Woodworking Network June 2015

Jarrah’s a red-hot hit, both with interior and outdoor applications. A popular and well regarded species of eucalyptus from Western Australia, jarrah has long been a favorite because of its strength, hardness, durability and pleasing red tone.

A wholesale manufacturer and major supplier of high-end cabinet components, Cal Door credits its success to a combination of old-world craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. The company has also shown resiliency in the face of economic adversity.“We weathered a serious slump with the mortgage crisis and after-effects to housing and remodeling but have recovered and now employ 350 in our two facilities,” says Operations Manager Mark Souza.

AWFS Fair 2015 hits Las Vegas, NV, this summer from July 22 to 25 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Woodworking machinery manufacturers and suppliers will display the latest advances and developments in equipment technology and product supplies.Business is booming for many large and small wood products manufacturers and the biennial event provides those shop owners and manufacturing executives a chance to network and pick up best practices tips from industry experts. What’s more they can discover new machinery and supplies to develop products faster and more efficiently.

 Gavin Munro has grown his business literally from the ground up.  “We’ve taken a complete rethink of how wood is used as a material,” says Munro, a furniture designer and owner of Full Grown, an ecological, zero-waste producer of wood furniture.Instead of traditional methods — harvesting trees, milling, shaping and assembling the wood into furniture —   “We’ve bypassed that completely and we now grow trees directly into the shapes and forms that we want,” he says.

In 1965, standard-sized cabinets were all the rage, the average turnaround time on components was weeks — not days — and the tape-controlled routing and shaping machine was still a year away from making its mark in the woodworking industry. It was against this backdrop that Jack Lansford Sr. made the pivotal decision to start a custom wood door factory to service small cabinetmakers in Southern California.

Here's why Lumber mill Weaber Inc., also widely known for its red oak and white oak flooring, adopted an adjustable solid wood flooring tongue-and-groove insert cutter set that can compensate for wear on the machine as the insert knives begin to dull.

Boutique-style storage space created from converted spare bedrooms was the theme for two projects that tied for the 2015 Closets Top Shelf Design Overall Winner award. Both closets feature unique touches that add a bit of glamor to the traditional custom home organization systems.

As the year kicks into high gear, after a busy spring and a strong start to the summer construction months, remodeling studies, surveying both professionals and homeowners, suggest optimism and continued growth for the industry for the remainder of 2015.The National Association of Remodelers (NARI) released its first quarter report which indicated NARI members were in a better position over the same period the year prior, and those members also felt very optimistic about business conditions.

Reports on LIGNA 2015 technology continue at Woodworking Network . We'll continue to add videos, slideshows and stories as they are completed.Automated production for any size plant became a reality at LIGNA 2015. The 96,000 visitors Itouring 1,500 techology and tooling exhibits at last month’s big German show saw a torrent of new developments. Visitors also witnessed equipment running more reliably, and faster and, even more importantly, getting easier to run well.

Closet designer Denise Butchko discusses three top trends seen at the 2015 Cabinets & Closets Expo.

With CutList Plus Express you figure out the pieces you need, add dimensions, type of material, and you get easily readable, professional looking, and completely accurate cut and material list. On a kitchen project it saved me a good half hour of work.

Reader Service Index for the June 2015 issue of Woodworking Network magazine.