end grand pianos, computer servers, things like that. And I get contacted about once a week. I get an email where
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somebody says, "Hey, we want your business. We can ship anything anywhere." So, I was like, "Piece of cake." This company I was working with had a pretty good budget. So, I figured if they're willing to pay for it, this shouldn't be
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too difficult. So, I started reaching out to these white glove companies one after another. And basically, none of them would return my calls. The ones that did would just say, "We don't want to do it. We can't move something that
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big." And I started to wonder what is the purpose of these white glove companies if they won't move the difficult stuff. I will say I had one small company that said that he could do it, but he would only load it on the
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truck from here, drive it to Austin, and then the customer would be responsible for getting it off the truck. And the quote he gave for that was $20,000, which I'm all about a [ __ ] off quote, but that was excessive. And I'm quite
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sure that's what that was. That was a job he didn't want to do, but he's like, "20 grand, I'll do it." And I told the customer, I was like, "Look, we got one response. I don't like it, but this is
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what it is." And the customer agreed with me. We decided to keep looking. Eventually, I reached out to a normal freight company. I went to Old Dominion.
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And I use them all the time and they were just going to provide the transportation. I was going to be responsible for getting it on the truck and the customer was going to be responsible for getting it off the
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truck, but that was $5,400. Instead of building a giant crate that I wouldn't be able to load, what I did was I wrapped this table in a ton of blankets in that high-density foam from Home Depot, that really high impact
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stuff. It's probably, I don't know, $600 of foam and blankets. And I wrapped the whole thing in plastic and it was very secure. But normally it's going to be really difficult to get a 1,000 lb table into the back of a truck. But I'm
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building a big shop next door and I had the crew from Cojon, the guys that were assembling the steel as well as Gavin from IE Construction. And I reached out to them and he's like, "Oh, we can do
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this." All right, we're going to lift on three. One, two, three, lift. Okay, let's go. Another scoot. One, two, three, up.
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Okay, we're going to do another scoop. Finger. One, two, three, up. One, two, three, go.
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One, two, three. Hold up. So once again, big thanks to the guys from Cojon and IE Construction for helping me get that slab into the back of the truck because that was not part of their job description. All they asked
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was I pay them in pizza for lunch and I also kicked each guy 20 bucks which I don't know, hope it was worth it for him. The Old Dominion truck headed to Austin only contained the table
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top though. I was still working on the table base. But the customer in Austin said that they have massive construction going on. If we wait any longer, walls are going to have to come down and it's going to make their life extremely difficult. So, we opted to ship the top
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separate from the table base. Base would take another week or two to complete that. But in the meantime, it's going to head to Austin and then it gets a little sporty. The reason it got sporty in Austin is this was not just sliding in
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the front door and landing in its forever home. This needed to go through a third story window. And to do that, got to get a crane. And believe it or not, this is not unheard of. This is generally how really large objects get
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moved into really large buildings because you can't just throw this in the elevator. But I wasn't there for this.
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So, it was honestly probably for the best 'cause I might have had an aneurysm watching this. But it went up. The crew apparently did a really good job. The shipment arrived a day late, but the crane hung out for them and apparently
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didn't totally gouge them on the price. And the crew got it through the window and then just put it on a couple carts and wheeled it into the conference room and waited for me to arrive. I don't know, two weeks later. Probably 90% of
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the items that I make get shipped off to some other part of the country or world, which means if there's an issue that arises, something comes up, I can't just pop in and fix it. But I have found a
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great solution to this, and that is just to not have an issue in the first place.
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That is why every piece that I sell comes with a minimum of two coats of N3 Nano, which is just a micron-thin layer that not only protects you from spills, stains, and general wear and tear, but it also greatly improves the look of the
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wood. Check out this side by side. N3 Nano isn't just for new luxury tables, though. I found it's even more impactful on used, worn furniture. And to prove this, I bought two tables off Facebook Marketplace and taped off and applied N3
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Nano to one side just to show how good a job it does at filling all those micro scratches in addition to giving you that protection from spills and stains. And N3 isn't just limited to tables. It is fantastic on cabinets. It's even better
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in the bathroom where water's going to be an issue. Basically, any wood surface that's been previously finished, N3 Nano can greatly improve the protection of it. Also, it's compatible with any and all wood finishes. So, check out N3
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Nano.com to learn more. And don't forget to check out our new wood cleaner N0ero because if you don't know, traditional wood cleaners are absolutely terrible for your furniture and your health. So, we made one that's harmless to both.
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It's probably worth noting that at no point when I took the order during construction did I say to the customer that I was going to go to Texas and do this assembly. But as it progressed and as I saw how difficult this table was to
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put together, I just didn't want to chance this by letting a contractor or some random person put it together. So I talked to the customer and I was like, I'll come if you'll cover airfare at least. And they covered airfare and the
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hotel for both me and Scott to go and actually get this thing together. I completed the base and created it up and shipped it just like a normal freight item like I described before and it was going to meet us in Austin. I did have a
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lingering concern and that I never got to put the finished table top on the finished table base because I just always want to make sure everything fits. So, that's in the back of my head hoping and praying that everything's
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going to line up because I'm not going to have a ton of tools, not going to have a ton of ability to modify this table or the base once I get to Austin.
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Another concern that I had that was out of my control was my understanding was there was power or conduit coming out of the concrete that had to line up exactly with our table bases in three different positions. So, I was worried if that
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didn't line up, I can't modify the concrete. I can't modify the table base, and I wouldn't know what to do then.
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Luckily, once we got to Austin, everything appeared to be in good shape. It was still wrapped up just like I shipped
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luckily, I found out it was only one conduit coming out of the concrete, but of course, that one didn't quite line up. It wasn't the end of the world, though. As you can see there, we just had to notch that plastic conduit a
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little bit. And that conduit was only holding, I think, the internet line, so it wasn't like high voltage wires or anything like that. So, we got that notched, got the table base set over it, got the rest of the table base
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assembled, and it looked really good. The last major obstacle that we had that could completely derail the installation is dropping the table top onto the table base with the mounts for the pop-up outlets. And the reason I was so
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concerned about this is these pop-up outlets are held in place with these black plastic mounts. And I tried to order extras of these cuz I was concerned that we could break or crack one of these during installation. And
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you just can't buy only the mount. You can only buy the entire assembly, which is like $700. So, we had one chance to do this. The top weighs 1,000 lb. We have about a/4 to an eighth of an inch
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of wiggle room to drop these plastic mounts through the table base. And if we break it, I basically go home and the customer has to figure it out. So, I told the client, I go, "Hey, I need as
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many hands as you can get. I think we need at least 10 strong guys. And he promptly brought in 22 interns. I'm going to be mostly supervisor capacity since I have to guide it in. Not that I'm weak, but um or lazy, [laughter]
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but it's going to be on on on mostly you guys. Okay. All right. Ready? One, two, three. Oh.
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All right. So, pull it back this way. We don't want on the concrete there. There we go. Okay. That one good. All right.
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So, if you can lift whenever you can. Good. All right. Okay. There you go.
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There we go. Good job, guys. Good job. All right. Now, slowly bring it over, but don't set it down yet.
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Like little ant. Yep. Yep. We got this. Okay. All right. Now, start to come down about Oh, we got about a foot to go. You guys doing good?
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Keep coming down slowly. Slowly. We're We're starting to go in. So, we're good on mine. Are the other ones good?
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Yep. I think we're down. Okay. [applause and cheering] Cool. Okay. Thank you guys. That was awesome.
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Somehow someway we got this dropped in without breaking those plastic mounts. And one thing I was really proud of us for doing is we had actually marked exactly where the table base need to be lined up because it's always a little
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tricky with those threaded inserts since there is a little bit of wiggle room on where the bolts attach it that I actually marked with a marking knife and then with a Sharpie exactly where the table base lines up and that made the
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installation an absolute breeze. I know as I'm describing this delivery, crane, installation, all that, I'm being fairly dramatic on each step. Everything is so critical and everything hinges on this one next step, but it's true. That's just really how it goes. From here on
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out, we're good. I I won't be any dramatic anymore. But as far as fine-tuning those pop-up outlets, that was really pretty easy. It took about an hour because you got to get the height just right. You want to get the grain to
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line up just right. One of them I had a artificial epoxy river I had to line up with one of the natural cracks in the wood slab. But this actually went really smoothly. We finished the install by maybe 12 or 1:00 and then got fed
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Michelin Star BBcue which is as good as it sounds. But the company that commissioned this was T1 Energy and the guy that I've been working with the entire process was Nick. He's their chief marketing officer and we talked
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probably three or four times a week for three or four months during this whole process. So, I asked if he would mind sitting down with me, answering a few questions that you guys might have about what it's like working with me, what he
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thought of the build process, what he thought of the cost, what he thought of the finished product. All this before the biggest disaster of the trip hit me.
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This is Nick from T1 Energy. What's your role at T1? I'm the CMO, chief marketing officer.
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Chief Marketing Officer. So, this is your headquarters, right? Y global headquarters. Yep. What does T1 do?
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We build energy. So, we're, you know, currently build energy. No, hold on. I learned this in science class. Energy can't be created or destroyed. Is that true?
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So, but it can be captured. We have free energy outside right now that nobody's capturing. So, how do you capture it?
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Solar. Yeah, we're we're uh making tens of thousands of solar panels a day in our our Dallas facility and um yeah, it's it's a seems like a lot.
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Yeah, we should have you guys up there. You'd love it actually. That would be awesome.
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Yeah, it's it's wild. So, it's been maybe six months since we first kind of came up with a plan. I don't even remember. Did we just say we You didn't come to me asking for a live edge table, did you? No, I think it
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started with, hey, let's build I need an 18 to 20 foot table. And then you said that's no, my shop can't it's not big enough for that.
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Oh, that's that is what happened. So, yeah, I remember now um I go, hey, I'm building a big shop. I can do that uh if you give me a couple months and we started in like July and you go, "No."
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And I go, "Well, then I can't do it." And you go, "I want you to build this." And I said, "I can't." And then you go, "I think you should." And then somehow I was building you a table. So, now that
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it's in, was it worth the I don't know how many, four, or five months. And Oh, more than worth it. She's She's beautiful.
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Okay. All right. For the audience, how much was How much did uh I charge you for this?
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Like, what was my cost? 65 70,000. Was it 70? Yeah. 70,000. That's exactly Yeah, I know the price.
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Yeah. 70,000. And then what do you think with shipping and everything, you guys are into it? Um, I would say with shipping, the crane, everything, we're we're floating right around 90.
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Okay. Okay. Um, I know you reach out to other people. What were those? What did they offer you for like a table? And what was the cost of those? Was I way more, a little more or No, no, no. I think you were marginally
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more like few like, you know, under double digit percentages more like uh like uh 5 to 10% more.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Enough. And the quality was 50% better. No, 100%. Like way way better. So it's just like how how so?
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Um yeah, either veneered or, you know, glued together pieces. It was it was not a solid piece.
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Why did you care? A big chunk of solid walnut versus veneer. Uh one like I think craftsmanship and then two longevity of like this is you know this isn't going to we touched on this a little bit before like this kind
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of wood isn't going to always be here forever. This is a special piece of wood.
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Um, it should be respected and loved and like I want it to like, you know, if if we're going to do something, um, I think we we need to do it right. This is our, you know, our HQ. So,
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and if whatever some disaster befalls it, we can sand and finish it again. Um, as far as the table, anything you do different on the table? No, no, no, no. This is It turned out those those outlets I told you were not
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my favorite part of building it, but they're one of the coolest parts. Oh, yeah. It's like a taking something that's like super rooted like traditional kind of, you know, woodworking is like is is kind of there's something traditional and like
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old school about it naturally and then just have like a little R2-D2 pop up of the middle. It's like pretty pretty rad.
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Pretty cool. I also obsessed with the the bow ties. We've talked about this a little bit, but like the fact that they're functional and like also just, you know, huge love of of Japanese joinery.
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Yeah. And and it's like just such a nice little nod. These ones turned out really nice. But all of them turned out really nice. There's always right there.
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Yeah. [laughter] No, it's it's always a lot of pressure to have these so forward facing of like if there's a little blip, you'll see it forever and someone will sit there kind of.
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I almost love that it's not like it's it's pretty perfect, but like you can feel it just so the grain you can always feel the grain on walnut. So since the grain changes directions, you'll feel that.
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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's really nice. I'm to say excited would be an understatement. I think it's worth the worth the time and the wait and the Yeah, I know we were a little later than we'd initially said. So, thank you for
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bearing with me. It's all good. Well, I can tell you I'm glad you guys got me out of my comfort zone cuz this was way out of my comfort zone. Um, but now that it's done, it's like, [ __ ]
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that's cool. I'm glad I did it. I'm Thank you so much. And, uh, I'm excited for the next one.
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I know. We got a desk coming up. Yeah. Yeah. Desk. We'll push some more boundaries. We'll do something weird.
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Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. All right, Nick. Thanks so much, man. Thank you so much. really appreciate it.
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Yeah, man. The plan for this install was pretty simple. We're going to leave Wednesday, do the install Thursday morning, fly back Thursday night, 24-hour quick turnaround, and almost made it. I say I almost made it because we got the install done. We made it to
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the airport with plenty of time. Got loaded onto the plane. I was sitting on an exit row on the window. My stomach was a little upset. Wasn't terrible, but just enough to make you nervous for a 6-hour flight. But as I'm sitting there,
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the door to the airplane closes and I just feel myself go white. I got a cold sweat just ran over me. I'm starting to see that kind of like negative imaged kind of everything's looking black and I was like, I think I might puke. And so
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before I actually felt nauseous, I'm fumbling for the sick bag, which luckily it was in the seat there. And I'm holding I'm holding it and sweat is just pouring off me. And I was like, this isn't good. And sure enough, I puked I
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think once or maybe twice. And I kind of look around and nobody's really noticing. The guy, we don't have anybody sitting next to me, but there's a guy in the aisle seat and he's just reading his book and I kind of like wrap it up and
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I'm looking around and the guy, he's still reading his book and he just hands me his bag and he it was just the classiest move I've ever seen for such a situation. I feel like people always want to like pat you on the shoulder, do
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something condescending, that tell you it's okay. Guy just kept reading his book, handed me the bag. I told him thanks. And the flight attendant's walking by and I was like, "Hey, can you take this?" And she looked at me and I
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thought naively that they are like school teachers and they deal with puke all the time. But I was she asked me what it was and I was like, "Oh, it's puke." And she looked at me like I was
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trying to hand her like a little baggie of anthrax. And she almost ran out of there. She goes and gets a supervisor.
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Supervisor comes up to me and asks me what happened. And I was like, "I puked." And she's like, "You don't look so good." And I was like, I don't feel so good either. And she's like, you can't fly if you're this sick. And I
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think they were expecting me to argue, but I actually was kind of relieved cuz I like I didn't I didn't know what was going to happen at that point. So, I kind of just graciously gathered myself.
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I felt really bad cuz the plane had been delayed at this point because of me. And I'm doing that walk of shame back up the aisle. And I made sure I had to tell people as I'm walking by that this was
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not terrorist related, that I just got sick. As I made my way back up the jetway, I felt absolutely terrible. I'm feeling nauseous. I'm feeling all the sickness throughout my body. I'll try to spare you some of the details, but the
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Alaska crew, they were pretty nice. They sat with me and got me a flight booked for the next morning at like 8:00 a.m.
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And then I was like, well, I guess I need to go find a hotel room. And I was feeling worse by the second. And I was like, I don't know that I'm going to be able to make it to the hotel room. But
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found an airport Hilton. Ordered an Uber. Actually tried to get a taxi but it was only like a mile away and the taxi told me it was like a $40 minimum which this is why we don't use taxis
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people. They are they're the worst. Anyway, ordered an Uber. It was like $10 to go the, you know, mile. Uh got into the hotel, got the room booked without puking or worse, and then just made it up to my room. And from there it got
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pretty graphic. Whatever horrible symptoms you think that I had, I had. It was absolutely terrible. It was the sickest I've ever been in my entire life. There was absolutely no chance I was making that 8 a.m. flight the next
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day. So, my 24-hour quick turnaround turned into a 72-hour trip. I got flown out the next day, and I can't tell you how sorry I am for everything I did to that hotel room.
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I literally [ __ ] the
Topics:conference tablecustom furniturewhite glove shippingfreight shippingfurniture assemblywood protectionN3 Nanolarge furniture transportfurniture logisticsBlacktail Studio
