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Looking for doors and drawers source

3/2/21       
Matthew Brewster Member

I'd like to start by thanking all of you who have posted to this forum (and the forum itself) for all of the quality information I've found here over the past couple of years.

I've been building my own cabinets, closets, vanities, shop furniture for a while now and have received a lot of great compliments from family, friends and folks on the interwebs on how they've turned out. Many have been urging me to take on projects for others, insisting my work is consistently good and sufficient to enter the marketplace.

Although this is not my profession, I think I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and entertain the idea of building cabinets on a professional level. I'm entertaining the thought because I now have enough experience to know what I DON'T know and what my limitations are. I know enough to not get in over my head and to be able to offer my basic skills with enough confidence that those who I build for will be happy with the quality of the work.

In terms of limitations, I don't have the tools to turn out quality parts made of solid wood. For doors, I've done shaker-style with MDF and poplar that have turned out good enough for my own use but I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to put together doors and drawers for people while having to rely upon stock lumber from the yards and box stores around me.

So the question: I'm looking for recommendations for suppliers of solid wood drawer boxes, fronts and doors. I would be ordering only small quantities at a time and looking for a week to two weeks of lead time. I'm well aware of the crunch in the industry now in terms of pricing and lead times, but, on average, who would be a company you would recommend me to approach for this kind of work? I'm located in the US (New England).

Thanks in advance for any information you would be willing to provide.

3/2/21       #2: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Karl E Brogger  Member

Website: http://www.sogncabinets.com

I build doors, drawers and cut one piece mdf fronts for some other shops locally.

Some would turn you away, some will appreciate the extra work, and the relationship.

3/2/21       #3: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Matt Calnen

I would get an account with Richelieu. There lead times are good for drawer boxes, the quality is decent and they sell most of your hardware needs. I have ordered a few doors from them as well. Decent quality and great pricing.

3/3/21       #4: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Steve Member

Matthew, I would contact your hardwood supplier and ask them of any shops locally that do doors and drawers. Having a local shop will be helpful as you start.

Best of luck with this adventure. I would encourage you to decide what type of work you want to do and focus on that. As you start you will be hungry for anything you can get in the door some of which you will have to take to stay fed. The problem is you will also get the reputation of the handyman oneoff guy, and the work that follows will be smaller less profitable jobs. Try to stick to cabinets or what ever and strike up relationships with builders where the work will be repeat and larger jobs. Remember people want solutions and if you can offer them 1st you will get alot more work. So answer your phone, return calls and emails as soon as possible and get you bids out the same day. The service you provide will be what you are known for, this is the most important part!

3/3/21       #5: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Matthew Brewster Member

Steve,

All good advice. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Matt

3/3/21       #6: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Matthew Brewster Member

Matt,

Thank you. Good advice.

3/3/21       #7: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Bill

Conestoga Wood Specialties.

3/3/21       #8: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
David R Sochar Member

I'll be the voice of caution. Just because your family and friends like what you make does not mean you can succeed in the marketplace. They have have a very strong bias, and are not fair critics.

Be sure you have a notion of proportions and good design, know how to align cabinets in a layout so they are not a jumble.
Realize you are entering a field with a very low threshold and anyone with tablesaw and stapler will be ready to compete.

I counsel people that ask me for advice to find a niche. Maybe it would be medical cabinets, concentrating on dental and medical facilities - they are building like gangbusters.

Maybe it could be a certain look that is hot now - pull down or push up glass and stainless doors. Build some and photograph.

You are headed straight for the concrete mixer if you go head to head with the more experienced mainline shops in your market.

Just my opinion.

3/3/21       #9: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Drew Z Member

Website: http://www.artifexhome.com

I am in New England as well and use Susquehanna Valley Woodcrafters in Pennsylvania for all my drawer boxes. They do not do fronts/doors, so if you're looking for a one-stop-shop they're not what you're looking for. But I order from them 1-2 times a month; sometimes 2 drawers, sometimes 20+. They'll ship UPS small orders and freight a pallet for bigger orders.

As Karl indicated, single-cut MDF doors and drawer faces may be a good value for you; search for CNC shops in your area.

Also, this will be heretical to many on here but you CAN build doors/faces in even a modestly set up shop. A router table with a mini power feeder makes quick work of most standard profiles; you'll likely eventually want a shaper but this would be fine for starting out and less expensive. Especially if you're working out of your garage without many 240v outlets / 3 phase power. You can also make square-edged profile doors on a cabinet saw with a dado stack. If your saw is dialed in, you'll get square parts that are well fit. A flat assembly and glue up area will help making sure the doors are flat and square.

If you are a one-man shop producing inset cabinetry, you may be surprised to find you can make good doors (though read up all you can about different techniques for all the steps involved to make sure you're producing quality, flat, square doors).

Piggybacking on David's advice to have a good notion of design, I recommend checking out The Practical House Carpenter, a 19th century book in the public domain (thus free online). A slightly easier read will be Get Your House Right; it deals plenty in proper proportions of a house, including the architectural millwork.

3/4/21       #10: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Matthew Brewster Member

David,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Your points are understood and appreciated - especially the part about family and friends being poor critics (couldn't agree more). I guess I'd like to add that I don't plan on quitting my day job. I have a career of 30 years in another field that I enjoy and have no plans on leaving it. I also don't want to get into installation right now. This is just something to do in my off time, as I have a lot more of it these days.

Thanks again,

Matt

3/4/21       #11: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Matthew Brewster Member

Drew,

Thanks for your comments as well. Very helpful.

Matt

3/4/21       #12: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Bill

I'll throw out some thoughts, some will agree some will not.

I believe if you are going to start a business with the intention of making money and supporting your family you have to consider it at scale. Running a business is very difficult and very risky. I would not buy a risky stock that promised a small return. Signing up to start a business that will not pay you significantly more than you could make working for someone else is very flawed in my opinion. Significantly more is double, triple hopefully more.

I was a hobby woodworker. I started my company as a business, not an extension of my hobby. The intention was always to scale it up.
Running the business for over 20 years ruined the hobby. You may enjoy making things that you or someone else desires on your time table. They are probably very happy when you give them the nearly free thing you made. Once you accept money/profit things change. What was fun becomes less fun.

A normal guy that starts out calculates the cost of material and labor to generate a price. That is flawed, the price you charge has nothing to do with that. The price is what the market will bear. I recall reading on this forum a post where a gentleman had a job and the customer changed from standard 5 piece doors to a mitered doors. His question was if it fair that he made more money because they changed door styles? I thought to myself this is a perception and business problem. If he ruined one of the doors in finishing and did not charge more could he go back to the customer and ask for more money? He was only willing to charge what he was willing to pay.

My advise is, you have a good job and a great fulfilling hobby. Continue to do what you are doing and enjoy it.

3/7/21       #13: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Hen Bob Member

Walzcraft is a great resource. They have it all.

3/8/21       #14: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
pat s gilbert

Using the woodweb as a survey finding a niche is key. e.g. closets, conference tables, store fixtures etc.

You will mostly likely find a different niche than what started out doing.

In economics it is called specialized knowledge, it is the very key to entrepreneurship and the economy.

Google ads and keywords have replaced the yellow pages

7/12/21       #15: Looking for doors and drawers sourc ...
Joel

You can't even make a raised panel door but you want to open a cabinet shop? I have skills and I have to beg for even a built in job. Won't work..sorry


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