Venders set up booths and demonstrated their latest and greatest wares, including prototypes. Blum, a premium supplier of Rivendell’s hinges and slides, was on hand to exhibit their next generation of merchandise.

“I’ve been working with Blum products for years,” said Nandi. “I consider myself a whiz with them, but even I learned a couple new tips and tricks!”

After presentations, attendees were treated to a gourmet lunch and full factory tour of Western Dovetail’s operations.

“I want to give props to Western Dovetail for hosting and catering such a nice event,” Nandi said. “It was fun to go on their shop tour. One really cool thing is that they have invented and built a number of their own tools. Rather than taking the route of looking outside for solutions, they looked internally and were able to solve some of their problems by innovating new machines. We’ve done some of that too. I think about how we at Rivendell built our CNC router. Seeing how creative they’ve been with their products is an inspiration for us to continue being creative with our own.”

When asked what had been the highlight of their visit, Kanda replied, “A very valuable aspect of the CMA is networking with other cabinet makers in small shops like ours. We have similar concerns and similar challenges, and can share what we’ve learned and what we know. It was nice to connect with everyone there.”

Nandi agreed, “It was most valuable reconnecting with the cabinet community in this area, talking with and getting reacquainted with everybody, hearing the same stories. They’re going through what we’re going through.”

It makes sense. The Cabinet Makers Association’s mission is to get woodworkers together and share their hard earned knowledge and experience to help one another. They believe that working together is the best way to improve individual companies as well as the industry as a whole. Rivendell believes that too, which is why we’ve been members of the CMA since 2005 and look forward to the benefits of continued membership.

“The CMA is a great organization,” said Nandi. “Every time we go to one of these meetings it reminds me that I want to get back on the forums and be active in the cabinet community. It’s a mutually beneficial, self-supporting club. Members definitely get out what they put in.”

After accepting the challenge, Nandi was tasked with the design and engineering of this special project. For inspiration, he visited several wine country establishments and examined their cases. Disappointed with the cookie-cutter examples he saw with metal or rough timber exteriors, he decided to do things differently. We would construct a modern, functional piece that combined the beauty and grandeur of old-world craftsmanship with today’s technology.

Measuring 13 feet tall, 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep, the sheer size of this cabinet caused logistical concerns. Nandi selected and ordered the materials, including contemporary metal wine racks from a local business to hold and display almost 500 bottles. He helped coordinate the windows, wiring and temperature control, and ensured that the interior of wonderfully finished walnut was insulated with reflective foam. All joints were siliconed to keep it airtight, preventing any kind of condensation or leakage.

In order to avoid exterior end panel seams, Jeremy sequence matched veneer up the entire cabinet’s side and then miter folded it, so that the grain rolled around the corner and across the face, keeping it consistent all the way around.

“Not only is it miter folded, but it’s miter folded and grain matched perfectly from top to bottom… all 13 feet! That’s hard to do, even harder to get right, and we did it really well,” said Nandi.

It took a few three hour commute trips to transport all the finished parts and four guys to get them into the house. During installation, the cabinet was carefully scribed along the floors and high walls to account for variation leading up to the 20 foot ceiling. The crew created a perfect fit, leaving the massive majestic piece with no gaps or visible screws.

The wine aficionado was is awe. He acknowledged Rivendell’s efforts with an enthusiastic endorsement, “Your team did an excellent job and I will continue to highly recommend your product.”

So perhaps we’ll soon be working in wine country again, upgrading some of those cookie-cutter cases with bigger, better and more beautiful custom built wine cabinets!

This project started late last year, when I discovered the book Build Your Own CNC Machine by Patrick Hood-Daniel, and learned of a community of hobbyists who use simple materials and affordable electronics to build do-it-yourself CNC machines. Before long we’d constructed our very own, and on Sept. 10th, 2010 RivBot spoke his first words: Hello World!. It took us a bit of time to configure our new tool, but by December we’d learned how to properly control our wily young robot (Hello World! 2).

RivBot is our first introduction to the exciting world of numerical control, and bridges the gap from virtual desktop to physical workshop. This new tool expands our current skillset to include intricate cutouts, complex designs, and even 3D profiling. We’re still discovering for ourselves the possibilities and applications that an automated tool offers. We’ll be posting more reports and project photos as we continue to explore new techniques in 21st Century woodworking.

Stop by our Open Shop (Feb. 3rd, 5-7pm) for a personal introduction and live demonstration!

The first part of the program included presentations by leaders in the green building industry. We discovered that while Europe is gearing up to have all building standards in ten years to require “net zero” energy usage, California is following close behind. “Green” building, and by extension, “green” cabinetry is the future of the industry. Good thing Rivendell is on board at the start!

The forum was followed by a celebration with food, wine and live music, including the presenting of awards to builders who have distinguished themselves in green building. We rubbed elbows with builders we enjoy working with, including Bill Jetton of Jetton Construction, who was awarded Green Builder of the Year for residential home, and Seth Melchert of Master Builders, who embodies positive energy and enthusiasm for the year to come. May 2011 by the best year yet for all of us!

UPDATE: Our video is one of the Top 10 finalists! A big thanks to everyone who “Liked” our video.