Hello Everyone

[steelhead]

I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce myself to all of you guys.

I have owned a Shopbot for about two years now and for the most part love it. I have two other cnc routers and prefer the SB over the other two. The others have their place, but hardly get used.

I have found this forum to be extremely helpful and knowledgeable! I have been a registered user for a few years and have not had time to get on here much until recently. Forums are not my thing (typically), but I have to make an exception for this one! If and when the SB lacks (compared to the BIG IRON machines) this site tips the scale the other way.... big time!! I have gained some valuable knowledge through here and hope that I can contribute to help others as well. It seems as though most people on here are one big family! It's pretty damn cool!

I have replied to a few other posts, and I'm sure all the regulars here are like???? Who is this guy?? :confused:

Well a little bit about myself and our company.
Officially I'm Ben Nellenback of Stairsmiths. Stairsmiths is a semi-small, large scale "boutique" shop specializing in extremely high end staircases. We are big enough to handle any size project, but small enough to give it all the attention it deserves! We cover the entire us and some internationally.
We use our machine for custom staircases and tangent handrail, and other stuff of course!

I was born and raised in upstate NY. Started learning carpentry work at age 2 from my grandfather who is a master carpenter; and never rely deviated from it. Started learning about staircases at age 14, started my own business at age 15 and have not looked back. I absolutely love what I do, and would not trade it for another career other than retirement! (yeah I believe I could make a career out of it!) I live in Carrollton, GA with my wife and 2 of the 4 kids that I have. My youngest is 2 and the oldest is 17.

Well enough boring "yous guys" with myself. Just wanted to say hello. I will try to attach photos of the first staircase that the bot made a few years ago. It's a walnut one. I'll try uploading another from our web site just to get a feel for how it works.

If you have made it to this point of this post, thanks for taking the time to read it.

[bob_s]

Ben
welcome
very nice looking work.
I am another New York transplant, living about 45 miles north of you in Acworth GA.
I cut mostly 3d art pieces and problem moldings for some cabinet shops on a 4x8 prs.
Probably should meet for coffee when it fits in your schedule

Bob

[myxpykalix]

It looks like you have "done grandpa proud".....beautiful work. I love the winding staircase, very nice..

[kevin]

Thanks for your post
Your stair cases look amazing

Question I have a client who wants a high end kitchen which we will be doing among other built in .
There also a cirler stair case which i havent bid but would like to how hard are one of thought stair case hr. plus skill ? does the shop do most of the work They had quote of 50,000
Thank Kevin

kdunphy.com

[steelhead]

Thanks guys.

Jack, coffee sounds good ill take you up on that. It wont be before the first of the month though. I have allot to get done between then and now. Working just about 24-7 till then.

Jack, I have seen you on here allot and have to ask you about the lion. I'm sure theres a story there!

[steelhead]

Thanks for your post
Your stair cases look amazing

Question I have a client who wants a high end kitchen which we will be doing among other built in .
There also a cirler stair case which i havent bid but would like to how hard are one of thought stair case hr. plus skill ? does the shop do most of the work They had quote of 50,000
Thank Kevin

kdunphy.com


Kevin,

The diffusivity level will vary greatly from one stair design to another. In the short answer, nothing is difficult once you know how to do it.
This could be a lengthy conversation if your seriously wanting to go after this stair that your mentioning. To better answer your questions email me the plans for this stair and I will send you my phone number we can discuss it. Depending on the complexity (outside what your comfortable with) i'm sure we can help you with part of it if needed. The price on the job doesn't sound outrageous, but need to see plans to know for sure. We do solid modeling for all of our projects. What the customer sees is what they get! See attachment.

[curtiss]

I would suppose you are now on a very short list of the NY area to have a meeting. I would suppose someone else would even bring in the donuts.

I would guess the better something is cut the less you have to bend it.

[steelhead]

I would suppose you are now on a very short list of the NY area to have a meeting. I would suppose someone else would even bring in the donuts.

I would guess the better something is cut the less you have to bend it.

Curtis, Not sure I understand what your saying. I live in Georgia.

[kevin]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll take you up on your offer once I get more of a commitment from the customer. There seems to be a bigger profit margin in staircases than in kitchens. I would love the challenge of doing a staircase.
Thanks again,
Kevin

[gc3]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll take you up on your offer once I get more of a commitment from the customer. There seems to be a bigger profit margin in staircases than in kitchens. I would love the challenge of doing a staircase.
Thanks again,
Kevin

I'd say you are in for a learning "curve"

[steelhead]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll take you up on your offer once I get more of a commitment from the customer. There seems to be a bigger profit margin in staircases than in kitchens. I would love the challenge of doing a staircase.
Thanks again,
Kevin

Kevin,
No problem.

[kevin]

Gene you think there that hard ?
I've done straight

[myxpykalix]

Ben,
The short story on the lion is, I used to work in movies and television and had my own chain of video stores. We trained big cats for movies and television and I was a Steadicam operator and since i had the video stores and access to the big cats and my own production facility I would make my own commercials for my stores.

That lion was part of a commercial promotion done when one of the Raiders of the lost ark came out in the early 90's i think (can't remember) then i adapted the footage for a school project for one of the grandkids and posted it on youtube.

That was a fun time and I worked with stars from soupy sales to steven segal but movie making is for younger people 16-18 hour days was a bit much for me.

But I am equally fascinated by your staircases. Not enough people appreciate the engineering and work that goes into building something like that. I would love to come down and learn what you know.

But I don't think you could pack into a week long course what you have learned if you started at 15.
You do beautiful work.....

[gc3]

[QUOTE=kevin;103009]Gene you think there that hard ?
I've done straight[/

oh very easy

pie r square right?

[curtiss]

Pardon on the location, I see you moved to Georgia from NY.


......"I would guess the better something is cut the less you have to bend it."

I guess the real question would be: Do you have to steam some of the materials to shape them??

[steelhead]

Ben,
The short story on the lion is, I used to work in movies and television and had my own chain of video stores. We trained big cats for movies and television and I was a Steadicam operator and since i had the video stores and access to the big cats and my own production facility I would make my own commercials for my stores.

That lion was part of a commercial promotion done when one of the Raiders of the lost ark came out in the early 90's i think (can't remember) then i adapted the footage for a school project for one of the grandkids and posted it on youtube.

That was a fun time and I worked with stars from soupy sales to steven segal but movie making is for younger people 16-18 hour days was a bit much for me.

But I am equally fascinated by your staircases. Not enough people appreciate the engineering and work that goes into building something like that. I would love to come down and learn what you know.

But I don't think you could pack into a week long course what you have learned if you started at 15.
You do beautiful work.....

Thats pretty cool stuff Jack.
Not many people get to work with exotic animals, let alone the movie industry. I too have worked with the film industry. Lots of people think that it is all glamor having the chance to do it. It's not! Just a very demanding job. Pays well, but you earn it. We worked with Lions Gate Productions and built a staircase on set for the movie "Killers" that came out this past summer. We had to make four sets of custom handrail parts (three out of balsa wood) and install them. Time frame was a week and a half! There was no more balsa left in Georgia by time we were done. Seriously! It took three shifts round the clock. Grant Baily came over and helped us (night shift duty) keeping the router going one night.




So sorry Jack, I thought you were the guy with the bat houses. See Below.
I realize that I was mistaken looking around more. I guess that was R Ball right? I swore I read a post that someone mentioned you with the bat houses and doing very well in this economy. Sorry about the confusion. I left what I wrote initially; not sure if I deleted it if it would look suspicious. Again my apologies.


Anyhow, I'm interested in knowing about the bat houses. I have seen them mentioned several times. Not trying to keep you inundated with replying to this post, but I have been trying to figure out for some time what the heck a "bat house" is. The only answer I can come up with is it is exactly like it sounds. A house a bat lives in. Is that right? If so, the only market I can think of for building a habitat for bats would be a zoo, and those are usually caves... right?

Bats....Lions...."bears???... probably......OH MY!!:)

Now with the lion thing, you seem to be a very interesting person. (in a good way). Hope to have the chance to maybe meet you one day.

I appreciate the complements on the work.
Where are you located at? We work all over the country, I'm sure at some point I'll be in your area.

Chat with you soon.

By the way, my little girl (the youngest) loves your lion. "Look lion is pretty" she says.

[steelhead]

[QUOTE=kevin;103009]Gene you think there that hard ?
I've done straight[/

oh very easy

pie r square right?

Much much moor my friend!

[steelhead]

Pardon on the location, I see you moved to Georgia from NY.


......"I would guess the better something is cut the less you have to bend it."

I guess the real question would be: Do you have to steam some of the materials to shape them??

Curtis,

We have steam bent a few things before. Usually just a piece of cove molding. It's not at all practical in this industry. Hand cutting is better. CNC even better!

All of our staircases and parts are solid cut on the cnc. Very little bending involved.

[loriny]

I had a look at your web site. WOW You guys do some beautiful work.
Lorin

[steelhead]

Thank you. We are in the process of revamping the website now, a total redesign. We have about 5 years of additional info to be updated.

[gc3]

Curtis,

We have steam bent a few things before. Usually just a piece of cove molding. It's not at all practical in this industry. Hand cutting is better. CNC even better!

All of our staircases and parts are solid cut on the cnc. Very little bending involved.

even the curved stringers?

if from solids...wow must be some waste/time for those :eek:

[steelhead]

Depending on the design of the stair Gene. We use whichever method is the most piratical and gives us the best results. For instance we have one we are doing now that is a freestanding elliptical stair. The radius on the inside stringer goes from 7.5" to 200 + inches in a 4'-5' span. Pretty tuff to bend something like that and have it turn out right. I'll post pictures later when its done.