Byrne Custom Woodworking works to focus on the details customers want.

“I find that customers these days are so much more educated in the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail,” said company president Ian Byrne. “Any personal details such as carvings or other architectural elements that we can include in our projects are always so appreciated.” 

The Lenexa, Kansas, company makes custom cabinets and architectural millwork, both for residential and commercial customers.

“We do quite a lot of church projects,” Byrne said. “I am really happy that the design trends have gone back to Gothic and traditional styles. It has been quite adventurous designing and producing some of these elements with our CNC.”

Byrne has been using a Thermwood Cut Ready CNC machining center to handle the special requests from customers.

Thermwood Cut Ready CNC router has helped Byrne achieve maximum panel yield.

Ian Byrne started the business in nearby Kansas City in 1989. Fifteen years ago, he moved the company underground – to a former limestone mine with vast galleries and underground space. This underground world is home to dozens of businesses and is known officially as the Meritex Lenexa Executive Park.

The move underground came about when Byrne purchased a large panel saw that was operated by a company making laminate casegoods that planned to close. That company had a large SCMI panel saw and edgebander. The panel saw, it turned out, was too large to move out of the cave.

So Byrne moved in, and they’ve been happy in their underground space since.

The caves resemble a movie set, where it never gets too hot or too cold.  When it is bitterly cold outside, it is still warm deep in the caves.  And the lack of large temperature and humidity extremes minimizes wood changes.

“The upside is a controlled environment with regard to humidity and temperature. It is very comfortable all year round and the wood loves it,” Byrne said. “The downside is we have to transport our product for finishing to another facility.”

The finish shop is located above ground, in West Bottoms near downtown Kansas City.

Customers and markets

Most work is residential, and general manager Donovan Mumma said that some larger residential jobs are handled as a commercial job would be.

One recent job was for a large 30,000 square foot house, including large walnut closet cabinets, gun cabinets, and pecky cypress.

Mumma said that alder was very popular, and has replaced cherry in many applications.

Also, reclaimed wood continues to be popular for furniture and faux beams. Byrne gets this wood from a number of sources, including old barns.

Byrne also makes plantation shutters, using paint grade basswood and poplar.

“We built a library for a client using walnut,” Byrne said. “They insisted that the shutters in the doors and windows also be fabricated using walnut. So we made the necessary jigs and tooling and the shutter department was born.”

Other projects have included a large curved desk with flex plywood, and many altars, candle stands and other pieces for churches.

They also make their own doors and drawers in house.

“Because we do so many varied projects and styles, it is nice to have the capability to fabricate two or four custom doors for a furniture piece when needed,” Byrne said. “It is also a good way to keep your employees busy during slower times. When really busy, we will buy out the doors and drawers.”

Byrne doesn’t use melamine or particleboard as a rule, unless is it requested. The company’s primary panel product is a UV-cured plywood sheet stock with birch or maple UV coated on both sides.

“We stay in the mid- to high-end market,” Byrne said. “I saw this material as a top of the line cabinet liner. The coating is extremely durable and looks classy. It also makes the finishing process a lot easier. Columbia Forest Products is one of the manufacturers.”

Altars made by Byrne for St. Francis. Byrne said he is happy that the design trends have gone back to Gothic and traditional styles.

Maximum panel yield

The Thermwood Cut Ready CNC router has helped Byrne achieve maximum panel yield, and cuts the offal pieces in a way so they can be used again. The operator follows instructions on the Cut Ready’s screen.

Mumma said that the Cut Ready comes with a library of face frame and frameless cabinet designs already installed. Byrne could use or modify those existing designs. Mumma also uses the Aspire program for 3-D modeling.

Cut parts are labeled with a barcode that includes job and part number, and a figure showing any edgebanding required.

Then the cut pieces go directly to the edgebander or to assembly. Mumma believes that the investment in the Cut Ready may have already paid off for the company.

There was a learning curve, and Byrne did hire a CNC programmer. Mumma said the company was not completely new to CNC. They did have a point-to-point machine, and had earlier outsourced some work to an outside CNC shop.

Mumma said the quality of the cut materials is better. Blind dadoes allow a box to be put together and stay together before glue and fasteners are installed. This also saves time in assembly.

Cut Ready also allows them to make certain pieces in house that they used to outsource. “The Cut Center is dummy-proof,” Mumma said.

They were able to use the existing Cut Center library on other jobs. Mumma said that Cut Center also keeps track of tool wear on different tooling spindles after a baseline time is entered.

“Versatility comes to mind at first thought,” Byrne said of the Thermwood. “I truthfully believe we can take on any project and with the combination of our expertise and the versatility of this machine, we will be successful.”

Thermwood Cut Ready allows them to make certain pieces in house that they used to outsource.

Doors and drawers

Byrne has 20 employees, including two installers and two in the finishing shop.

Mumma said they use Cabinet Vision, and he also uses Google SketchupPro 3D modeling to visualize projects.

The door and drawer department, and another cut-out area can cut pieces on smaller machines.

The panel saw that couldn’t be moved is still in use and performs well. This is an SCMI Alfa 320 panel saw that is from about 1994. An SCMI edgebander from the same time period is also still in service. A Ritter edge sander is also used.

Dust collection is done the usual way, with metal pipes and a dust collector on the outside of the main shop area, also underground. Local schools take the sawdust to use on their own projects. 

The door and drawer department, and another cut-out area can cut pieces on smaller machines. Cabinet Vision is used in the shop.

Software and spirit

Byrne said his outlook for 2018 is good. “We have a great team of enthusiastic designers and craftsman and craftswomen. (We have) lots of work on the board and plenty of prospects in the wind.

“We have recently invested in software to integrate our technologies as one. I want to expand our procurement of sacred spaces projects. For centuries around the world, some of the most incredible craftsmanship can be found in the churches and cathedrals.

“I would like our company to be a part of that legacy!”

Ian Byrne’s creativity isn’t limited to wood. He is lead singer for The Elders, a Kansas City-based band that is planning a final year of concerts in 2018. “It’s all in the hands and the heart! I have also surrounded myself with great craftsmen and talented musicians. This has led to enjoying success in both fields.”

At a glance

Byrne Custom Woodworking

Lenexa, Kansas

Custom cabinets and architectural millwork

Employees: 20

http://www.byrnecustomwood.com

(Note: reprinted from Woodworking Network).

Arkansas Wood Doors, a maker of cabinet doors, has expanded its CNC capability to offer a complete RTA cabinet system.

“A trend has been taking place among many small- to medium-sized cabinet shops, especially those shops without CNC equipment, and that is to compare the fixed price of our cabinet box to their best estimate of what it actually cost them to manufacture a similar box on their shop floor,” said John Allan of Arkansas Wood Doors.

Allan said in many cases this change is from a new generation that has been working on the shop floor and is now beginning to take on more responsibility in the overall management of the business.

AWD’s first RTA cabinet system was actually designed and introduced in 2000 and was offered for about two years.

“At the time it was very difficult to generate much interest in the system, although we were successful with builders,” Allan said. “In 2015 I began the process of updating our original Stonehenge Cabinet program and my first priority was updating our CNC equipment.

After reviewing the many CNC router options available, I decided that Thermwood offered the best machine to build our new cabinet program around, their Cut Ready Cut Center.”    

The Thermwood Cut Ready Cut Center is designed to be an alternative to traditional CNC routers for making cabinets, closets, furniture, doors and drawers. It can be operated as a traditional CNC router, running programs generated by different types of CNC software, or it can be switched between operating as a CNC router and operating as a Cut Center.

“We see an opportunity in the custom cabinet market to increase the overall value of our door sales via offering the custom cabinet components with the software and equipment that we have invested in,” Allan said. “Offering a pre-finish option to both our door and cabinet orders has also increased the overall value to more jobs as customers get more comfortable with receiving a pre-finished product. 

“Our Stonehenge Cabinets cabinet program was designed by my daughter, Christina Allan, and is manufactured here at AWD in Pottsville, Arkansas. Christina is able to draw from her degree as an interior designer, the experience of using KCD software, and the knowledge of how our manufacturing process can yield a complete package for our customers.”

Arkansas Wood Doors partnered with KCD to put AWD’s door abilities into their software, and AWD worked with KCD on their most recent Version 10 software. When a cabinet shop uses KCD and they order doors out they can choose that option in KCD. It converts into AWD’s profiles and the order will come to AWD from KCD. The customer is also able to send their cabinet order from KCD to AWD.

Allan said KCD is the one he would choose, even if they didn’t have that relationship. AWD rents KCD’s door program with an option to buy, instead of spending $10,000 at another company and finding the software program really isn’t what they want.

Making veneer raised panel

AWD makes veneer raised panel doors with a ½-inch MDF core and then wood veneer is applied to both sides with two membrane presses, a Shaw Almex press and the most recent press that was custom made in Kansas by Schuetz Tool.

Use of this style of raised panel compared to traditional solid wood raised panel offers many advantages, most importantly a substantial cost savings.

“More than 90 percent of our raised panel doors are manufactured with a veneer raised panel,” Allan said. “AWD also supplies veneer raised panels to companies that make their own doors or millwork companies where solid wood options are not practical. All of the MDF veneer raised panels are machined on the Thermwood Cut Center.”  

In addition to wood doors, AWD also offers thermo-foil (RTF) style doors and slab style doors with option of veneer, melamine, and the new textured wood grain materials with matching edge band.

Allan said that Adams Face and Veneer supplies veneer in stock sizes and custom sizes for larger jobs. AWD can also cut veneer to size on site.

When pressing veneer on to a raised panel, Allan said the main secret is to use a specific glue, and that glue has to reach 200F. As long as you get to that temperature, it will not delaminate, the veneer will not separate from the substrate. “There are a lot of little nuances, but once you get them right, you don’t change the process,” he said.

Wood shop

Cabinet door frames can be most any wood species including several options for paint grade doors. Ripped lumber goes through a Leadermac 623 Platinum moulder, which is creating the profiles. Boards are then fed through an Omga GT 2005 OPT cutoff saw and optimizer that cuts pieces of clean lumber.

Later, two PMK tenoners cut mortise and tenon joints in wood parts, and a Balestrini CNC miter machine is used for miter joints. A Voorwood A125 shaper-sander is applying the profile and then sanding it. A Timesavers 2300 widebelt sander is sanding wood parts. Door parts are then assembled, and a Door Master clamp carrier is used.

A Felder G360 edgebander is being used to edgeband cabinet parts. AWD is finishing about 10 percent of doors and 50 percent of cabinets, but this percentage is growing. They use M.L. Campbell finishing products and can match custom colors.

Allan said that paint-grade shaker is the most common door style. During a recent visit they were doing four different shades of white.

“I think the paint grade is here for a while,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to deal with. It’s less costly. The only lumber we have to use is on the frame with most panels being MDF as requested by the customer. The MDF sheet goods, without veneer, are easy to process.”

In those cases, they are painting the MDF core and the wood frame. All cabinet components and doors are shipped out flat packed, including cabinet doors, closets, wall storage, drawer boxes, louvered doors, and thermofoiled doors. Many customers still want face frame cabinets, even when shown the advantages of frameless.

“Our core customer is still the custom cabinet shop but over the past several years we have seen an increase in companies that specialize in cabinet reface/remodeling, and contractors looking to buy direct from a manufacturer. 

“I am seeing the traditional cabinet shop that we have been supplying since our start in 1977, and with the new generation taking over the operation, the younger generation is more acceptable to outsourcing more than just doors,” Allan said.

“This new generation is also seeking to place these orders with companies that offer online order service, and with our partnership with KCD software, they are able to order cabinets or doors directly from the KCD.”        

“AWD is not a custom cabinet shop, as we do not offer the onsite services of measuring or the installation of cabinets. I see AWD as a custom manufacturing company that is accessible to any custom cabinet shop regardless of their location in North America.”

See http://www.arkansaswooddoors.com.

AWD makes veneer raised panel doors with a ½-inch MDF core and then wood veneer is applied to both sides, right, with two membrane presses. The Cut Center can be operated as a traditional CNC router, running programs generated by different types of CNC software.

Arkansas Wood Doors has expanded its CNC capability to offer a complete RTA cabinet system.

Boards are fed through an Omga GT 2005 OPT cutoff saw and optimizer that cuts pieces of clean lumber.

A Felder G360 edgebander is being used to edgeband cabinet parts.