Chris Dehmer speaking at major industry show in Las Vegas

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Dark Horse Woodworks owner Chris Dehmer was scheduled to speak at two sessions during this week’s AWFS (Association of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers) show in Las Vegas.

IMG_4107On Wednesday, July 17, Chris participated in a panel discussion titled “Taking the Leap to a Bigger Machine: What You Need to Know Before You Invest.” Chris and

 

fellow CMA member Matt Wehner joined CMA Executive Director Amanda Conger to tell their stories of taking leaps of faith and investing in machines ranging from $50,000 to $250,000.

Chris and Matt talked with Amanda about “what they’ve learned, what they wish they had known, and what they’d do differently if they had to do it again,” as the AWFS preview described it. “This session will cover it all – selection, negotiation, financing, moving, set-up, processes, compressed air, power, dust collection, tooling, the learning curve and all of the surprises that come with integrating a big machine into your shop.”

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Today, Friday, July 19, Chris and fellow CMA member and former president Matt Krig will talk with Amanda Conger about “Boundary-Pushing with Your Nested-Based Router” – sharing tips for getting more out of your CNC router. 

Chris and Matt will share “how they are using their machines, ways to simplify routine processes, and tactics to make additional revenue … how to push your machine to be more effective, and ultimately more profitable.”

Being able to share Dark Horse Woodworks’ experience with others in the indu

 

stry is one of the great things that has come out of our involvement in the CMA. AWFS will be the first major industry event since Chris was elected president of the CMA Board of Directors.

Here’s the full run-down of CMA activities at this year’s AWFS – if you’re thinking about joining the CMA, this will give you a taste of the organization’s contributions to major industry events and thought leadership. (It could be you participating in a panel and sharing your experience at a national or international show one day!)

Giving thanks

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Orange Leaves Illustration Thanksgiving CardIn December, I’m going forward with long overdue knee replacement surgery.

No one looks forward to surgery, recovery and physical therapy, but when you run a small business like Dark Horse, it’s especially challenging to figure out how to keep things on track when you’re out of commission, even for a short time.

It’s not like owning a store, where you already have people in place who are trained as managers and well-versed in running things –– not to mention the fact that you’re selling things that have already been made. 

When the stress is worse than the surgery … 

I have great people on the Dark Horse team, but unless you’ve run a manufacturing business and shop, it’s hard to step in and take charge of everything. In baseball, if your manager had to leave the game, you wouldn’t plug in the pitcher, shortstop, etc. to take over; they know their expertise, but without a manager’s big-picture view and experience, it would be pretty hard for them to run the game.

We have projects to keep on track, and on top of that, I found out that the installation date for one project had to be delayed, a pretty big deal when you’ve been trying to plan your absence right down to the last detail.   

All that is to say: I’ve been stressed about this surgery.

… until a guardian angel shows up.

A couple of weeks ago, I confided in a friend I’ve gotten to know through my involvement with the Cabinet Makers Association, aka the CMA, over the past few years. He has many more years of experience in the industry, and I often call on him for advice or ideas on challenges I might have on a project. 

I told him I was really concerned about how things were going to hang together while I was out, especially the first few weeks – and especially with the installation schedule change. 

After offering up other suggestions to help ease my mind, he said, “If it comes down to it, Atlanta is a short flight, and I’ll come down and oversee things while you’re out.”

I was stunned – and sure I must have misunderstood.

But when I said as much, he said he meant it.

You know, I don’t often admit to it when something strikes an emotional nerve, but my friend’s offer bowled me over. I’m sure there was a long silence on my end of the line before I could get my wits about me and thank him.

Gifts of all kinds

There are many different kinds of gifts and there are many kinds of gifted people, and my friend has the quality of both generosity and a sincerity that makes it crystal clear that when he offers you a gift, he means it.

I believe most of us find it hard to admit that we sometimes need help, and it’s even harder to actually follow through and accept that help. I’m pretty sure this kind of stoic attitude is something we all need to try to let go of, because it’s a rare human being who never needs help. 

I’m going to implement his other suggestions and see how that goes before asking him to be away from his business. No matter what happens, this Thanksgiving, I’d like to share my deep gratitude for my friend who is not only willing to take time away from his work, but also go through the hassle of getting on a plane to give me peace of mind. 

I’m thankful for his time and talents, but also for the gift of being made to feel as though his offer was one I should feel just fine about accepting.

He would never want to be named, but I decided I had to share this story even without his name attached to it. 

The Dark Horse team and I wish you a great Thanksgiving and hope that you, too, have a community like the one I’ve become part of with my CMA friends.

Chris Dehmer to be featured presenter at International Woodworkers Fair

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The International Woodworkers Fair (IWF) is being held in our back yard (well, in our city), and Chris Dehmer is putting all the travel time he’s saving into sharing his experience with fellow cabinet makers and woodworkers who are in Atlanta for the show.

In addition to Dark Horse being one of the featured stops on a pre-IWF shop tour organized by the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA), Chris is participating in four CMA panel presentations at IWF. 

“I’ve always learned a lot from my fellow cabinet makers at IWF and other shows, and it’s great to be able to return the favor and share some of the lessons I’ve learned since starting Dark Horse 10 years ago,” Chris says.

If you’re going to the show, check out these descriptions of the presentations he’s participating in and stop by to hear what Chris and his fellow CMA members have to say:

  • Wednesday, August 22, 9:00 -11:00 am 

“Working with Architects & Designers” – Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks), James Fox (Fox Woodworking) and Joe Knobbe (Exclusive Woodworking)

  • Wednesday, August 22, 1:00 -3:00 pm

“Buying that Big Machine” – Leland Thomasset (Taghkanic Woodworking), Matt Krig (Northland Woodworks), Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks) and Matt Wehner (Cabinet Concepts by Design)

  • Thursday, August 23, 10:30 am -12:30 pm

“Boundary-Pushing with your Nested-Based Router” – Leland Thomasset (Taghkanic Woodworking), Matt Krig (Northland Woodworks) and Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks).

  • Friday, August 24, 1:00 -3:00 pm

“Acing that Modern Job” – by Chris Dehmer (Dark Horse Woodworks), Shelley Wehner (Cabinet Concepts by Design) and Joe Knobbe (Exclusive Woodworking)

For details on other CMA presentations and events during IWF, please visit www.cabinetmakers.org/IWF18.

Dark Horse to be featured on CMA shop tour during IWF 2018

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routerphotonewThe International Woodworkers Fair (IWF) is coming to Atlanta in August, and Dark Horse is pleased to be a featured stop on a pre-IWF shop tour organized by the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA). 

The all-day tour on Tuesday, August 21, will include stops at several Atlanta-area shops – Atlanta Cabinet Shop and Custom Creative Furniture are participating along with Dark Horse. (CNC Factory is sponsoring the event.)

“My experience being on the CMA board inspired me to participate,” says Dark Horse owner Chris Dehmer. “It’s great to be part of a group that is so generous with its time and so willing to share its experience. I’m inviting people to come on the CMA tour and tell me what we’re doing wrong!”

Dark Horse has invested in technology to optimize its capabilities and work flow as well as the quality of its products. Tour participants will get a chance to see how a small shop makes use of innovations such as Zero Edge technology and a CNC router.

The shop tour event gets rolling early with a 7:30 am breakfast at the Embassy Suites (Centennial Olympic Park) and continues throughout the day.

Registration includes group transportation as well breakfast, lunch and an evening reception.

The shop tour cost is $55 for current CMA members and $75 for non-members. Student/Instructor members can participate at no charge, while non-member students/instructors will pay a discounted rate of $25. 

You can register via the CMA website.

You really do get what you pay for

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I recently had the eye-opening experience of seeing some high-end homes that had surprisingly low-end cabinetry. While many of the cabinets looked nice when you glanced at them with the doors shut, you only had to inspect them a bit more closely to figure out that the materials and construction were not exactly top-of-the-line.

Frankly, it was a shocker.

How did such shoddy work end up in such exclusive, expensive projects?

When you’re in a craft profession, this kind of thing can be frustrating.

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We’re grateful to have gained the trust of clients who have hired us to create their dream kitchens and other projects; this is the project we call “The Walnut House.”

Knowledge matters

Coming across this less-than-impressive work in otherwise well-crafted, big-budget homes made me stop and think about how these decisions are made.

Do the homeowners just not worry about the details that make the difference between a high-quality project and a shoddy one? Or do they not know? 

For those who are considering a remodel or new construction, I thought I’d pass along some insider perspective based on the Dark Horse approach to custom cabinetry.

First, it’s my experience that while clients know the big picture of what they want (style, color, etc.), they almost never tell you what they want when it comes to materials and construction.

For that reason (and many more), we have a spec sheet that we share with potential clients that outlines the type of materials we use. We’re careful to say, “This is what you’re getting.”

Our specs are identical 99 percent of the time; we never approach a potential job with the idea that we’ll customize our specs and use lower-quality, cheaper materials in order to give Dark Horse a better chance of winning a bid.

We’ve built our reputation on executing client projects the best way we know how, and in addition to the level of craftsmanship we offer, we make a point of seeking out the best products and materials available.

Here are a few examples:

  • Every cabinet box we build is two-sided, pre-finished and US-sourced.Why US-sourced? Once, we tried cheaper Chinese import plywood for some shop projects; when we cut the material, it smelled funny, and the sawdust from the cut was blue. Consistency in thickness is more critical than ever since we incorporated a CNC into our production – we have to tell the machine how thick the material is so that the joints come out tight. Domestic plywood tends to be much flatter – I’m not sure why this is but my guess is that it has something to do with the imported plywood sitting on a ship during transport.

    To give you an idea of the difference in materials, the domestic plywood we use costs $65-70 a sheet; some companies use particleboard that costs $18 per sheet (similar to what you see in IKEA furniture).

  • We don’t use prefab drawers, and that makes a huge difference in both looks and function.
  • We also use Zero Edge banding on our cabinetry, which is more heat- and moisture-resistant than typical edge treatments. But that advantage comes at a price – 80 cents per foot instead of 2 cents per foot for traditional hot glue edge-banding.
  • We use soft-close doors, slides, etc. – in short, the best hardware we can buy. It costs a little more, but it’s worth it. (There’s a lot of cheap, shoddy hardware out there.)

 

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Here’s an in-process photo showing the kind of 3/4-inch prefinished plywood cabinet box construction that goes into all of our projects; this happens to be my own kitchen, which my wife and I decided to renovate last year. (There’s no top because this is a sink cabinet.)

 

What’s the lesson you can take away from this insider view?

You get what you pay for.

A company with a solid reputation and happy customers obviously excels at the craft of cabinet-making, but that company also begins with high-quality materials, and those materials cost more. (I have yet to find a magical source of stellar materials at bargain basement prices, but if you have any leads, I’d love to hear about them.)

Our Golden Rule

Some companies have the advantage of a showroom where clients can see examples of their work; that would be a great way to show our clients what quality materials and craftsmanship look like, but a showroom is not an option for Dark Horse.

So instead, we just try to emphasize to clients what we choose to use in our work and why we choose it.

And the “why” is simple – it’s the way I would want it done in my house. If I wouldn’t put it in mine, I won’t put it in yours.

~ Chris Dehmer

Celebrating 10 years of Dark Horse Woodworks

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I was tempted to keep this photo to myself, but decided I may as well put it out there, especially since fellow small business owners will relate: That first check was cause for celebration!

In the middle of the holidays, I realized that another important occasion had crept up on me: the 10th anniversary of Dark Horse Woodworks. Our first day of business was December 28, 2007, and like many of my fellow cabinet makers, our first place of business was my garage.

When you go out on an entrepreneurial limb, it’s both exciting and terrifying. Taking my sideline full-time was a risk and a leap of faith, and back then, I wouldn’t have dared think ahead to whether the company would still be around a decade later.

I’m very happy to be one of the people whose leap of faith paid off; big anniversaries like this one are nice because they make you stop long enough to look back and take stock.

A character-building experience

 

There’s no question that running your own business brings plenty of headaches, trial-and-error learning and moments of sheer panic. Even when your venture becomes a success, you go through times when you feel nostalgia for the days when your business was smaller and you had less on your plate.

Some days, success means keeping your sense of humor and perspective intact long enough to avoid crossing that dreaded boundary where the thing you love becomes the thing you dread.

Thankfully, along with all of the challenging times and learning curves, Dark Horse has also seen more than our fair share of high points – positive changes in the business itself, exciting honors and gratifying feedback for our work, and great relationships with peers in the industry.

Bigger space, bigger ideas and a bigger universe

Dark Horse Woodworks’ growing physical footprint may be the most obvious change we’ve seen in the past 10 years. Looking back, the thing that astounds me most is the fact that I built a few kitchens for people in my 400-square-foot garage. Now that I have 6,000 square feet (and wish I had even more), it just seems impossible.

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Early garage shop days…

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A tight squeeze.

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Using every bit of space – vertically and horizontally.

Along with the increase in square footage, we’ve also expanded the technology we have on board, which has enabled us to expand the services and types of cabinetry we can offer. (We’ve written on the blog about our Zero-Edge technology and about the CNC router that we added just this past year.)

We also joined the Cabinet Makers Association (CMA), the association for professional cabinet makers and woodworkers in the United States and Canada. This turned out to be a huge decision for us; after all, at 10 years old, Dark Horse is still a newcomer compared to many CMA member shops that have been around for several decades. I always learn a lot thanks to the generosity of more experienced CMA members.

On top of the relationships and resources, we’ve also been recognized with multiple CMA “Wood Diamond” awards every year since we joined; being recognized this way by our peers is important validation that our work is hitting the highest marks.

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Accepting one of our 1st-place Wood Diamond awards from CMA president Matt Krig in July 2017

A couple of years ago, I was honored to be elected to the board of the CMA, and I always enjoy being part of the regional events, shop tours and trade show activities. In March, I’ll be doing a presentation at the CMA’s 20th Anniversary conference in Denver, and this summer, I’ll be a CMA speaker at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta. It’s a good feeling to have gone from being a novice in the cabinetry/small business world to having learned enough to be able to share some often hard-won lessons with others; starting and building Dark Horse has been a little like getting a 10-year business and entrepreneurship degree.

Teamwork

We would never have made it this far without clients, architects, designers and homebuilders who trusted us to team up with them on their projects.

I have some really great clients who have become great friends since we did their projects, and I’m especially appreciative of the folks who hired Dark Horse back in the early days before we had a track record.

And of course, I could never have made the business a success without the people who have worked for me over the course of our first 10 years; thank you for helping Dark Horse deliver quality and workmanship to each of our clients.

Icing on the cake

We would be bad marketers if we didn’t share the good news when our work gets coverage in the media, so if you follow our blog, you may have already read about some of these things.

But marketing aside, seeing your work in a publication or recognized in the community is pretty thrilling on a personal level, so I wanted to mention those kinds of high points in this anniversary post, too:

  • The Friar Tuck project was featured in a New York Times real estate story.
  • The Oakview home was featured in Dwell magazine magazine.
  • I was glancing at Dwell’s website one day and found more of our work in several of their online features.
  • Curbed Atlanta featured a home with a Dark Horse kitchen (created with Zero-Edge technology) in July.
  • Dark Horse was the cover story in the Winter 2017 issue of PROfiles, the CMA magazine.
  • The CMA invited us to participate in a video series in 2017 and gave me a chance to talk about how we got started, why I love what I do and some of the technology that is taking Dark Horse into the future. Feel free to check out the interview (it’s a bit over two minutes long).
  • Our work has also been included on the highly respected (and popular) Modern Atlanta home tour three times.

Thanks to everyone for your support and cheerleading; I’m looking forward to seeing what our next decade brings.

~ Chris Dehmer

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Christmas in March

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routerphotonewAt Dark Horse, we’ve always had an Old-World emphasis on craftsmanship, quality and attention to detail.

But we don’t believe that having Old-World values means you can’t embrace ways of working that are very much New-World. In our 10 years in business, Dark Horse has experienced first-hand the benefits that great technology and an open mind can bring to our process and to the final product we deliver to clients.

Awhile back, we shared photos of Wildwood, our first big high-gloss kitchen cabinetry project that was made possible by the Zero Edge technology we invested in last year.

In March, we had another red-letter day on the technology front: Our very own, shiny new CNC router was delivered.

For those who aren’t in our line of work, it may be pretty challenging to convey just how exciting this was, but we’ll give it a try.

So what is a CNC router?

Let’s start with CNC.

We found a pretty straightforward definition online at technologystudent.com:

CNC [stands for] Computer Numerical Control. This means a computer converts the design produced by Computer Aided Design software (CAD), into numbers. The numbers can be considered to be the coordinates of a graph, and they control the movement of the cutter. In this way, the computer controls the cutting and shaping of the material.

Dark Horse will now be using a method sometimes called “screen to machine” to cut the parts for our custom cabinets in-house.

We draw the components on a computer screen with design software, which then sends code to the CNC router. The machine takes that data and cuts all of our cabinet parts so that they come off the machine ready to go — all holes for hardware are drilled, etc.

Thanks to the interaction of the software and the machine, the router grabs the right tool for the task at hand, then changes to another tool automatically when needed.

With screen-to-machine production, the possibility of injury is greatly reduced (fingers are on a keyboard, not next to spinning blades), and the accuracy is ridiculously good (1/1000 inch).

To see the router in action, check out this time-lapse video of our new machine cutting trolley signs to be sold by South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development (SAND).

A logistics win

There are many intricacies that this process makes possible – including generating a single file with a unique name for each sheet of material that is going to be cut and a label for each piece.

Basically, once the design is approved, files are sent to our network that tell the machine every operation that is required for the parts on each sheet; in addition, a printout is made for each sheet that has a barcode at the bottom corresponding to the file name of the sheet to be cut.

The operator scans the barcode at the bottom of the page, the machine loads the correct file, and then it begins the process of cutting.

After the cutting is finished, the Dark Horse team can take each piece off of the machine, apply its unique label, and sort the pieces according to the type of edgeband they are going to receive. We can start the edgebanding of those pieces while the next sheet is being cut.

Another member of the team can then begin to put the boxes together as soon as all of the parts for that assembly are made.

Flipping the process

My interest in programming and software has led me to approach decisions about technology investments in an unusual way. Many businesses invest in expensive machinery and then learn how to use the software that makes it run.

At Dark Horse, we’ve always gone in the opposite direction; to me, it doesn’t make much sense to have an expensive machine sitting idle in my shop while my team and I spend time wrapping our heads around how the software works.

So we buy the software first and learn it inside and out through tutorials or videos.

By the time a new machine is delivered, we’re ready to roll. This doesn’t mean we never have questions once we start using it; that’s a given. But those questions are easier to resolve quickly if you have a solid understanding of your software and machinery.

I believe this philosophy has been a major factor in our success. With this machine implementation, we were up and running at full speed as soon as the machine was integrated into our software, which was only one day after the machine installation was complete.

Two months in, we are completing projects that fully utilize our new technology in about one-third of the time we were spending before bringing the CNC on board.

~ Chris Dehmer

Join an industry group for an instant network and plenty of great ideas

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One of the shop tours organized by the Cabinet Makers Association

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know that Dark Horse is a big fan of the Cabinet Makers Association (so much so that I became a board member last year).

The best part of being in this group is the ability to draw on the knowledge of other members; in the grand scheme of things, Dark Horse is a “newcomer” compared to some shops that have been around for several decades, and I always learn a lot thanks to the generosity of others.

And it’s always a great moment when we find that we can offer some wisdom to other shops.

On-call help

The idea for this blog came up when we were putting together a post (we’ll publish it soon) about our new CNC router, a game-changing technology/machinery addition at Dark Horse.

We chose to invest in the software that partners with the router first, and learn our way around that piece of the process before buying the router.

Now that we have the router, and we’re gearing up to put it all together and start cutting our custom cabinetry pieces in the Dark Horse workshop, I have no worries about any questions that are sure to come up in real time and need quick resolution.

Why? Because I know that I can always pick up the phone and call one of my CMA friends who already have a lot of hands-on experience with CNC routers.

As with many situations, your personal network of friends and industry colleagues can often deliver the answers you need even more quickly and effectively than a manufacturer’s customer service “hotline.”

And this advice isn’t just for building industry types … 

When you start a business, it’s tempting to want to go it alone and look at the others in your line of work as competition – even if they aren’t literally vying for the same customers, you may see them as competing against you for awards or respect or reputation.

You’ll miss a lot of opportunities to learn if you think this way.

I highly recommend that you find the equivalent of the Cabinet Makers Association for your industry and join up and be active; with groups like this, you get out what you put in.

I’m looking forward to my next chance to pick up some new ideas in a couple of weeks: Just before one of our big industry events in Chicago, the CMA is sponsoring one of its shop tours so we can check out nearby cabinetry companies.

I’ll be there, looking for ways that Dark Horse can up our game.

Seamless: Dark Horse acquires “Zero-Edge” capabilities

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We have big news that our friends in the furniture and wood-working world may understand best: We’ve acquired the technology to produce cabinetry and furniture components with seamless edges.

Zero-Edge Technology, as it’s usually called, is a game-changer for our company and the industry as a whole.

Why is it such a big deal?

In short, because it’s always a challenge to add edge-banding to panels without a noticeable seam that is prone to fail eventually. Zero-Edge banding is more heat- and moisture-resistant than typical edge treatments.

REHAU, a polymer company, agreed to let us share these images from a presentation they created:

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One of the trends we’re seeing in our work is the increasing demand for high-gloss cabinetry, and to create these cabinets, you have to have zero-edge capability.

With gloss acrylic, you can’t have a glue line, so the zero-edge machine melts the back of the edge and trims it off so your creation appears to have always been a single component.

If you happen to be fascinated by technology, design and woodworking/cabinetry, and getting into the nitty-gritty of this sort of thing interests you, the folks at Woodworking Canada have written a great article about the future of Zero-Edge technology. Here are a few of the highlights/excerpts from the article:

“If what’s happening in Europe is any indication, and it usually is, then the demand for zero edge will increase dramatically in North America and Canada, and most experts agree that in as little as two to five years, invisible edges will make up a significant portion of our market as well.” ~ Murat Dugan, president of IMA Canada Corp, a pioneer in edge-banding

How does it work? 

“Using a co-extruded, active layer that is colour-matched – rather than applying hot-melt glue as is the norm in traditional edge-banders – the new system creates a zero edge or invisible glue line that is difficult to distinguish from one produced using a laser unit.”

What are the advantages?

“Not only is zero-edge aesthetically pleasing, but it also makes for stronger and longer-lasting edges and offers anti-bacterial benefits that make it a great solution for restaurants, health-care and similar public uses.”

And zero-edge is often necessary for “contemporary, slab or high-gloss cabinetry, which continues to grow in popularity.”

We love being ahead of the curve at Dark Horse – thanks to our new investment, we can produce the high-gloss acrylic cabinetry called for in our next two projects. The zero-edge machine also opens the door to commercial projects and will enable us to provide some services that shops and even homeowners in the region have not had access to until now.

Stay tuned to see what new territory Dark Horse heads into next!

Floating

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At Dark Horse, we’ve created quite a few things that float. (And nope, we haven’t run away from home to become magicians.)

In design parlance, floating simply means that a shelf (or a table or bench or whatever you dream up) appears to float on a wall, with no visible brackets holding it there.

For this #ThrowbackThursday post, here are a few of the floating features we’ve created for clients.

In the Oakview home, we created a floating library:

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… and two colorful powder-coated steel vanities for the bathrooms:

 

… and a beautiful walnut floating vanity for another spectacular bathroom in the house.

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In the Highland House, quite a few things float. When you come in the front door, you see our floating lockers in the entryway:

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Both the large walnut vanity and a simple bench float in this Highland House bathroom:

 

In this bedroom, two “live-edge” nightstands float on either side of the bed. (“Live-edge” means that the natural edge of a piece of wood is incorporated into the design of the piece.)

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In the Friar Tuck home, which was recently featured in the New York Times, we built elegant floating Macassar ebony vanities for two of the bathrooms:

 

… as well as a floating dresser:

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And for the Olympic house, we built another floating library. This stained walnut veneer shelving is held up by steel supports hidden behind the sheetrock; each shelf is rated to hold 1,300 pounds, so the clients can bring on their heaviest books and treasures!

Olympic library

We love doing all of this sleight-of-hand work for our clients (especially since it’s tough to make a living as an actual magician), and we hope these creations give you some inspiration for your next renovation project.

~ Chris and the Dark Horse team