Digifabshop Newsletter Dispatch 7

Be Green, Build Blue

digifabshop

DISPATCH 007 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015

A Letter From John

Birthdays

In a few of our newsletters so far I wrote about the origins of Digifabshop, and the spaces we occupied, and I still haven’t gone on to tell you about our move to Hudson yet, but one of the best decisions we made was to move into the old LB Furniture building. At the time it was 350,000 square feet of empty space, save for two others companies using about 20,000 feet for storage, and so while we just took a small 5,000 square foot portion, it allowed us the incredible opportunity to be able to expand as much as we needed moving forward.

Fast forward to today, and specifically this summer, with an incredible amount of work going through the shop, and the biggest bottleneck we’re facing is in our finishing department, and the coordination of space and equipment and staff. Luckily, though, we saw this coming earlier in the year, and so we made an expansion one of our primary goals for 2015, and we’re now really getting close.

First, we currently have two rooms that total about 2,000 square feet; one for the Makor and one for the booth. The configuration of these rooms, and the walls between them makes maneuvering around totally impractical in periods of high demand. So our first goal for the new space is was to just plain have more space, and so we’ll now have over 5,000 square feet just for finishing; equal to the size of our entire shop when we first moved in. Second, we wanted to improve our spray booth. While our current open face booth, at 8’ tall and 10’ wide, has served us well, we’ll now have a 14’ wide by 26’ long by 9’ tall enclosed side-draft booth. We’ll be able to

spray larger objects, and more at once, and the lighting and exhaust will be better too. An air make-up unit, which we haven’t had up to this point, will allow us to control the interior temperature precisely (up to 160 degrees!), and it will also allow us to not draw fresh air in from the shop, thereby reducing dust contamination. Third, while our current spray area is visually separate from the rest of the shop, the new area will be very much part of the shop, separated only by a transparent floor to ceiling curtain. What will allow us to do this is the addition of a drying chamber, which will be a large vented room, where we’ll wheel our sprayed products into, whether they’re coming from either the Makor or the booth. And lastly, we’ve been sending more and more of our work out lately for powdercoating, so as part of this expansion we’ve decided to bring that work inhouse. We’ll be installing both a powdercoating booth and oven, which will allow us to not only control our costs and timing and quality better, but which will open up possibilities of new work as well.

When Gary Mossey came on two years ago now, we talked about finishing becoming a department one day, but at that point we weren’t even sure if he’d be finishing full time, or if he’d have to help out the cabinetmaking team during slow times. Well slow times never happened, and with the addition of Jason Verdon this year, and now the expansion over the next few months, this is definitely a department now, we’re incredibly excited to build out the team, and we’re happy we’ll have a safe and efficient and well equipped space for it to blossom.

NATHAN LAURANGE GARRETT MCCLURE KEVIN LEADER SEAN MORRISSEY ERIK FEBUS PIPER OLF SHAWN CLEARY TERRI DROBNER

AUGUST 1ST AUGUST 6TH AUGUST 8TH AUGUST 8TH AUGUST 14TH AUGUST 19TH SEPTEMBER 27TH SEPTEMBER 27TH

One Year Anniversaries DYLAN LANGUELL SAUL SCHISLER TERRI DROBNER SHAWN CLEARY

AUGUST 18TH SEPTEMBER 2ND SEPTEMBER 2ND SEPTEMBER 30TH

Two Year Anniversaries DARRELL BOLDEN GARY MOSSEY

AUGUST 19TH SEPTEMBER 23RD

EOTM

AUG

In January we received a letter from a guy in Virginia named Kelson inquiring about employment here at Digifabshop. We were intrigued by his previous experience in both timber framing and metal work, and so we invited him to visit the next time he was in the area. In February he stopped in for a tour and an informal interview, and though we weren't specifically hiring at the time, we knew he would be a great fit.

To his surprise, pretty much immediately after he left, we called to offer him a job.

Kelson Robbins jumped into the fabrication team toward the end of March, and right away he began proving himself to be a true pro. He has extensive welding and metal working knowledge, he's quick with workarounds for efficiency and solutions for tough problems, and he has great ideas on process too. Kelson also loves teaching, and he's been great with bringing some others in and out of the fabrication team up to speed.

In addition to his work, though, Kelson is here on time every day, he has a great attitude and work ethic, he stays late if need be, and he's fun to be around; which makes the day better for everyone around him.

Since the 1990's pine forests from northern New Mexico through British Columbia have suffered die-offs due to the population growth of the mountain pine beetle. This is a species of bark beetle that is native to the forests of North America that is the size of a grain of rice. The beetle introduces a blue stain fungus into the sapwood of a tree by burrowing in through the bark and laying its eggs. This blue fungus prevents the tree from attacking the beetle with tree pitch flow, but also blocks water and nutrient transportation, ultimately killing the host tree.

The effects of this bug leave the wood with a blue "stain" effect that varies from shades of light blue to smoky grays and marks the beetles' advance into the tree. This affect has serious implications for the sawmills that rely on the livlihood of the pine forests since the blue appearance is far from the industry standard for top-quality pine. As compared to no. 2 common pine, a truck load of blue-stained pine recieves a significantly lower rating and a significantly lower price to accompany it.

Thanks for all of your contributions already Kelson, and we look forward to what's ahead!

Three Year Anniversaries JAMON SCHLIMGEN CHARLIE GEIGER JULIAN SMITH JON CUTI ED SANDERSON

AUGUST 9TH SEPTEMBER 10TH SEPTEMBER 24TH SEPTEMBER 24TH SEPTEMBER 24TH

EOTM

SEPT

Annual Riverside Cookout On Tuesday July 28 at 6:56 PM I recieved a catered by a local business, but this time we text message from Neil (Allen): "Ran out of asked three of our very own to take the helm. oven space." He had left his desk early that Neil handled a bulk of the preparation work, day to prepare six dry-rubbed massive racks Darrell fired out hamburgers and hotdogs at of ribs for three hours in the smoker followed a rapid pace and Dina impressed us all with by an overnight braise session. The next day, custom hot dog and hamburger (shaped, not with the help of Darrell and Dina, the company flavored) desserts. would head over to Waterfront Park and we Though the hot summer sun was beating down would feast. on us, their was plenty of tree shade and a With the departures of Jim Kidd and Dave nice breeze off of the Hudson. Many sat at the Mueller along with the hum of the summer picnic tables and conversed, but there were schedule, it was time to take a moment also many resilient individuals who braved the and have some fun. It wouldn't be a Digifab heat in order to play some games. While it celebration if quality of food wasn't of primary is not uncommon to see the football tossed importance and as always, no short cuts were around in the field, there was a new game that taken. In the past, outings like this have been took the spot light at this outing: Kan Jam.

Digifabshop's Employee of The Month For August is Roland Reissig.

Roland started with us in May and has been an asset and welcomed addition to the Production Team since day one. He has brought a high level of skill, attention to detail and patience to the bench carpenter position. His punctuality and attendance record are excellent, and help to provide consistency within the team. He is constantly striving to do and learn more, and he is incredibly positive and just a true pleasure to work with.

Most of all, though, in his short time here, Roland has shown amazing initiative, and a real commitment to Digifabshop and his own career, which is evidenced by the more than 40 hours of overtime he volunteered for and worked in August. This has been a real push for us these past few months, and Roland's above and beyond efforts have been hugely valuable and very much appreciated.

Thanks for the hard work and great attitude, Roland.

DISPATCH 007: SEPTEMBER/AUGUST 2015

DISPATCH 007: SEPTEMBER/AUGUST 2015

By the time the outbreak peters out, some 60 percent of the mature pines in the west may be dead. That’s a billion cubic meters of wood. Other than the aesthetic difference in the wood, there is no functional degredation.

Properly harvested, there is nothing wrong with it - the beetles don't damage the strength or integrity. The challenge here is creating a niche market for this special specimen. Many are now using this product for furniture, flooring, wall paneling and other decorative types of millwork and it is gaining popularity for its unique look.

This unique situation is interesting because of its implications in the sustainability movement. How can all of this wood be diverted from a landfill and celebrated for its qualities rather than rejected for them?

Digifab In The Know: Investigations in Material Treatment Wood Torrefication is not a new process.

Vikings have been using it to enhance the resistance and durability of wood since the eighth century. This two-stage process involves an initial pre-heating and drying in which the wood is gradually heated to reduce it's moisture level to zero. It is then followed by a more intensive treatment which modifies it's molecular structure. The high temperatures change the cellulose, lignins, tannens and resins of the wood so that they are much more stable and predictable. Besides its aesthetic difference (different levels of the process seen in the image to the right), it provides the wood with unmatched stability and durability. The resulting product is less subject to moisture fluctuations and is much more resistant to decay and insects.

In the search of these new possibilities, we recently took a trip to western New York to visit the Keymark Corportion to explore the possibilities of Anodization; and like kids on a field trip we were astonished with what we saw! Keymark started in 1946 as a manufacturer of aluminum household appliances, but has since grown to become one of the largest aluminum processing plants in the world. They handle everything from raw ingot melting to billet extrusion and even anodize and paint in house. Their massive facility allows them to control all areas of aluminum fabrication.

We were fortunate enough to get the full tour on our visit and what we saw was truly incredible. In a brief summary, we watched raw aluminum ingot melted in a 1.2 million dollar oven be cast into a custom billet, the standard unit used in aluminum extrusion. Once cooled and ready for extrusion, the billets were cut into 4 foot lengths and loaded into a press where they would be pushed through any one of thousands of dies Keymark keeps at hand. The presses alone were sights to be seen as they generate anywhere from 1,650 to 3,000 tons of force to accurately extrude the aluminum into usable lengths.

During this process, any unusable scrap is carted back to the oven and remelted into a fresh billet. From here the newly extruded shapes go on to either receive paint or anodize finish before they are crated and shipped out to clients. Keymark's paint line is massive and certainly impressive, but what really wowed us and prompted the visit in the first place was the anodizing line.

Before

Anodizing is a process of finishing aluminum by submerging it in an electrically charged bath which creates a build up of oxidation, thus chemically creating a layer of protective seal (See diagram above). To do this, Keymark utilizes a "2-step" automated process, achieved by the usage of 2 massive gantries which lift and submerge racks of aluminum at incredibly precise levels. The gantries pull racks from staging and take them through a process of cleaning, etching, cleaning, and finally anodizing. At this point the aluminum is either sealed with an additional top coat or it is submerged into a tank of liquid tin for coloring. The tin, which is also charged, will build up in the millions of pores (per square inch that is) in the aluminum and therefore alter the way light refracts off of its surface. This procedure of organic coloring creates a range of light champagne, bronze, brown and black, but it is possible to introduce dye and reach a much larger spectrum of color.

Shockingly, even at an industrial scale, Keymark utilizes the smallest details to ensure quality. So as we begin to venture into larger and larger projects it is exciting to see such a large company continuing to utilize the human touch throughout their processes. During the anodizing process, when color is desired, it is reliant upon a single worker’s sight to be able to tell whether or not a color has been accurately applied. This skill simply cannot be taught and yet it the most vital stage of the operation, thus proving that there is no automatic replacement for the truly skilled craftsman.

DISPATCH 007: SEPTEMBER/AUGUST 2015

After

One of our biggest challenges in the infancy of our fabrication department was learning about millscale and it's impact on steel finishing.

Pickled and Oiled steel was recommended to us and the difference between it and standard hot rolled steel is night and day.

Many steel hot working processes leave a discoloring oxide layor on the surface called millscale. This can be removed by dipping the steel in a chemical bath, typically consisting of either hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid.

After the oxidized layer is removed, the steel is extremely vulnerable to oxidization (rust) when exposed to moderately humid atmospheric conditions. It becomes essential that the steel is treated shortly after the millscale is removed. For this reason, a thin layer of oil or a similar waterproof coating is applied to create a barrier to moisture in the air. While this oil must be removed before any finishing process, it helps keep the steel in it's "clean" state during processing and we have found this to be worth the price difference. The image to the left shows the difference in finish between a piece of steel with millscale and one that has undergone the pickling process.

Shou Sugi Ban has been a buzz word within the architecture world for quite some time now, but this process (like torrefication) has ancient roots. The word "Sugi" refers to the Cryptomeria japonica tree, commonly known as Japanese Cypress, which was traditionally used and is where the process gets it's name. In the recent popularization of the process, Designers and Architects have been using wood species like western red cedar, douglas fir, cypress, pine and oak to achieve similar affects. Many companies have developed proprietary equipment to achieve a consistent char finish throughout the wood, but the process can be done on your own - in fact, we have run our own experiments right here in our shop. The process involves charring the wood, cleaning it and finishing it with a natural oil. The final product is both gorgeous and resistant to fire, rot, insects and can last up to eighty years - perfect for building siding.

In The Works: Restaurant Concept Pursuits Our most significant "In The Works" initiative this summer has been the diversification of the production team's work load to include new "rollout" projects such as MOD Pizza and Cava Mezze Grill. While this initiative is still new, it has been going very smoothly thus far and opens up many possibilities for the future.

(Gainesville, VA) with the client and it has been worth our time. Their finishes call for three different stain types (that are consistent through all locations) and this has huge implications for our work flow. With much patience, the production and finishing teams have worked through the kinks of making finishing one of the first steps (rather than one of the last).

While the Production Team has specialized in Chipotle and Shophouse packages for quite some time now, it was really the addition of MOD pizza that catalyzed the change. Though it is still a relatively young company, it is spreading very quickly throughout the country and the potential for this work hitting our shop is likely.

Besides the change in processes, this brand has given us a few new materials to experiment with. Grenite is a recycled glass countertop material and is an integral part of MOD's "Pizza Engine".

Besides this, we are working with two proprietary wood products: Terramai is a reclaimed mix of red and white oak that will be featured as a few table surfaces and Pioneer is a reclaimed heart pine that serves as the cladding on the front of the "Pizza Engine".

For the past few months, we have been working through our first location

When the first Cava Mezze Grill location came our way last Fall, we knew that there would be more, but this successful brand has been growing much faster than anticipated. With Cava Topanga near completion in Los Angeles, CA there are bound to be many more in the west coast. On this side of the country, the east coast stores continue to spread like wild fire.

While this is a fast-growing restaurant, their commitment to high quality custom dining environments keeps their millwork package relatively complicated. For fast casual dining, Cava's pallet of millscaleblack hot rolled steel and walnut, white oak and hickory hardwoods is sophisticated and requires a higher degree of skill to process. Pair this with their robust graphics package and many

While we are only working on our first set of shop drawings for Chop't now, we have been in conversation with them for quite some time. This creative salad company is consistently growing and is committed to uniquely designed interiors.

It has promise to bring some one-off type of work to the production team.

challenges arise.

During fabrication of our past two stores, Ashburn, VA and Topanga, CA, the entire wood package was shifted from the cabinetry team to the production team and the challenge was met with ease.

Chris Howe, ex-cabinet maker turned Production Team Lead, brought all of his previous experience with Cava to the team and it made for a seamless transition.

As these packages continue to come through the shop we look forward to the opportunity to refine our process. So far it has proven to be a great opportunity to build out the knowledge base of the production team and improve on production-style fabrication methods in the metal area.

may change from location to location, there are many standard items that fit this into our production category. Items such as a POS guard, sneeze guard and hot sauce rack are consistent through the stores that we have seen so far and we are looking forward to figuring them out.

With stores in New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia and North Carolina, this is primarily an east coast company, but it has a lot of promise for future expansion.

Our first location in Long Island, NY Woodbury, features a CNC engraved cork feature wall, a new banquette design and a series of custom steel POS and serveline features. While some items

DISPATCH 007: SEPTEMBER/AUGUST 2015