Dive into the latest Maker’s Quest podcast where Brian Benham details his epic root-over-rock chess table build and Greg Porter reveals his new guitar side-bending machine. A deep dive into custom woodworking and luthiery.

In this episode of the Maker’s Quest Podcast, hosts Brian Benham from Benham Design Concepts and Greg Porter from Skyscraper Guitars delved into the often-overlooked reality of failure in the creative process—especially when turning ideas into marketable products. Both seasoned makers shared candid stories of their struggles, lessons learned, and how embracing failure is a non-negotiable step toward innovation and profitability.

We thought it would be an excellent opportunity to look back at 2024—our favorite shop upgrades, biggest projects, and lessons learned—and then peek ahead at what’s in store for 2025.

If you’ve ever dabbled in CNC machining or dreamed of turning your garage into a mini manufacturing hub, you’ll know that the journey is equally thrilling and frustrating. In this episode, Brian and Greg take you through their CNC journey—from their first modest machine to new upgrades.

In this episode, we talk about influential people who shaped us into makers. Brian and Greg reminisce about people from their past who helped guide them and inspired them as they journeyed along the path of becoming makers.

In this episode, Greg and Brian discussed their experiences mentoring interns and apprentices in their respective woodworking and architecture businesses. They discussed the potential benefits and challenges of hiring an intern, with Brian stressing the importance of fair compensation.

In this episode, Brian and Greg talk about how they set up their tools in their shop and how important it is to set up tools accurately  They then share a few tips on tool setup.

In this episode, we talk about people we follow for design inspiration.  Some of them might surprise you, as inspiration can come from anywhere. For a full list, check out our show notes.

The guys talk about staying safe in the shop, how to stay safe, wanting to look out to keep you safe, and developing good shop habits.  They finish the episode by sharing some of their horror of unfortunate shop accidents; the end gets gruesome, so you’ve been warned!

In this episode, the guys talk about their experiences at tradeshows, art galleries, and arts and crafts shows. They talk about what they do to make the show successful and things that are challenging.

Today, we take a break from discussing designs and making topics and talk a little about what we have going on in our shops: current projects, new projects on the horizon, and the daily grind of being a maker.

Curt creates handmade pens from Titanium that are precision machined in his home workshop.   He got his start from his curiosity in machining and CAD.  He created a pen for himself and started carrying it around with him, and people noticed and commented on the quality.  It wasn’t long before he was able to quit his job and make pens full-time.

Today, we talked with Custom Drum maker Bryan Bales.  Bryan got his start in drum making from his curiosity of wanting to learn how to make drums and his love for making things.

Is social media still a viable way to promote your business, or is the new business model to be a content creator, making products secondary? Today, we talk about our past successes and future strategies for getting our products out in front of people.

Tonight, we talk about how to price your work so you can run a successful business and put food on your table.  Whether it is pricing a custom piece or a mass-manufactured piece, we’ve got you covered with a few tips you can implement today to price your work for success!

The Unhealthy Pursuit of Perfection, we have all been there.  Every one of us who makes things tries to make it perfect, but perfection is a fool’s earned and unattainable.  The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.   In this episode, we talk about how the pursuit of Perfection can reach unhealthy levels and what we do to stay sane and continue our maker’s quest.

This is a common issue for creatives that make things. We all have active imaginations; we can visualize lots of things. Then the distractions come into play. We are drawn to the new shiny project or derailed by a project that we have to do to make money to keep the bills paid.

In this episode, the guys talk about the power of staying curious and how it will help you stay creative in your journey as a  maker.

In today’s episode, Brian and Greg Talk about different techniques for gathering inspiration for their designs and then iterating from basic design principles to more abstract concepts and techniques.

n this episode, Brian and Greg talk about how learning new things by learning how to learn. Setting aside preconceived notions about what you think something is about will help you approach learning with an open mind. Then they talk about Chat GPT and how to use it to help us learn and become better critical thinkers.