Build

2025 COFAS
Jonny
, , ,
0

17MAY2025 H/A Update

What follows is an email I sent to a few folks (with some light editing) sharing the progress I have been making on Harper Aviation, my side hustle. This is in keeping with my philosophy of “learning out loud” to maximize feedback along the way. Another surprising benefit has been the reception from friends who were tickled to be included and provided some critical motivation to continue aggressively pursuing my business in my free time (which is already at a premium).

Thought I’d share some progress I’ve made with the business with a few of my friends and business mentors (bcc’d).

Here was my journal entry from today outlining my week:

This week has been awesome for Harper Aviation. I had three pre-coordinated meetings with key players to move the business along.

On Monday, I met with D.C., the owner of [my manufacturer]. We discussed how to bring down my per-unit cost after I identified I’m losing money on each wholesale order. She gave me a bunch of ideas. She’s also open to dropshipping all my orders, which cuts me out completely. She was honest about not wanting my business to fail while I’m deployed nor have my wife resent me for it. She’s adding final assembly and shipping for no additional cost!

I also asked her what her vision for the future of her company is, mentioning I read Built to Sell and have been preparing my business for sale, even if I don’t end up pulling the trigger. She said we could talk in the other room and then told me her business is up for sale. I have actually dreamed many times of buying her business, but I don’t know how much it would be worth or how I would even do that. But what I did offer, with the caveat that I have imposter syndrome about saying as much, is some consulting for her business in exchange for a lower per-unit cost. In pursuing my MBA + M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering, continuous improvement and driving efficiency is what most of my coursework is about!

She said we were brought together now for a reason and that she was really excited about the partnership. I told her that over the weekend I’d pull together some brainstorming for her so that she can move pieces of her business along. I’m realizing that working on the business is what I love—operations!

On Monday, I also met with a new business mentor, A.C., through the SBA program, Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). He’s a consultant that sold his business and we connected to improve my eCommerce. He was generous with his time, had some great ideas, and by explaining him my business and goals, I generated a lot of ideas for myself. He also obviously has a background in consulting, so I’m hoping to get some tips from him as I help out [my manufacturer].

Yesterday, I met with [a potential partner]. I continued working through the questions S.P. emailed me about. An hour before our meeting, I decided to pull together a slide deck to make sure we had something to structure our discussion and look at. I was pretty proud I pulled it together neatly. B.K. also joined late. They were both rock stars. They had some small questions and concerns for me to continue exploring, and they emphasized the need for me to shift to Shopify to get the date I need on inventory and how people are finding my website.

We ended with a promise for me to get them a report after the weekend. I also made a Shopify account immediately to start exploring that. Overall, they were very appreciative of the opportunity to connect (insane that they were thanking me) and offered lots of mentoring and help whenever I needed it. Again, wild. I told them that I was ecstatic to meet some B-tier celebrities in our field, and they gave me the “aww shucks, stop it.” They also know a couple of my coworkers in the Guard, which made for a fun connection.

Overall, I’m so pumped. I have so many notes and items on my to-do list. I want to standardize things to get moving along. Over the weekend, I’m certain I can:

  1. Finish the report for [the potential partner]
  2. Transfer my site over to Shopify
  3. Whip up an initial consulting report for [my manufacturer] to get the ball rolling

This is what I love.

Some of my due-outs or things I think you’d be interested in:

You rock, and thanks for the support!

Best,

Jonny Henderson

IMG_0455
Jonny
, , , , ,

Build | Rustic Industrial TV Stand

Introduction

It took some time in our marriage for my wife and I to reconcile our very different design preferences. I love modern, sleek, and minimalist while she prefers a more sophisticated colonial-style home. We eventually fell into “rustic industrial” as a healthy blend of the two.

We needed a new TV stand to keep the kids from touching the screen. I dug around on Pinterest, and I found a design we liked, which served as a great foundation, but it was missing a lot (bill of materials, step-by-step instructions, etc.). I had fun reverse-engineering the project, and I altered a considerable amount in the process. I’m sharing it for anyone interested. I give credit to the original designers—Rose Lemke and her husband—for the inspiration.

Dimensions

  • Entire Unit
    • Height: 33 ¾”
    • Width: 65”
    • Depth: 17 ⅞”
  • Upper Shelf
    • Height: 1 ½”
    • Width: 65”
    • Depth: 17 ⅞”
  • Media Shelf
    • Height: 1 ½”
    • Width: 23 ¾”
    • Depth: 9 ¼”
    • Clearance:
      • 4″ from top of media shelf to bottom of upper shelf
      • 18 ¾” from media shelf piping to top of lower shelf
  • Lower Shelf
    • Height: 1 ½” (kinda)
    • Width: 18 ⅜” 
    • Depth: 48”
    • Clearance:
      • 5 ⅛” from bottom of shelf to floor
      • 20” from top of lower shelf to bottom of media shelf

Bill of Materials

See my Google Sheet.

Tools

Note: Not all of these are required. I’m slowly building my tool collection knowing that my next project is building a dining room table and bench and that we’re saving for a fixer-upper, so the tools will get used anyways. Feel free to substitute other tools or get creative with what you have!

  • Electric sander
  • 2X Sawhorse
  • Circular saw
  • Miter saw
  • Hand plane
  • Caulking gun
  • T-square
  • Quick square
  • Lumber crayon
  • Carpenter pencil
  • Carpenter pencil sharpener ($3.98)
  • 2X 36” bar clamp
  • Safety glasses ($6.97)
  • Mechanix gloves

Instructions

Upper Shelf

  1. Drill 3X holes for the the pegs (⌀¼”, 1”-deep hole) spaced 6″ from the ends and one centered.

    Note    : I had to cut both ends shorter for size, so I would bring those pegs in to about 12″ from the ends.
  2. Insert pegs, add Liquid Nails, and tap together with a rubber mallet.

    Note: While I had a few pegs laying around, I also had to make some. Simply cut a ⌀¼” dowel into 2″-long pieces
  3. Use bar clamps to hold together until dry

  4. Cut 7X underside pieces using 6″-wide planks (17 ⅞” in length)

  5. Drill holes, insert pegs, add Liquid Nails, screw slats, and clamp to dry




Lower Shelf

  1. Drill 3X holes for the pegs (⌀¼”, 1”-deep hole) spaced six inches from the ends and centered
  2. Insert pegs, add Liquid Nails, and tap together with a rubber mallet
  3. Use bar clamps to hold together until dry (I stacked it on the top shelf and clamped to dry at the same time)
  4. Use some scrap planks as braces to reinforce the bottom shelf and screw in

Media Shelf

  1. Cut two slats of 6″-wide planks to size

    Note: You can do whatever you need, but mine was about 2′ long to hold a Roku, Apple TV, and a Blue-ray player.
  2. Zigzag with Liquid Nails
  3. Screw together and let dry

    Note    : I marked my top and bottom with a lumber crayon

Finishing

  1. Sand with 60 grit sandpaper (very course)
  2. Clean off with a shop brush (and a wet rag if desired)
  3. Coat with pre-conditioner using a rag or brush
  4. Let dry for 15 minutes
  5. Stain with a brush
  6. Let dry
  7. Wipe off excess stain and apply a second coat if desired
  8. Apply topcoat
  9. Let dry for 4 hours
  10. Gently sand and wipe the topcoat, then apply a second layer
  11. Let dry for 24 hours

Piping

  1. All piping will need to be degreased
  2. Dilute degreaser in a bucket (see dilution chart). The degreaser does strip away some of the black material, though, so dilute appropriately based on how much you want to preserve.
  3. Gently rub the outer surface of each piping piece with a rag and the degreaser. You’re just trying to get the gunk off, not strip away all the black coating (unless you want it off).
  4. Allow to dry. I left in the sun in my driveway, and it took maybe 5 minutes to dry.

Assembly

  1. Screw piping for base together.
    1. Note from the original post: “With threaded pipe you need to keep working in a line so if you start at one point and need to tie back into that you will need a threaded union which allows you to tie two pieces together.”
    2. I over-tightened it through the threaded union joint (narrow portion) and then unscrewed it as I screwed it into the union. It held, albeit a little looser than I would have liked, but you screw it into the top anyways, so it ends up sturdy.
  2. Attach top shelf with the top-side down and the legs sticking up into the air
  3. Attach the media shelf to the underside of the top shelf
  4. Flip TV stand right-side-up (i.e. standing on legs) and attach the bottom shelf
  5. Put a piece of paper or cardboard against the back of the power strip and punch holes to show where the mounting screws fit. Hold that against the backside of the top shelf and drill in size small screws until they’re mostly in with the head of the screw remaining. Slide the power strip on to those holes. Use a twist-tie or zip-tie to secure powerstrip cord down one of the pipe legs, hiding the cord behind the TV stand.
  6. Situate TV atop the stand and your media players (Apple TV, Roku, Xbox, etc.) on the media shelf. Hook up all the cables. Screw pipe clamps onto the backside edge to collect the cables neatly out of sight. Attach furniture straps.

~Enjoy!~

Lessons Learned

  • Degreaser will take off some of the black coating. Use a less concentrated solution. I did 3:1, and that took off a decent amount, greying the black coating
  • I “learned” how to use pegs. I wish I would have used more throughout, but as an experiment, they worked. Now I just need to get my hands on a biscuit joiner. 😬
  • I didn’t think wiping the stain off was necessary, but because I put on a pre-conditioner, the excess just sat on top of the wood. I needed to wipe it off and apply a second coat.
  • The epoxy will bubble. I just waited for the first coat to dry then applied a second coat. I should have sanded it first and ensured I put that second coat on within four hours. I waited too long, but it still turned out alright.
  • Can I reuse brushes? I ended up throwing some brushes away after the stain, etc. dried on them. I talked to my dad, though, and he said to use some paint thinner.
  • How do I dispose of degreaser? Mine was biodegradable, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but what if I had paint thinner to get rid of? Is there a convenient way to dispose of all these chemicals?
  • I didn’t use enough Liquid Nails. It was my first time using it, so I was hesitant, but next time, do not use sparingly 🙂
  • Compare/contrast using an electric sander, a hand plane, a belt sander, and an electric plane. I used an electric sander and a hand plane, but I wasn’t happy with either.
  • More clamps or better clamping
    • Tip from Repair Shop: put painter’s tape on a piece of wood and lay that tape side on the Liquid Nails or wood glue to keep from gluing together. Now you have a brace you can clamp down to spread that pressure across the joint
  • I should have stained down into the cracks before assembling, but whatever. 🤷🏼‍♂️