Photo courtesy of Cabinotch

Take one part wood, another part tools, add skilled hands and creative minds, and you have a recipe for innovation. Either the slow down allowed more open time for creativity or demanded new product solutions for survival.

Leading Innovations

Cavco, Phoenix, AZ A recreational vehicle builder found this wood products niche, building tiny cabins (400 square feet) mounted on wheels to deliver to campground operators.  Wellborn Cabinets, Ashland AL Wellborn’s Media Life cabinetry comes with multi-media components (Apple computer, docking stations, remotes, wireless keyboard, Bose speakers, software, surge protectors and 160 GB hard drive). Read more. Ovation Cabinetry, Salina, KS The introduction of an ONU product has increased sales and allowed the firm to target new markets. Prince Aircraft, Whitehouse, OH Designing and manufacturing prototype and mass production aircraft propellers provided this specialty woodworking firm with a background that allowed it to enter the fast-growing wind turbine market. Its droop P-TIP propeller controls air spillage, reducing vorticies, which cause drag and turbulence in the propeller arc. Barbosa Cabinets Inc., Tracy, CA This residential and commercial cabinetry firm added granite fabrication capability to allow it to move into new markets.

CABINOTCH, Owensboro, KY

—When expert millwright Phill Crabtree founded his cabinet shop 35 years ago, he never envisioned Cabinotch would spring to fame and clinch an IWF 2010 Challengers Award for professional-quality ready-to-assemble cabinetry.

The patent-pending Cabinotch system is coupled with an agile online ordering system that gives the firm a national reach. (Sample order: a base corner cabinet in alder, 30 x 48 x 24 inches, UV-coated interior prices at $137.50.)

Cabinotch cabinets assembled from slide-together, lock-in-place components are strong, come precisely cut and drilled by Cabinotch’s three CNC cutters. (A fourth CNC is on the way).

Since it was developed five years ago for its own use, the Cabinotch product has moved the company from a garage operation to a 32,000-square-foot plant. The business is driven by a passion to share their approach for the betterment of other woodworking firms. Savvy web marketers, (videos at cabinotch.com explain the process), they renamed their firm to match their product.