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Thread: How to do a custom piece

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default How to do a custom piece

    I thought I'd document this as I think the order will be placed. I have a customer who wants a very large wall unit that is bench-made using high- quality materials, centered around a flat panel TV. Woods will be poplar, painted black, and tiger maple doors and accents, with restoration glass in the side cases.

    First I did a very rough sketch, a concept at the sales counter (see .pdf). She liked the sketch and showed it to her husband, and I told her to be prepared for a $ 10,000 price +/-. She said that was acceptable.

    Step 2 then is for me to draw it out, by scale. And I did that today and will email to three of my custom cabinet shops for bids, John Buchanan, JL Treharn, and Bucks Country Furniture. (see second .pdf). After we get the bids them she can select a cabinetmaker based on price/style and if she commissions the piece, and we may or may not draw up a CAD/CAM version of my scale pencil drawing depending on the shop used.

    This is going to be a big piece - 12 feet wide and almost 8 feet high. A real material eater.....so I'll let you know what the bids come in at, just for fun so you can follow along.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  2. #2
    organic_smallhome Guest

    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    Wow. Now THAT'S a piece of furniture! And black with tiger maple is a divine mix.

  3. #3
    artielange Guest

    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    Not sure how much extra space is on the side of the tv where the bi-fold doors are but I would suggest putting the door hinges on tracks so that the first section of door can slide to the back with the other door folded next to it. Then when the tv is being watched there are no extra doors flopping open. That is how I had our tv cabinet made when we built our house as seeing those doors partially open with the chance that they are always at different angles would drive me crazy.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    We discussed that same thing, known as 'pocket doors'. And we can do it as well, but one of the issues with this piece is those door panels are made of solid tiger maple, and they will be very heavy. When you take two of those and install them on a pocket mechanism, you are constantly fighting the adjustment/alignment screws because of the weight of the doors. Typically they have to be re-adjusted every few weeks if the doors are slid in and out a lot. With standard hinges..... using b-ifolds, they stay rock solid all the time. That's something she is discussing with her husband and I just made her aware of the pros and cons of that system. We'll build it anyway they want!
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Richmond, VA
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    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    In the late 1960s, we purchased a German Shrunk in Stuttgart Germany. It was approximately two and a half meters tall and three meters wide. Fortunately, the three top recessed portions sat on the three bases or we never would have been able to move it eight times after returning from Germany! The style was very, very similar to your diagram except we had open shelves in the middle section since we had no TV.

    If you haven't suggested it already, having full pull out shelves in the bottom sections would be a must for me. (We had them in our Shrunk.) This greatly facilitated getting things in and out but also in connecting our stereo/audio equipment.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    Here are the three makers I submitted the drawing to - back with quotes. Obviously the Bucks bid is out of sync, and the other two are right about where I expected this to be.

    Bucks Country Furniture: $ 29,700

    John Buchanan: $ 16,500

    JL Treharn: $ 17,740 ($ 13,075 if all drawers eliminated and plain glass used in the doors instead of restoration glass).

    Here's how I would rate the execution quality of the job I would expect from these three as well:

    First: John Buchanan
    Second: JL Treharn
    Third: Bucks County

    The best cabinetmaker has the low bid on the project.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    274

    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    Would I be working from too small of a sample set to assume that J.L. Treharn would have a more pronounced "hand scraping" effect on the Tiger Maple, and a piece by John Buchanan would have a bit more variation in the wood grains?

    In our dining room, people tend to comment on the beauty of the Treharn pieces, but the Buchanan sideboard draws woodworkers like a magnet. They seem to recognize first that it's not a factory piece, and second that it's extremely solid and well-executed.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    True that, Treharn does have more noticeable 'hand scraping' then John's pieces, but therein really lies a fault when you think about it. The very best hand-scraped pieces are so subtle you can barely see or tell. Remember that these are reproductions of the old masters, and in the 1700's they had no machine to get the surface perfectly flat, and the goal was to get it as smooth as possible, not wavy. In a high-end replica, you just barely want to see that un-evenness from the scrapers.

    Yes, someone that knows fine woodworking can spot a Buchanan piece from across the room. John is really good at what he does, and is quite reasonable in price. I Had one of my customers who has been shopping in my store for nearly 20 years now stop in last week and he said to me (true story):

    'Duane, you know I've really enjoyed all the pieces we've bought here over the years, and they've held up so well. And the part that amazes me is they really are not any more expensive than the upper-tier factory made mass-marketed stuff you see in the magazines, yet they're made so much better. Seems like you get a lot more for your money when you buy the benchmade, master-cabinentmaker stuff."

    And its true. When you think about 'brand names', there's a lot of infrastructure surrounding a company that advertises in Traditional Homes or Southern Living every month. There are a lot more layers of people that have to be paid, such as a marketing department, human resources, executives, designers, and of course the workers. Then there are factory costs, such as vapor recovery systems mandated by the EPA that might entail a million dollar vent system in the finish rooms, health insurance and worker's comp, OSHA regs, Medicare and Social Security and the like. Even the janitorial staff has to get paid to clean the bathrooms.

    Then you go to a master cabinetmaker's house. Typically he works behind his home in a garage, or similar structure. No zoning requirements, no OSHA coming by for a check up, most of them don't have health insurance and they have no other employees to pay. Because they work largely with hand-tools, machinery costs are minimalist and they all have a pickup truck out in the yard to go fetch lumber, but little else. That translates into very low production costs for high-quality goods. The end result is you get more bang for your buck out of the small one or two man shops and they turn out some drop-dead gorgeous product. But as you found out, Aaron, you have to help unload the piece when they show up!
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    Update to this thread....my customer ordered this piece today based on the concept drawing posted here. Should be ready this May or June. I'll post photos as available.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  10. #10
    ta_billy Guest

    Default Re: How to do a custom piece

    And so why don't more people buy hand-crafted goods like Duane just explained instead of the high-end factory made pieces?

    IMO its because we have become an "instant gratification" culture. We just can't get past being told that it should take "about 10-14 " weeks or longer to complete the piece. Most people want to take it home that day, a few will patiently wait 4-6 weeks, and even fewer go out of their way to coordinate a one-off design and commission it.

    I once commssioned some ironwork for front door sidelights. After waiting a year, I just told the guy that "I will be stopping by this weekend to start my ironwork". He just kind of looked at me funny and said "OK, sure". Four months later I finished my ironwork project using his shop and the materials I paid for the previous year. See attached...sometimes if you want a job done right you just have to do it yourself.

    Yeah, I'm way out there...and I do plan to try my hand at hand-made case good furniture someday
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