Features

Whether it’s drawer slides, pulls, corbels, aluminum doors, moldings or lighting, there’s a world of possibility out there for casework designers.

Remember back in shop class when joinery used to mean lap, butt, mortise or dovetail? Well, times have changed.

While many woodshops use prefinished hardwood veneered panels to cut down on construction time, there has been resistance among others to jump aboard because of a belief that the coating will scratch in transit or use, and also because of an impression that the choices are limited to a clear UV on natural veneer.

Hard work and dedication has paid off for Damon Rebhahn, owner of River City Custom Cabinetry in Atlantic Beach, Fla., a coastal city adjacent to Jacksonville.

Rough humor by Steve Spiro

There’s no limit to what can be done with a personal sawmill. That, says Wood-Mizer, is obvious from company’s biennial “Personal Best Contest”.

Woodshops that produce flooring are usually among the first to notice new consumer appetites.

Finishes are mostly fluid, and so is the nature of the cabinet and furniture coatings industry.

What goes up must come down in the stair business, though that hasn’t been the case for King & Co. in Marlborough, Mass., celebrating its 32nd year anniversary.

Rough humor from Steve Spiro

If you can make it happen, one marketing strategy is to create an exclusive line for a retailer.

Blade technology is moving right along, and it’s not just tungsten compounds or plate geometry that’s evolving. Profiles are also benefiting from Industry 4.0 technologies.

In December, three companies with CNC connections got together and presented a productivity workshop in California.

It sounds so simple – turn on a vacuum and suck up the dust. But there is so much more to effective dust control in a woodshop. And it begins with the question: Why bother?

Designers, contractors and homeowners throughout the greater Baltimore area have been commissioning custom cabinetry and furniture from TCS Woodworking for the past two decades.

Rough Humor by Steve Spiro

Over 40 manufacturing professionals from North America participated in the European Benchmarking Technology Tour, held last October and hosted by Stiles Machinery.

The market keeps expanding as manufacturers focus on safety, cordless options, software and new designs.

The only way to spot a trend is to search for its trail. By looking back, we can often guess the way forward. We can never know definitively where it will lead, but perhaps it’s enough to just enjoy the ride, and perhaps even influence the direction a little.

OakBridge Timber Framing of Loudonville, Ohio, prides itself on crafting homes like finely built furniture, using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery, only on a much larger scale.

Aspen, Colo., has been good to native New Zealander Stephen Anderson, a.k.a. ‘Stevie the Kiwi.’

Rough humor by Steve Spiro

Finish carpenters and cabinet installers have had a routine for decades that is slowly being erased. They have backed a truck up to the shop door in the morning, rolled a ‘portable’ compressor outside, and then lifted it onto the tailgate.

Everybody in construction knows that framing lumber prices are up more than 20 percent over a year ago, and the rebuilding effort after California’s fires and some major hurricanes will only strengthen that market over the next year.