Custom Shop
Richland Hills, Texas-based Champion Shuffleboard is the number one shuffleboard table manufacturer in America and still growing. Its tables, known for their state-of-the-art quality, are found worldwide in private, professional and commercial use. Meticulous attention to the playing surface finish has helped build Champions’ reputation for quality. Now a new machining center has brought increased accuracy and consistency to the furniture pieces that hold up that playing surface.


Finish Line
Why can’t we get the color right the first time we do it? What went wrong? Who gets fired? All sensible questions so let’s get to a solution now that we recognize there is a problem. Color is seen differently by each individual. If a group of individuals were asked to imagine a red apple and then requested to select from a variety of red color swatches, not everyone would pick the same red swatch. That’s fact!
Since we are all on the same page let’s review some terminology.

The First Word
Sir Isaac Newton said it best, “What goes up must come down.” We certainly witnessed it last year in the housing market, which saw sales of new homes fall by an estimated 18 percent from a record-high in 2005.

Hot Gear
Get descriptions and request information about products from our participating companies.


Material Issues
An art deco desk built with ebony and pearwood veneers was chosen as the top entry in the second annual Veneer Technologies Craftsman’s competition, announced in Atlanta during the 2006 IWF® trade show. Kent Townsend of Kent Townsend Fine Furniture in Salida, CO, was awarded the $5,000 grand prize for excellence in woodwork featuring natural veneer and/or natural edgebanding application.

Production Line
Louisiana Cabinet Doors, Inc. knows firsthand the importance of its assembly department keeping pace with its production department. Having started out in 1992 struggling to make 500 doors a week, the Lake Charles, LA-based custom cabinet door manufacturer’s capacity today is 2,000 doors per week. With a philosophy of no job is too large or too small, Louisiana Cabinet Doors, owned by Billy Caldwell, sells raised panel, flat panel and frame-only doors in a variety of wood species such as birch, cherry, cypress, cedar, maple, oak and more to cabinet manufacturers, custom cabinet shops, contractors and home owners.

Proving Ground
With more than 300 employees and a global customer base, Eugene, Ore.-based Lanz Cabinets is hardly your typical custom cabinet company.

Sanding Sense
One of the most common sanding defects is streaking. Most of the time these streaks do not show up in the white wood but are all too obvious after finishing. While it is possible to produce some streaks on contact drum type sanding heads, most streaks are produced on platen type heads.


Supply Side
When one thinks of functional hardware, glamour isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But pretty is as pretty does in this set of functional hardware innovations that you won’t want to keep hidden.

Think Lean
We have seen that the most effective approach to achieving real operational performance breakthrough requires focusing on two fronts: operating the business day-to-day for both the company and its customers; and reinventing operations to support a quantum leap to a next-generation business design. The problem we face is when the near-term day-to-day business demands overshadow the long-term. This is where strategy matters and how Strategy Deployment (SD) serves business leaders.

Trends
Modern Woodworking interviewed Vanessa Bates, president of the ISSFA (International Solid Surface Fabricators Association – www.issfa.org) and president of Anaheim, Calif.-based Block Tops to find out about the latest in solid surface.


Trends Extra
Woodworking equipment purchases cool slightly in 2005. While most categories held steady or increased, overall acquisitions of woodworking equipment decreased by 3 percent in 2005 over 2004 numbers. A healthy economy along with continuing strong housing and remodeling markets bode well for 2006 increased buying power.

Trends Wood Bits
The Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers announced that it will begin the new year by relocating its headquarters to an expanded facility located at 500 Citadel Drive, Suite 200 in Commerce, Calif. The new offices will offer immediate access to nearly three times the operational space to support continued industry growth and future business initiatives.

Words of Wisdom
Modern Woodworking is growing, and so is our parent company, Randall-Reilly Publishing Company. With growth come opportunities and challenges. For me, the success we’ve achieved with Modern Woodworking provides an opportunity to present new challenges to those who have played an integral role in our growth.