Woodworking on a grand scale
Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


Got a once-in-a-lifetime experience yesterday. We are in the market for a new front door (42X80) for our moderately up-scale 35-YO house. After reviewing the existing one and our wishes (mostly LOML's), we got a quote for around $18K for a custom Signature door with leaded-glass inserts This, of course, almost made me throw up, but spouse pursued further and found out the Signature Door Company is in Altoona, PA - about 3 hours from us. She called and made an appointment with "Denny" since both of us were interested in what went into such a price. So we made the trek yesterday.

We show up and found out "Denny" was the President of the company, who spent time discussing our wishes and then took us on a near-three-hour tour of the whole shebang, discussing raw material,big processes,little details, and finished productsforunitshis 47 employees were currently making. Holy Cow! Never had I ever seen such massive machines, like an oil bladder veneer press, a sequential6-belt sanding operation and CNC machine with about 30 turret-mounted bits being auto-selected. A lotof the big stuff is computer-controlled but hand-operated and there were lots of typical glue-and-clamp operations. Every single product is custom-made-they don't use anything mass-produced and don't have an inventory of any product. Their preferredwood is Sapele but they can use just about anything else, and they prefer to use laminations with weather-resistant products on the exterior. There were monster racks of most commonly used species.

Anotherimpressive part was the cut glass operation - intricate designs for bevelsand curlicues going into leaded-glassinserts.

Essentially, we got the "Cook's tour" even more detailed than their videos and, as it turns out, a door like we want would be more in the $10K range. Still a lot but I am almost willing to spring for it just to support the idea that quality stuff CAN be and IS made here in the USA. Interestingly, the very first question on their quote sheet is "Does this need to be hurricane-proof"? I asked Denny what sort of investment is involved and he said "A lot", then showed a quote for a new machine they were considering with a price tag of $350,000.

If you want to spend an hour or two with Denny (who was the National Sales Manager at the time)going through the whole shebang, here is the link:

https://signaturedoor.com/media-center/

Click on the selections labeled PCN Tours. And the About Us section on their home page gives the interesting history of the company.

Read more here

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