RJM Cabinetsdoes a lot of things well in a small space. The Denver shop makes customcabinets, commercial and residential casework, and does small jobs as needed.

“We’re a jobshop for a lot of shops in town, with the equipment package we have,” says RJM’sBob Mohar. “We do a lot of sanding, edgebanding, routing, cutting and machiningparts. We do a lot of the odd stuff.

“When we startedwe were really small (and our customers) were small. We’ve grown together. Wecan’t turn those guys down. They’re the ones that helped us get where we are.”

RJM has aselection of modern equipment, but it’s a tight fit. Six employees work in5,000 square feet. Finished work is shuttled outside so other work can becompleted, then brought back inside at the end of the day. Meanwhile, peoplearrive with small jobs. (A man carried a few shelves out of his car to beedgebanded during our visit.) Customers are mostly architects, contractors anddesigners, although some business does come from those walk-in people. RJM has alsodone kitchens in large high-end houses.

“Around towneveryone knows us as a job shop,” Mohar says. “Instead of competing with guyswe work with them. We help out when they fall short. We helped a shop whentheir edgebander was down last week.

“We also do alot of slabs. There’s a lot of slab work, guys taking crosscut slabs with alive edge for high-end tabletops and counters.

A shop up thestreet in RJM’s Denver neighborhood, Where Wood Meets Steel, made what it callsa Lazy River table, combining large planks and steel. RJM sanded the plank, thenWWMS put in the laser-cut steel in the middle. It’s going into a high-profilerestaurant. WWMS owner Ryan Dirksen has gotten a lot of recognition from artsand furniture people.

“We do a lot ofhis casework and cabinet work and stuff like that,” Mohar says. “We’ll sand hisslabs and assist.

“We have four orfive guys that bring in those big slabs, and we process them. Some are as bigas 17 feet long and six feet wide. We’re about the only game in town that has asander and a planer big enough to work with.”

Visitors walkingin from the street might wonder how they do it. “All this technology is in asmall space. We figured out how to put 50 gallons of water into a five-gallonjar. We need 100 gallons now,” Mohar says.

RJM will haveroom for more than that after a 6,400 square foot expansion. The buildout willmore than double its space and is expected to be completed this summer. Oneside of the existing building will be removed, and all machines will berelocated into the new metal building. “(That) will be a blessing. I can’t waitfor the day,” Mohar says.

The companystarted in the back room of its current structure with a sliding table saw andedgebander. Then they added the front space to it. “We’ve been here since1990,” Mohar said. “I’m an electrician by trade. Did electrical work for 23years. This is a hobby that got out of control.”

Premierpartnership

One company inparticular that RJM works with is Premier EuroCase and its president, AndyWilzoch. “We buy all of our layup material from Andy,” Mohar says. “He’s themanufacturer of Roucke TFL board, which we use. We’re going to be buying their high-glossPUR board.

Premier EuroCase is also in Denver and specializesin laminated panels and components, using a Wemhoener melamine press to produceTFL and HD panels and a Burkle PUR laminating line for high gloss acrylicpanels. Mohar says he is getting more requests for kitchens with the high glossappearance.

Premier EuroCasehas also sent RJM smaller jobs that they can handle more efficiently. “They’vebeen very nice about sending us jobs. And then we buy all our laminate from them.We don’t lay up any laminate. They can do it quicker and easier, and they cando in minutes what it would take us hours to do. So we bring it all in pre-laidup. (It’s been) the best relationship.

Shop equipment

In the currenttight quarters RJM has a Selco WN710 panel saw, which replaced a 16-year-oldWN125, a Regal widebelt sander, a full-size Akron 855 edgebander and a Rover Apoint to point.

An Altendorfsliding table saw, case clamp and assembly table are in the small back room.

RJM is bringingin a Biesse Roxyl hot-air edgebander and will be only the second company in thecountry to have one.

They’re also sellingthe Regal and buying a Viet 54-inch planer-sander, with two-headed sander andbrush attachment. The new Viet machine will allow RJM to set a slab down, runit through the sander, stop, let the machine open up, and the slab will backitself through, close to the next setting, and go back and forth, just doingthe top surface.

Mohar says thathe considers the Biesse equipment to be the best built. For example, this isthe second panel saw they’ve had. The first one ran 18 years. “I’ve had a goodrelationship with Biesse,” he says. “The equipment has always been verytop-notch.

“They’ve alwaysbent over backwards for us. They’ve flown us there to look at new technology.They’ve flown out here to answer questions. We call at 9 o’clock at night with aproblem, and they’ll call back. Mohar’s Biesse relationship started with a SchlosserTool & Machinery, a former Denver distributor.

Biesseworks isused on the Rover. Alphacam, Cabnetware and Microvellum are also used, plusAutocad to read architect’s drawings. Ardis is used for optimizing.

“Our nextmachine will be a five-axis. We’ve been interested in the Rover B G, which is afive-axis machine capable of putting a second single-axis router machine on it,and it has radius edgebanding in it. So it’s a CNC, router and a bander.Nobody’s brought one of those in.”

One thing’s forsure, RJM will have to add some floor space if it’s going to keep addingequipment.

“It’s beencrazy. We should have done (the expansion) a long time ago. It just keptgetting bigger and bigger and you don’t have time to stop.”