Exotic Foil

Good afternoon,

I am just amazed on the new foils coming out of production in last couple of years.

Some of those foil are almost exact replicas of exotic wood species. Not only are the colors right on, but the textures are also getting to be like real wood.

On the retail end of this, we are seeing more and more designers accepting the product as a good solution for their projects. In the past, most designers would have just passed on the product. On many of those foils, no longer can they say that it is looking like plastic.

A huge advantage using foil over real wood has to do with the cost. Often the foil will run just a fraction of what a natural material would run. The other advantage has to do with the saving of not having to finish the wood. 

Real wood products have a tremendous amount of variations, foil is a very consistent product in texture and color.  

On your next project make sure you take a look at some of those new foils.  

 

 

 

High Gloss Thermofoil

Good morning,

High Gloss Thermofoil doors are always somewhat of a touchy product.

This is probably one of the most difficult product we produce. There is a fine line between what we can produce and what the client is expecting.

Whenever I personally handle a sale which has to do with High Gloss, I always take a door and show it to the client under different angles of lights. I point out the possible “orange peel effect” along with all of the very small defects. I basically make the client very well aware of all of the minor flaws that will take place, I emphasize the fact that their doors will not be any better.

If someone is looking for a perfect looking product with High Gloss, I will advise to go to a multiple step painted product. This is a process which they build up anywhere from 12 to 20 coats of paint, do a wet sanding and then proceed with polishing. A product like this will cost roughly $ 30 to $ 40 per square foot, which is about 3 times as much as what we produce. You pay for what you get.

A High Gloss Thermofoil door is a great looking product at an affordable price.

 

Old Door Style

Good morning,

This is kind of a funny story.

About 2 days ago, a client came in with a couple of doors requesting for us to make new ones. The doors had been damaged due to an oven left on for 2 days.

At first the lady said the doors were 7 years old, but none of my people could even remember the route that was used. You have to remember that I am talking about employees that have been with me well over 10 years.  

This person was somewhat unreasonable with her request so I got involved. Well, it turned out those doors were about 15 years old, they came from a machine that we no longer have which I sold in 1998.

Long story short we told this lady that she would have to choose a current route and that it would not match.

Since she had gotten 15 years worth of service out of those doors I suggested for her to get all new doors if she wanted all to match, but she declined.

Sometimes the request people have are just a bit out there. This is kind of like driving a car for fifteen years, and expecting the manufacturer to get you a new paint job because the paint started to fade.  

 

 

 

Black Walnut

Good morning,

I received a call today, the client was inquiring about us fabricating doors with Black Walnut. This potential client said he would provide the wood.

Black Walnut is a beautiful lumber and would make very nice looking doors.

The problem would not be so much in building the doors, but more for the cabinet builder in finding all of the other components. For instance finding the veneer to do the finished ends of the cabinets, or finding edgebanding or moldings. And what about the interior of the cabinets?

By the time I was done explaining all of the challenges that he would run in to, the client changed his mind.

The problem with using unusual wood species, is finding the components that will match together. You can find them but most likely they will come out from different areas and will not match in color or grain or both.

 

 

 

Working with difficult accounts

Good morning,

One of the most difficult task in business, is dealing with accounts that have problems paying.

Typically when a potential client wants to do business with us, we do a credit check. We then give a credit line based on their paying history and ability.

The problems come up on instances when clients have been with us for a while, and have been paying well, and then suddenly after using most of their credit line can no longer pay. This becomes very difficult as we are trying to get the money they owe without losing the client.

Sometimes we have to come up with creative ways and set up some kind of paying plan and hope they will stick to it. The bad side of this, is the possibility for them to go out of business, which now in days is not uncommon.

We always try to help our customers, but dealing with this portion of the business is not much fun.

 

 

 

 

Membrane update

Good morning,

It has been a while since I wrote about membranes, but we have decided to keep on hands both types, silicone and rubber.

We have had a couple of silicone membranes lasted less than a thousand cycles, however the last two have gone way passed 2000.

We are not quite sure why we had such major difference in the number of cycles. Was it because of quality of the membranes? Was it because of the door style we were running at the time? Operator error? There are a few variables but my feeling is that it had to do with quality. Our operators have been the same for quite some time and the rubber membrane have been lasting roughly the same amount of cycles regardless of door style.

Foil on Phenolic

Good morning,

Well we are still trying to laminate foil on the phenolic.

We are not having a problem with the pressing process as it seems to react pretty well. The problem we are having is the rough substrate showing through the foil.

We tried sanding the phenolic but because of the resin base, it loads the sanding paper very quickly doing a poor job.

We are now looking into a different substrate that would be smoother. We are even thinking of some sort of high density cardboard. Our heat activated glue should have no problem adhering to cardboard just like it does on MDF, which a fiber product as well.

As I mentioned on my last post on the subject, we are only trying to bring this in-house to accommodate our clients quicker.