Mission Accomplished—THE BIG Custom Doors!

Working Double-Time on Double Doors

We spent two weeks working nearly all waking hours to complete the big doors. These massive custom doors were a huge project for such a tiny shop. The size of the pieces was certainly huge, though there were only three (two huge doors and one double-huge door frame), but it was the intensity of labor and endless fine details that made this a big project. Each of these heavy, double doors measure 8’ high by 40” wide each by 2-1/4” thick solid African mahogany. They have curved, raised panels, curved glass panels and curved frame and trims, curves everywhere.

Apprentice Tim cutting curves with our custom curve cutting contraption.

Always Ready for a Challenge

But the most difficult part for us was the wonderful Endura Trilennium^® locking system hardware chosen by the customer. The active panel of the double door system has a five point locking mechanism that operates three bolts into the inactive panel along with head and foot bolts as well. Kachunk—multiple CLICK, when that door closes. This is the best locking system I have ever seen. It took quite a bit of our time to figure out everything about the installation.

We, with our customer’s strong help, purchased the routing guide package to router out the edges of the door for this hardware brand. It was kind of a big deal around here. Tim spent a lot of time figuring it all out. He routered a practice piece first and then went to it on the doors. I told him I was responsible if anything went wrong. Nothing went wrong. Everything fit. Tim is great with these kinds of projects and he excelled on this.

Suspender Man™ showing off the door project progress.

Am I a Craftsman or a Preacher?

It was a really busy couple of weeks. All through it, however, I was thinking about how to actively disciple my apprentice. Just how does a craftsman communicate his best ethics and his best thoughts about being a Christian businessman to his apprentice? If I preach big gobs of unsolicited advice I am going to be ignored or worse, hated, and despised as a crack pot or someone detestable I am certain.

Talking is plenty useful but it has to be practiced within the proper framework. I am starting to think that I ought to tell (warn?) my apprentice that I will be sharing any spiritual insights I have, with him, just as a general heads up. If I had, from the beginning, let him know that I was going to do this it would have been better all around. It is not to late to tell him now though. For the sake of honesty I think I will tell him that I am going to share spiritual insights as a normal part of his training. That way he will understand more clearly the direction I am taking this relationship. For, I am remembering that, “When a student is fully taught he will be just like his teacher.”

Completed custom exterior doors (African mahogany, rain finish glass, Endura Trilennium® locking system).

Apprenticeship is Discipleship—Ministry for Regular Guys

“A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40)

We Imitate Our Teachers

Jesus, the ultimate teacher, teaches on teaching! And He informs us that training from a teacher makes the student like his teacher. This should disabuse us from thinking that teachers simply impart knowledge. Teachers never impart only knowledge because teaching necessarily teaches the student to imitate the teacher. A teacher is typically held in high regard by the student otherwise the student would not want to sit under that teacher. And, since the teacher is in a position of authority the student typically understands the teacher to be a person worthy of imitation. Teachers are to some degree successful or else they would not have been given the privilege to teach. The fact that the teacher is placed in front of the class indicates at least modest success to the student.

So it is with master tradesmen and their apprentices. When we enter into an apprenticeship contract we are committing ourselves to teach our trade to another person, an apprentice. By enjoining that relationship we are becoming a person that will certainly be imitated by the apprentice. That is the point of the relationship after all. If there is no imitation the master has failed in his mission and so has the apprentice. We want the apprentice to imitate us showing he or she has learned their work in the trade.

Teaching the Trade & Then Some

Imitation though, is going to be more than just imitating trade-related behavior. Human relationships are not so clean and free of carry over as that. The apprentice will also be learning to imitate the master craftsman in his attitudes, morals, choice of language, and a host of personal attributes perhaps not as desirable to have imitated as either party desires. This is why we have to think about apprenticeship as discipleship. Along with communicating trade skills we are teaching the apprentice/student to be just like we are.

In every teacher-pupil relationship there are multiple elements of philosophy, personal morals, wisdom or (lack of the same), that will be communicated. Humanist-dominated universities are filled with teachers whose pupils imitate them. The pupils arrive all shiny and eager to learn but the content of the classroom is much different than what they or their parents imagined. The teachers, for the most part, will not be solid Christian people. The students learn to be, as Jesus promised, just like their teachers; that is, believers in evolution, haters of the truth, immoral, unwise, and perverse in their minds. This explains why Christian students after a couple of years at public, humanist universities turn against the faith they were taught at home. Public schools are the greatest engine of destruction ever set up to bring to ruin Christian faith and its civilization, Christendom.

Apprenticeship is a Ministry (for regular people)

All of this emphasizes the value and wonderful possibilities for Christian apprenticeship training. Teaching trade skills is a fantastic opportunity for Christian tradesmen to disciple another person in becoming productive and useful for the kingdom of God right here and now. And now, more than ever before, the fields are ripe for the harvest. This work is not limited to Christian laymen, nevertheless, it is primarily a layman’s project. The institutional church cannot create this ministry from the front of the church (and yes, this work of training apprentices is a ministry). This is work that must be taken up by faithful men and women who have a heart to disciple others.

So, here we are talking about how God’s people can change the world through discipleship and in the process tear down strongholds in the humanist forest. This is an axe to the root enterprise, in removing the overgrowth of a godless work life mentality, and planting in its place the promising seed of Christian vocation. We invite you to join us in this labor (connect to us by joining our email list below).

Our responsibility is greater than we know.

Dr. Don Schanzenbach
Craftsman, Author, Entrepreneur
and Sometime Teacher

Installing Endura Door Hardware Upped Our Skills & Our Tool Collection!

Double doors can be double trouble. That old (really old) gum commercial keeps coming to mind “two, two, two mints in one.” With my apprentice at my side (OK— maybe Batman and Robin is a better image) we dived into the double-doors hardware dilemma with uneasy confidence. Oh sure we can build complicated contraptions but can we do so without making a major mistake? These could have been your doors we honed our skills on but it was some other guy’s—so there’s that. Figuring out a one-off project can be disconcerting sometimes. You keep worrying—what if I botch this?

BIG Doors Need Better Hardware

Our recent big custom doors project involved a lot more than typical woodworking. The hardware package was a project in itself. It was a learning curve for Tim and I as we worked through the preparation and installation of a new (new to us) line of products.

My original contract to build these doors included all of the woodworking plus there was an allowance of man hours to install customer supplied hardware. That included hinges, threshold, weather stripping, lock sets, and any head or foot bolts.

When building double doors the hardware and installation of it can be pretty demanding. With two doors that open and close independently there is the strong likelihood of air and light leaks showing up in the completed project. I knew that from having installed a good many double door units back in my construction days. Now Tim, he was entirely unaware but that is OK—and I am unsure why I brought this fact up except it just popped into my enigmatic mind. So, there we were, two guys trying to build the big doors and not get into trouble along the way.

Lock Those Custom Doors Up Tight with Endura Trilennium ^®

My customer had been to Europe and seen the great locking systems used there. He searched on-line and discovered the Endura Trilennium^® Multi-Point locking systems which exhibited the best features available. These high quality locksets were offered in three-point and five-point systems. My customer was concerned about security so he bought the five-point locking system. That meant that the active panel of the two door entry latched at five points every time the door closed—head bolt, foot bolt, and three side bolts into the inactive panel. Man, what a system!

The Endura locking system was great but Tim and I were the poor slobs who had to figure out how to finish this complex hardware installation to look clean and operate professionally. I don’t know about you but I am not a magician and neither is Tim. We are just two guys with tools (OK lots of tools) who try to produce great work. So here we were with two huge custom mahogany art doors we had built and a stack of hardware parts we barely understood.

Planning a Smooth Installation

One thing I was glad for is that we were able to purchase all of the hardware pieces from the same company. That was important to me because I wanted to make sure that every part interacted with every other part correctly. I did not want any ugly surprises when we got to the end of the project. If there are any ugly surprises I always blame them on Tim no matter what. There is nothing he can do about it because there are only two of us here so, well—just, so, I guess.

NEW TOOLS—YIPPEE!

One of the complications with this type of high quality hardware is that the doors have to be custom routered along the entire front edge to receive the hardware. You can’t just do this work with your handy Black and Yellow router that you have dragged from job to job for the past twenty years. You have to have a custom router jig and a high-test plunge router to do the work. The whole router jig set-up cost north of $2,500 which the customer agreed to partially supply and I paid the rest. It is an impressive system with its red, yellow, and green stops and guides that are designed to help you avoid those ugly surprises mentioned previously.

Apprentice & Friends On the Job

As for me, I slowly backed out of hands on work with this part of the door project. I remained only a few feet away but let Tim (made Tim?) take over. He did a great job figuring out how the system worked. I should mention here that Tim was assisted by our friend Sam and his son Jonathan for over two days. The extra sets of hands proved valuable (‘invaluable’ would have sounded more sophisticated but what does invaluable really mean?). A few years ago Sam told me that if I ever tried to give him anything that even looked like money he would never help me again. We did sneak him a box of treats at Christmas one year yet he still comes out when I need extra help. But I have drifted from our story about the big doors hardware.

I try to give Tim important roles in our shop work whenever I can. Having him figure out the routering work was good for him because it taught him he really can figure out this stuff and he can produce exceptional work. I want him to have confidence and skills so that he can work without me around. It is good for both of us. Today while I am typing this Tim is down in the shop repairing veneer work on a walnut desk and getting it ready to re-stain. Someday he will not need me at all and will fly away but in the mean time I am blessed with a good helper and he is learning a worthwhile trade. So I guess this is my unashamed recommendation to try a trade apprenticeship relationship if you can. Everybody gains by it.

Hanging our custom doors and getting ready to test our installation of the Endura Trilennium® five-point locking system.

The Sweet Sound of Success!

Once the routering for the hardware was completed we installed the Endura Trilennium^® hardware and hung the doors. The big ta-da moment came when we (Tim) got the knobs and levers attached and we tested the system. Click-chunk it worked smooth as a, I don’t know what, just smooth as.

I still needed to mortise in the strike plate at the head jamb. I had to do it standing on a step ladder looking upside down with glasses on, then off, then on a hundred times due to my eye correction difficulties. In a shadowed location, no way to accurately mark the dark wood, and nerve damaged hands it was one of the most difficult mortise jobs I have ever completed. I thought my arms were going to fall off. Fortunately they did not as demonstrated by the fact that I can type this monograph.

Completed set of custom doors with installation of Endura Trilennium locking system hardware.

Onward! To Even Bigger Doors.

Now we own the (rather expensive) routering guide and we have that valuable experience. Plus we have another set of complicated doors built and working. We are trained and ready for bigger fancier doors yet to come. We conquered the eight foot tall doors challenge. Ten foot tall doors next time?

See another one of our custom door projects from start to finish >>> HERE.

Cutting Curves (and Dodging Curve Balls)

I rarely write Shop Notes on Sundays. Sundays are reserved for rest (“Six days you shall do all your labor”). But a couple weeks ago every aspect of life got turned on its head when we were thrown a curve ball in the form of eight (or was it nine?) power outages. Granted a few were only 30-90 minutes in length but others lasted several hours. Everything felt upside down.

Custom Mahogany Curves

I spent our working hours teaching Tim how to build the 56” diameter curved pieces needed to build this set of custom exterior doors. The doors, when installed, will create a big circle in the center with half of the circle in each door. The inside of the circle is made up of odd shaped glass panels.

Mahogany curve layout for custom exterior doors

Laying out the glued up mahogany blocks to build our curves.

Gluing/clamping our mahogany curves for a set of custom doors.

Suspender Man™ working some clamping magic to get a sturdy, tight set of curves before cutting them to their final shape.

Projects & Problem-Solving

This project is complicated to build and I am guessing and by-goshing my way through it as I go. I have allowed Tim to see that is what I am doing. He might as well understand that I sometimes must figure processes out as I go. Every business owner faces this same reality. Nobody knows how to do everything they contract to do.

My apprentice may as well see this side of reality. He ought to understand that owning a small business involves taking risks (measured risks but risks just the same). He needs to see the agonies as well as the easier aspects of owning a business. He will, after all, have to learn how to navigate similar waters when he is the master craftsman.

Glued up mahogany curves ready to cut to shape with our custom template.

Curves ready for cutting to fit our custom exterior doors.

Apprentice Tim using the bandsaw to cut the mahogany curves to fit our custom doors.

Apprentice Tim using the bandsaw to shape the mahogany curves.

Growing Our Knowledge & Building the Future

This reminds me of a thought: I want my apprentice to catch the vision for training another person to do his work and take his place in God’s economy. We are not put on earth to simply provide for ourselves. We also need to help other people learn to be masters in God’s kingdom. We must pull other people along teaching them skills and a biblical philosophy needed to take dominion (Genesis 2) and push forward God’s kingdom in every field. This is a distinctively Christian enterprise and practice.

The humanists of our age (or any age) have nothing to match the biblical apprenticeship model. Their idea for teaching is to impart endless gobs of book knowledge, or of personal philosophy disguised as book knowledge, and to take captive the upcoming generation through their “philosophy and vain deceit” (Colossians 2:8). Ours is to disciple people in the means and methods required to take dominion of the earth and to push forward the crown rights of King Jesus. We live for different purposes and achieve those purposes through differing means. Christian discipleship and apprenticeship do not look like the humanist alternative which most of our students labor under. So, I guess, this is where this week’s curves and curve balls conversation has taken us. I do not always know where I am going to land when I launch these conversations.

Once the curves are cut, the assembly of these custom doors begins!

Custom Doors Should Be Straight…Like Our Morals

With every big project, like these custom designed mahogany doors, the pressure builds to keep the project on schedule.

Gluing up the outer frame for a set of custom exterior doors

Suspender Man™ gluing and doweling the outer frame for a mahogany set of custom designed exterior doors.

With every type of work there are schedule demands that must be met. Nobody contracts work in a vacuum, separated from the demands and pressures of the market place. Well, maybe in a socialist or communist system they might but not when operating under the constraints of biblical morality and a consumer-driven economy. I understand that these two might be at odds and often are, but that is about the best we will have for the immediate future.

Laboring to Keep Our Word

We try to focus on the biblical morality part of the equation as much as possible. Hence we are trying to treat our customers as better than ourselves, and are committed to laboring as for the Lord, and doing our best to not only keep our word but to exceed it if possible. We want our customers to say “well done” but we also want the God of heaven to say the same.

Making Things Straight

Our morals must be built on God’s Word to be strong and upright. Similarly, custom woodworking projects share the need for level surfaces on which to build. There are a number of new skills for my apprentice to learn while building these custom doors. One is learning how to build a flat door—and I mean, dead flat, no warps or twists of any kind. I taught him to level one of our big workbenches using a 10’ long straightedge and a couple of long levels. If we assemble the doors on a flat workbench, we by necessity, ought to create flat doors.

Custom door frame on the (flat) workbench, glued and clamped, with curve patterns laid out.

Custom door frame on our (flat) workbench, glued and clamped, with curve patterns laid out.

This is just one of the many ways I work to teach Tim the larger principles of the trade not just have him do needed tasks. Learning the principles for creating a flat surface will be useful for him and in his service for me.

Let’s Build Some BIG DOORS!

A few weeks ago a man contacted me and asked to have a large set of custom exterior doors made for the front of his house. These doors are 8’ high by 7’ wide x 2-1/4” thick mahogany. Once the contract was signed we obtained the wood and work began. This was a perfect project for my aspiring apprentice to learn some new skills. And it helped me out to have him here shoving what is a good sized stack of heavy lumber through the machines.

Pile of raw mahogany ready to be planed for custom exterior doors

Bringing the raw mahogany back to the shop to be planed for these custom exterior doors

No Need to Hover

This project is by no means easy. The work is complicated. Tim is clearly excited to be taking on fresh challenges. I have been putting him to the work full time but have only remained in the shop part time. This is good for him I believe. I give him careful instructions and then let him go do his best.

There is a balance between hovering and being unwisely detached on my part. I want my apprentice to know he is trusted but not abandoned. I cannot let him make any serious errors but I know he learns a lot faster if he cannot come to me every minute for endless help. I want him to learn to do this work without me—that is the goal after all.

Pile of mahogany after we planed it. Ready to start the custom doors project.

Importance of Learning Why Not Just How

I have found there is high value in teaching him the principles of the trade. If I merely tell my apprentice what to do, a list of commands to obey, he will never learn the principles he needs to understand and plan future work. I do not merely tell him how to use the tools a certain way I tell him why he should do so. I spend a lot of time explaining why we do what we do as well as how to do the work.

Sometimes the talk about why we do the work a certain way revolves around moral principles not just physical reasons for building a product. Without moral reasoning, work is just work. But if we can teach moral principles and a vision for the building of God’s kingdom through our work, we have done double duty. In the case of these custom exterior doors what could be more desired?

Fix the Problem NOT the Blame

I assigned Tim a project rebuilding and refinishing a bookcase. It was not a huge project. The unit stands under 4’ tall and is about 3’ wide. It was probably built in the 1920s or 1930s. Originally nailed together, it was wobbly. The owner asked us to disassemble the bookcase and dowel it all together, plus other work to make the piece rigid. Installing a new back and refinishing were a part of the work.

A Faulty Furniture Fix

While inspecting the newly doweled and glued piece I discovered that it was just as shaky as when it was delivered to us. Tim performed the repairs just as I had prescribed but the fix did not fix. So whose fault is it when a project has problems? Is it the responsibility of the craftsman who made insufficient repairs? Or the boss who planned the work but did not know how poorly the work was going? Is it nobody’s fault and we just have to fix it?

The Business Owner’s Responsibility

Here is how I have learned to think about problems on the down line.

It is pretty simple really. I own the business so every problem is my fault. Now, we all understand and believe that when we have a problem with someone else’s work. Say you take your lawnmower in for repairs. After you pick up the repaired machine you get home and find the work was done poorly. Back you go to see who? The mechanic who did the work? No sir—you go to the department manager and if he won’t help you go to his manager. We all do it because we understand that the person at the top is, ultimately, responsible. And what is true for other businesses is true for mine. I am responsible for everything that happens under my care.

Christian Responsibility

As a Christian business man I am doubly responsible because the Bible teaches covenantal responsibility, sometimes for events we were not even alive to see. For instance, when the prophet Daniel prays for the return of Israel from Babylon to their land, he makes a confession of sin for their nation (Israel) and includes himself as guilty even though Daniel was not even alive when Israel committed the sins for which God punished them with Babylonian captivity.

Just Fix it—No Excuses

The point is, that we need to take responsibility for more than we think. That means I cannot push off blame for problems on my workers. I do not get to tell the customer that the worker was new and it was his fault a problem happened; so, no excuses to a customer—not ever. I try to remember that but temptation is always at the door to blame somebody else. Fixing the blame does not fix anything is a lesson I am continually learning. If I practice that morality my apprentice just might learn good behavior from me. That is called discipleship. It is one of the duties and benefits of being the master craftsman.

Is the Customer ALWAYS Right?

When they accuse you—maybe falsely

This story is a hard experience for me. I am upset at both myself and my customer, and his customer. I typed the heading on this report a week ago. It used to read When They Accuse You Falsely. Now I have added the Maybe. I know a couple of things. When I (we) get into trouble our emotions, pride, and ever-crouching sin can get our minds pretty tangled. I want to behave justly and kindly but find it difficult to even know what just behavior is in some cases.

Life can be confounding sometimes. Sound theology helps iron out a lot of situations. But, we are confronted with a world where we are all liars, all proud, all make unknown and known errors, and sometimes we are falsely accused. I want business to be simple but it is not.

A Good Job Gone Bad

I had an 8’ long cabinet I picked up for repairs from a restoration company. They had me pick it up at their customer’s house. So, that made me a sub-contractor for this particular work. That was OK. I do a fair amount of work for this company. It has been a great relationship. Their customers gave great reports about me. The company always paid me promptly. No real problems; but then—the cabinet fiasco. The whole thing (I am not recording all the sordid details) turned into she said, he said, he didn’t do (but we know he did do), money issues and… well, if you have ever been in business you know the scenario. I know I am a sinner and far from perfect.

In fact, I have taught my apprentice not to ever use the word perfect to describe anything we do. We are not perfect. We strive to be perfect but do not claim to have achieved that status. This is not an excuse to deliver bad work. It does recognize the reality that, simply put, we are not perfect. For the cabinet in question, I thought I had done great work. We have multiple five-star reviews on the internet. I really work to produce superior work. In the shop my eyes and my apprentice’s eyes saw a well performed repair/refinish job. The customer’s eyes saw a project that was so bad that the cabinet had to be redone by someone else. I cannot explain this. It just is.

Acting Honorably in Imperfect Situations

So, how does all this relate to the work of producing a well trained apprentice? I am convinced that apprenticeship training must include discussions about the bad experiences, the errors, the false accusations, lies and (hopefully not) counter lies, excuses, rotten circumstances, bad advice from suppliers, our own bad work, poor communication, laziness, and dishonesty. Somehow there needs to be discussions about how Christians may justly and wisely act within an imperfect world. How do we apply our belief in the sovereignty of God in all circumstances?

We ought to discuss our own possibilities for errors and our propensity to deny them. We should teach our apprentices how to behave wisely within difficult circumstances. We should discuss how to christianly handle situations where the customer is clearly wrong. We might talk about the covenantal nature of responsibility and what that means for a business owner. A discussion about money and how its role in disputes ought to be rightly handled would be useful. Anyway, I am convinced we ought not hide these events and conversations from our apprentices. Maybe by God’s grace, our embarrassments can help them become better than we are.

Lessons in Faith

One thing I am beginning to think through is the need to view this entire apprenticeship relationship through the eyes of faith. My apprentice, for instance, warned me early on that he wanted to continue playing baseball this year, his last season. I agreed to it though with some reluctance since he can only work about three days a week all summer. On the up-side though is the fact that I do not, on many weeks, have enough work to keep him busy every day. But, fall is coming when baseball is over so I need to have more work for us.

Faith in this situation is to believe that God is in this and is moving ahead of us for our good and His glory. And there is something larger here than just keeping busy for busyness’ sake. There is a story here that can help other apprentices and business owners (master craftsmen) and we are praying that the Lord will keep this story alive for the help of His people and the advancement of His kingdom. We work and pray for the kingdom and we seek to serve King Jesus.

Apprentice Has a WIN & the Master Learns Something

A Refinishing Job Well Done

This week Tim completed his first solo contract project. It turned out great. His customer was pleased as punch (however pleased a punch may be) and handed him a handful of cash. It was a win for everybody. I consulted with my aspiring apprentice near the end about final details—how to perfect the work for presentation to the customer. Tim was pretty proud of his work on this. He fixed any minor imperfections to the best of his ability and turned out a great job.

Old Dogs CAN Learn New Tricks

It was a good moment as he asked for final advice. We like and respect each other. I believe he has the gift to become really good at this type of work. It was my privilege to be a part of his learning. I took a few pictures, before and after. The color I worried was too dark turned out perfect. Sometimes it is best to simply let the apprentice learn on his own, but this time I was the one who learned something i.e. clear coats brighten dark-stained wood grain. And, sometimes if you remain silent you can avoid having said something stupid.

Young Dogs Learn New Tricks Even Faster

Tim has started to move on to a new type of skill now. He is building his first drawer. The more I can teach him the better for both of us. He learns new skills and I have more time to do other work, like seeking new customers or playing on Facebook. I pray daily for God’s blessing on both of us and for success for us as we build this business.

Tim’s finished cabinet refinishing project