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Millwork

Catering to Cabinet and Furniture Makers

Last updated on September 26, 2013 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

J. Gibson McIlvain helps craftsman produce fine workmanship by supplying premium raw materials for all kinds of cabinetry and furniture projects. From commercial office interiors and custom built-in designs to antique restoration pieces to modern furnishings, J. Gibson McIlvain has the top-quality materials you need for your next project. Two of the craftsmen we specialize in supplying are cabinet makers and furniture makers.

Unique Needs of Cabinet Makers

For cabinet makers, we supply both the domestic and exotic hardwoods needed for solid wood face frame construction and the hardwood plywood commonly used for cabinet panels and sides. We’re also equipped to meet the needs of high-end cabinetry jobs. For example, we stock carefully dried solid hardwood boards in wide widths suitable for door panels and case sides.

From our millwork ship, we run custom cope and stick door parts, door panel profiles, and moulding profiles. While we have the capability of milling, shaping, and delivering your product (and are more than happy to do so), we realize that you may prefer to receive only the raw materials in order to craft the product on your own. For those who pride themselves on in-house workmanship, we provide premium solid wood and plywood materials to fuel your project.

Instead of sourcing your exotic hardwoods like Mahogany from one supplier and domestic species like Red Oak from another, J. Gibson McIlvain allows you to do one-stop shopping, saving you and your customers time and- just as importantly- money. Even unusual requests for uncommon woods like Iroko or Zebrawood are readily available through us.

Unique Needs of Furniture Makers

McIlvain Lumber has a rich history of supplying furniture makers with the lumber they need. In fact, throughout the 1800s, our hardwoods were supplied primarily to furniture makers. While the furniture industry is no longer our main clientele, we are still well-equipped to provide the high-quality lumber required by these master craftsmen.

We understand that the manner in which lumber is sawn greatly impacts its end use in a furniture piece. For tables or desk legs, for example, rift-sawn lumber provides consistent grain that appeals to the eye. We also know that lumber movement is important, so quartersawn and flat-sawn lumber help compensate for the aesthetically pleasing rift-sawn wood. Finally, we understand that furniture makers generally prefer to build a piece from a single log or board in order to achieve consistency in grain and color. We cater to these special needs like no other lumber supplier.

For those who need assistance in selecting just the right species for a piece, the experts at J. Gibson McIlvain can help you realize the pros and cons of each prospective option. The style is limited only by your imagination, but the quality and selection is limited by your lumber dealer of choice. With J. Gibson McIlvain, you’ll be locked into the highest echelon of lumber but given a vast array of species from which to choose.

The furniture and cabinetry industries are only two of many to which we cater here at McIlvain. No matter the end use, our commitment to quality and capability to offer a variety of lumber products brings our customers back, year after year and century after century. Our commitment to supplying only the highest quality lumber at affordable prices has helped us to remain a lumber industry leader for over 200 years. For more information on what sets McIlvain Lumber apart, to request a free quote, or to see what else we have to offer (including softwoods, plywoods, and custom millwork), visit us online today. And for insider tips and woodworking tricks, check out these selections from our lumber blog:

  • Nationwide Shipping on Lumber Orders
  • African Mahogany Shortage Indicative of a Larger Issue
  • Lumber Dried With Radio Frequencies?

Filed Under: Lumber Companies, Millwork, Woodworking Tips

Three of Our Most Important Saws

Last updated on September 27, 2012 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

If you’ve never seen a world-class architectural millwork operation, we’d love to show you the ropes at the J. Gibson McIlvain headquarters here in White Marsh, Maryland. We give most of the credit to our well-seasoned staff and high-quality hardwood lumber, but we also owe some recognition to our professional-grade equipment. Many tools of the lumber trade can be dangerous to operate and difficult to master. However, without a fully equipped operation, offering the wide variety of moulding applications that we do would be impossible.

Whether you choose from the many options available through our architectural millwork catalog or need to have a custom profile created to replicate an existing piece or create a distinctive new design, we have the experience and equipment to make it happen for you. For more information on our services, feel free to call us at 1-800-638-9100 or visit our website at www.McIlvain.com. The J. Gibson McIlvain lumber company trucks ship nationwide throughout the United States.

Three of the key saws we use on architectural millwork projects include our table saw, our resaw bandsaw, and our two chop saws.

Table Saw

Our 12-inch table saw is an invaluable tool for straight sawing, either across or with the grain of the wood. As you can see here in the video below, the operator of a hand-fed table saw has to adjust the blade’s angle and height and push the stock into the blade, using a guide to ensure consistency. By contrast, a power table saw has a conveyor system that holds the lumber and feeds it into the blade.

Resaw Bandsaw

Our 54-inch resaw bandsaw is a manual-feed tool and its thin, flexible steel strips are used for re-sawing lumber more thinly than it had been cut, originally, as in this example video below. The blade of a bandsaw depends on two pulleys to run it through the work table on which the lumber is fed. The operator of this machine needs to have a steady hand to carefully feed the lumber through while applying enough pressure.

Chop Saw

Our two chop saws provide the best option for achieving precise, square cuts. As you can see below, this piece of machinery is comprised of a circular saw that’s mounted onto a pivoting arm that, in turn, relies on a metal base. To use the chop saw, the operator clamps the wood to the fence with one hand and works the saw with the other, guiding the blade through the stock.

In addition to these important tools, we also routinely use the following pieces of equipment:

  • 3 Straight line gang rip saws
  • 4 Radial arm saws
  • 4 Moulders with various capacities
  • 8-inch Jointer
  • Custom knife-grinding services
  • 30-inch Planer
  • Shaper for small jobs and wide stair treads
  • 9 HP panel saws with 4-foot by 8-foot capacities
  • Precision end-trimming saw
  • 46-inch Belt sander

The premier architectural millwork operation at J. Gibson McIlvain is more than a collection of professional tools; it’s a full-service answer to all your moulding needs.

Filed Under: Millwork

The Right Equipment for Architectural Millwork

Last updated on July 25, 2012 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

Crown cornice
Along with vast offerings of softwood and hardwood lumber, J. Gibson McIlvain (visit website) specializes in architectural millwork. Perhaps your project allows you to choose from the dozens of option is our current profile catalog. Maybe, instead, you need a custom-created moulding to match existing profiles in a restoration job or for a unique modern design. In any event, the moulding professionals at J. Gibson McIlvain can help you select or create the moulding profile that meets your project’s needs.

We guarantee top-notch quality control throughout our architectural millwork operation. Starting with FAS hardwood lumber that’s well-suited to each moulding profile, we build your job with specifics in mind. For instance, when we know details about your project aim, such as interior or exterior, we can help you select an ideal lumber species for the job. Weather-resistance, texture, grain, and other properties all figure into the equation. We work with you to choose the species, profiles, and finishes that will work best for you.

While our expert staff are certainly invaluable throughout the process, they could not provide the kind of consistent examples of high-quality architectural millwork that they do, without the proper equipment. Some of our most often-used pieces of equipment are the straight line gang rip saw, the radial arm saw, and the jointer.

Straight Line Gang Rip Saw

Our millwork operation includes three of these invaluable tools. A typical straight line gang rip saw includes a circular blade that cuts across stock. The blade of this saw is directly mounted onto the motor and rotates at a speed around 3600 RPM. The stock is fed into the front of the machine along a feed table that includes rolls and guides. The operator of the saw positions the stock, holds it in place, and grasps the sawing mechanism. To see a straight line gang rip saw in action, view this video below which someone posted on YouTube.

Radial Arm Saw

We have 4 radial arm saws, similar to the one you can see here in this next YouTube video (below). A radial saw is another circular saw, but this one cuts downward, either rip or crosscut. The feature that distinguishes a radial saw from a table saw is that the saw arm can be adjusted. Its blade can be replaced with accessories such as drum sanders, disks, or shaping cutters, as well. When operating a radial saw, the operator uses different techniques based on the type of cut desired. In any case, the saw blade moves upward, toward the operator, who then feeds the stock in the direction opposite the blade movement.

Jointer

We use an 8” jointer to make sure the finished edges are smooth, straight, and square. We also use it to joint small pieces of wood. To use a jointer, the operator keeps the stock even with a guide, while passing the stock over a cutter head with multiple knives. View a YouTube video of an 8″ jointer below.

Our fully equipped architectural millwork operation allows us to handle a wide assortment of orders and provide the kind of excellent workmanship for which J. McIlvain Lumber has become well known.

Read more tips from the McIlvain blog:

  • Millwork quality control
  • Take a tour of our millwork operation
  • Value engineering architectural millwork specifications

Filed Under: Millwork

The Makings of a Successful Architectural Millwork Operation

Last updated on July 20, 2012 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

In addition to providing wholesale lumber, J. Gibson McIlvain produces a vast array of architectural millwork products for our valued customers. From chair rails to casings, bases to crowns, we offer an expansive assortment of styles in our architectural millwork catalog. Three aspects of our millwork operation that set us apart from the competition are—

  1. Selecting Quality Wood
  2. Using the Right Equipment
  3. Building Custom Profiles

Selecting Quality Wood

At J. Gibson McIlvain, we realize that just the right moulding application can be the perfect finishing touch for your interior or exterior project; however, we also realize that a poor moulding piece can detract from a well-executed design.

Our quality control begins with our carefully selected hardwood lumber and continues as we help guide you in choosing the right species for your particular design. From weather resistance to grain and texture, we work with you to discover the ideal species, moulding profile, and finish that will give you the look you want. From astragals and coves to bullnoses, quirk beads, and fillets, we can help you determine whether the species you’ve chosen will work well with the design elements you desire.

Using the Right Equipment

Not only do we take pride in carefully selecting our lumber, but J. Gibson McIlvain also has the right equipment to perform moulding runs in house. Our well-equipped custom architectural millwork operation is equipped with custom knife grinders, moulders, gang rip saws, straight line saws, band resaws, and trimming saws. Of course, quality machines are only as effective as those operating them, and our professional staff takes painstaking care in keeping our machines running well and ensuring that our cutting tools remain as sharp as possible, throughout each moulding run.

Building Custom Profiles

Whether you’re working on a historic restoration project or a modern design for a new build, if you want to design your own custom profile, we can accommodate even the most unusual orders. In order to build a custom architectural millwork profile, there are four basic steps involved.

1. The first step is to create a specific blueprint, including exact dimensions and a carefully drawn image of the design. Once you or your architect-of-choice complete that step, you can turn it over to J. Gibson McIlvain.

2. The second step is to form a plastic die, which we’ll have done and submit to you for accuracy before progressing.

3. The third step is to grind the knife from metal, according to the plastic die. (That same die will be used for any regrinding as well as reorders, to ensure that subsequent pieces match the original design).

4. The fourth step, of course, is to produce a finished piece of molding. We’ll inspect and re-inspect the moulding throughout production, in order to ensure that it meets the high quality standards of J. Gibson McIlvain as well as your custom specifications.

The kind of full-service architectural millwork that J. Gibson McIlvain provides includes options such as oil- and water-based priming as well as storage facilities to help you with inventory control.

For more information, visit our website or call us at 800-638-9100.

From the McIlvain blog:

  • Millwork quality control at McIlvain
  • Take a tour of McIlvain’s millwork operation
  • Value engineering architectural millwork specifications

Filed Under: Millwork

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