Craftsmanship is Back! - Touring Builders First Source Custom Mill Shop

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]All my builders out there that have ever done some woodworking or started in carpentry, love to visit a mill shop. I mean, look at this custom door right here. Absolutely gorgeous. Solid white oak. You can see the joinery. Custom made for a project. Pretty normal size.

[00:00:17]Right now, on the other hand, look at these two giant doors. For reference, I'm about 6' tall. These are incredible.

[00:00:27]On the build show today, we're visiting Capel, Texas, where the Builder's First Source team has a custom mill shop.

[00:00:34]We're going to see some really cool stuff. Today's build show sponsored by BFS. Let's get going.

[00:00:45]All right, y'all. Check out these giant custom doors. These have to be at least 10t tall. I'm guessing we've got a radius that isn't quite there yet. Look at the incredible carving work. I wonder what's happening here, though. What is actually going to occur in this spot?

[00:01:01]>> Funny you ask, Matt. These doors are actually one door that's going out to the job.

[00:01:06]>> Oh, so this isn't two different doors.

[00:01:08]This is one door. So, these are going to be combined together to make a 4-in thick door.

[00:01:13]>> Wow.

[00:01:14]>> We talked about it being 10t tall, >> tutor inspired. Some of the complications we have of building a door like this, we're requiring an electrified hinge.

[00:01:24]>> Wow. So, we've got to have power coming from the hinge over to the lock.

[00:01:28]>> Okay.

[00:01:28]>> So, they've got automatic lock on there.

[00:01:29]>> So, in other words, someone could press a button and the front door could be locked.

[00:01:32]>> That's correct.

[00:01:33]>> Got it.

[00:01:33]>> We've got a bronze uh lion that the customer supplied as well as a big giant pull on this backside.

[00:01:42]>> So, this is mocking up the actual thickness of the door cuz the door when these two slabs, you're looking at the the inside and the outside of the same door. They'll get combined into one. So, this door knocker is on a 4 inch thick door.

[00:01:55]>> That is correct. Yeah. The complication with this or the solution that we uh came up with for a challenge, we wanted to make sure that this hardware could be removed.

[00:02:05]>> Yeah.

[00:02:05]>> And reinstalled, whether it be for service, refinishing the door. So, this is the mockup. Once we get done fabricating these, this will all be put together on those panels.

[00:02:15]>> I love walnut. Chris, check out these beautiful veneers. Is this being ready for a door layup?

[00:02:21]>> Yes, it is. So, these are what we call flitches. You know, a lot of people when they see a door that comes out solid, they don't understand that they're pieces that are stitched together.

[00:02:29]>> So, is this actually saw from the log or is this peeled from the log?

[00:02:33]>> It is peeled from the log.

[00:02:36]>> Gotcha.

[00:02:36]>> This is a rotary cut how it's peeled off of the off the log. When we're doing doors, we're doing a book match. If you look at the veneers, it's the same veneer here. Y >> and it works its way out.

[00:02:46]>> Gotcha. If we're going to do paneling on a long wall, you may want to do a slip match to where the veneers repeat each other as they go down the wall.

[00:02:58]>> Gotcha.

[00:02:58]>> So, if you got significant panels that you're doing on a wall or a door, I like doing a book match so it works its way in out. If you've got a big long wall, slip match is consistent as it goes through the projects.

[00:03:11]>> Now, Chris, this door is probably a painted door. It's popppler. All my builder friends recognize this, but some great detailing. I I really like this curved top and you've got something that looks like it was router carved or maybe even carved with an actual wood carver in in the door. Our CNC did that. A little little floral design there.

[00:03:29]Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Popppler.

[00:03:31]The streak here. It's a paint grade wood.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah.

[00:03:33]>> But very stable, >> right?

[00:03:35]>> Uh we love using it and it paints up very nice and smooth and and finishes very well. Every finish carpenter likes to run base and popler, not other uh other >> Absolutely. And we also offer our doors and our our moldings to be pre- primed.

[00:03:51]>> That's awesome.

[00:03:51]>> So, we got a lot of our clients that will actually do that out on the job site. We could take on that role from a manufacturing standpoint. Saves them time out on the job site doing that.

[00:04:01]>> Now, in the exa exact opposite of popppler and paint grade, please don't ever paint over this.

[00:04:07]>> Ah, no. So this is this is burl walnut.

[00:04:10]So >> anytime you have burl uh whether it be walnut or crotch mahogany or some of the exotic woods.

[00:04:17]>> It's really a cancer of the tree. It's a growth.

[00:04:20]>> Interesting.

[00:04:20]>> And they kind of spin that off of there.

[00:04:22]Uh this is being set up for a panel and as you can see it's also matched from the center and works out.

[00:04:30]>> Amazing that the knife would be strong enough to cut through that and get that really thin shaving. And obviously the uh the price kind of dictates uh the level of effort it takes to get this done.

[00:04:42]>> Yeah, that's right. Now, what are you showing us with these doors?

[00:04:44]>> A few other interesting things. When we're doing slab doors, uh high-end slab doors, we've got a couple of different cores that we utilize in lie of particle board. Particle board serves a purpose and and and keeps the door somewhat straight. We prefer using Timber Strand.

[00:05:01]>> Yep.

[00:05:01]>> Which is LSL. It's extremely stable.

[00:05:03]It's got a bunch of the fibers that are glued together.

[00:05:06]>> How heavy is that piece?

[00:05:07]>> Not terrible. Really >> tighter than I expected in some respects.

[00:05:11]>> It's not. But if you get a door that's over 3 ft wide and over 8 ft tall, >> it gets heavy.

[00:05:16]>> It could get very heavy. So, we have a lot of doors that exceed that by a lot.

[00:05:21]>> So, this would be considered a timber strand core for a door. And what's this one next to us here? So, this uh when we get into very big doors uh sometimes called moving walls, whether it be pivots or pockets or uh sliding doors, we utilize a honeycomb core, which makes it somewhat lightweight. Uh it's still structurally sound and stays very straight, but we could take say a 5ftx 10 ft door that may weigh 700 lb and bring it down to 300.

[00:05:53]>> Makes a lot of sense. By no means does that make it light, >> but it helps out with the installation, with the lifetime of the hardware, and it's just easier for the client to use in the field.

[00:06:05]>> Yeah. And a lot of your hardware might have a restriction of no more than 450 lbs, let's say. And if this is a giant door, you know, they may not make hardware big enough to handle that weight, nor do you want your children getting their fingers caught on that uh tail end of that door moving. But if you look at this door too, Chris, you also have uh a giant piece of popler right here in the end. So anything we're gonna mount hinges, whatever, we still have good strength there. And then you see a lot of modern doors that have some type of substrate like this that might be MDF, >> HDF or Armorite or sometime even something above MDF >> cuz I could veneer over this and make it perfectly flat, perfectly smooth. What is this, Chris? What am I seeing here?

[00:06:48]So that >> slide something just slid when I was moving it. What is this?

[00:06:52]>> So this is a uh we're doing a speak easy door and I tell you what, you want to go check it out?

[00:06:58]>> Let's go.

[00:06:59]>> Am I seeing what I'm think I'm seeing?

[00:07:01]>> Yes, sir. You are.

[00:07:02]>> Is that a ridiculously thick single door?

[00:07:06]>> 7 in thick.

[00:07:07]>> This white oak door is 7 in thick. So >> And is it a pivot door?

[00:07:12]>> It is a pivot. So it's going to pivot within a wall assembly that's got paneling on both sides. Wow.

[00:07:18]>> So, it's got we've got about a 3/16 of an inch reveal that you're going to see going around the door.

[00:07:23]>> Y >> and that door will pivot right in the center of that. So, we just saw the uh the speak easy grill >> that goes on a door like this.

[00:07:31]>> Okay.

[00:07:31]>> This is fabricated in three pieces that were fabricated together. This went beyond us being able to run anything on a shape or anything manually. Y >> we had to get some special tooling for the CNC to be able to go back and forth and carve that nice smooth radius on both sides of the door.

[00:07:48]>> Wow, that's incredible. I mean, that door's got to weigh what, 800ish lb?

[00:07:52]>> Yeah, for sure. And they've got to haul it up to the third floor on that particular project.

[00:07:56]>> So, this is just a little bit of a cut through >> showing what the finished door is going to look like. And you kind of see >> the radius to be able to pivot in.

[00:08:04]>> That's right.

[00:08:05]>> Is is the Fitz Jurgens hardware able to handle that weight? Yes, >> that seems really heavy.

[00:08:10]>> Fritz Jurgens has solutions up to about 1,200 lb.

[00:08:14]>> Oh my gosh. How big is the is the pack that fits in the door? Is it massive or into the floor?

[00:08:20]>> Uh the going to the floor, it's just the plate. That's the beauty about Fritz Jurgens. All of the action tuck up inside the door.

[00:08:27]>> Oh wow. in lie of some of their uh competitors where you have to mount a box down in the subfloor or down in concrete which provides a complication in that you've got to have it set exactly in the right spot before you bring the door out.

[00:08:42]>> And how do you make sure that door doesn't slam and cut someone's fingers off when it closes?

[00:08:46]>> So with Rich Jurgens, you've got adjustability in the dampering.

[00:08:50]>> Oh, really?

[00:08:50]>> It'll hold open.

[00:08:53]Yes.

[00:08:53]>> And you can adjust the speed that it soft opens and closes. So, it it definitely uh helps out in that regard.

[00:08:59]>> Oh my gosh, there is some cool stuff happening here. This is why I called them the SWAT team of Milworks.

[00:09:06]But you're we're not done yet, are we?

[00:09:08]>> No, we're not.

[00:09:08]>> All right, let's keep going. All right, so Matt, now let's talk about some hardware that we're a fan of at the Ultra.

[00:09:13]>> I love good hardware.

[00:09:15]>> So, we just looked at that big pivot door.

[00:09:17]>> There's the Fritz Jurgens logo. Is it pivot hardware right here?

[00:09:20]>> It is, and we love it. Fritz Jurgens makes extremely heavy duty hardware.

[00:09:23]>> Look at that packaging. Looks like you're taking your iPhone out, doesn't it?

[00:09:27]>> It does.

[00:09:28]>> We're going to unpackage this guy right here.

[00:09:30]>> Oh, man.

[00:09:31]>> There's the action that mounts in the bottom of the door. Feel that thing.

[00:09:33]>> This slides up into the door. That's chunky. I feel like I could do some weightlifting with this. So, that's the actual pivot right there.

[00:09:41]>> Correct. Where you have just a plate down below.

[00:09:43]>> Okay.

[00:09:44]>> Which sinks into the floor.

[00:09:46]>> Correct.

[00:09:46]>> And then these two or three looks like they control some type of dampening maybe.

[00:09:51]>> So, yeah. So, you can control the speed at which the door soft closes, the dampering, also where it holds open and holds closed.

[00:09:58]>> That is beautiful. I got to say, I'm very impressed. I've done some pivot doors, but I've not used that hardware yet. I will definitely be looking into that.

[00:10:07]>> Highly suggested.

[00:10:07]>> Now, what are we looking at here?

[00:10:08]>> So, here we've got a concealed hinges.

[00:10:12]We're a big fan of Simon's work Texas.

[00:10:15]Uh what we're showing on this particular unit here is actually where we can put 3/4inch cladding on both the frame and the door when we're doing a concealed door and either a panled wall opening all that way too, right? 180° >> 180° >> and the white on this demo is showing like, hey, we might clad this in the field and the dark here might be a door that actually comes out of your shop.

[00:10:36]>> Correct. Now, with their particular setup here to be able to achieve that 3/4 in cladding on there, >> the hinge actually is going to stick out of the door and the frame, >> these back plates go on the back side of the jam to provide that extra support.

[00:10:51]>> So, there is a little bit of work that the carpenter has to do in the field >> to uh hog out the back of that paneling to accept the hinge.

[00:10:59]>> And I think this is obvious, but I want to say it anyways. Your team, Chris, here in the custom shop can source, install, route, send this out to the job all ready to go that the finish carpenter is just installing in the opening and not having to route that necessarily.

[00:11:16]>> Absolutely. And we prefer that. Uh when it comes to pivot hinges, conceal hinges, and Harmon hinges we'll talk about in a minute. We prefer sourcing those cuz it really needs to be fit in the shop.

[00:11:27]>> Yeah. in lie of an external hardware supplier supplying the hinges that are going to be installed in the door later.

[00:11:32]>> Makes sense. I like it.

[00:11:34]>> Speaking of like, so a lot of our uh interior doors and exterior doors are going to use full mortise door locks.

[00:11:41]>> I love a good mortise.

[00:11:42]>> So that requires a CNC mill >> where this is going to fit inside the door.

[00:11:46]>> Yep.

[00:11:47]>> I will tell you that we've learned along the years that the the complicated part of the process is the CNC route going in here. We highly suggest not doing the surface plates >> until the installer is doing the finished hardware in the field.

[00:12:01]>> We've had situations where the customer changed their hardware plates or or or setup and it's caused a little bit of problem out there in the field. Those could be just simple drill holes that are done with the installer.

[00:12:13]>> Now, this has nothing to do with hardware, but I got to ask you, unlacquered brass, is that back in style again now?

[00:12:18]>> It is.

[00:12:19]>> I mean, look at that. You got to you got to you got to break out your brasso.

[00:12:22]Like when I was a kid, I had to shine up a bunch of stuff before I had Thanksgiving dinner at my house cuz it was unlaced brass. This is really hot right now. It's a trend.

[00:12:31]>> I've been in the business long enough to have gone through brass, out of brass, and now back to brass.

[00:12:35]>> Yeah, me too.

[00:12:36]>> So, but this is beautiful cuz if this is your entry door, hit this button, it'll now lock when it closes behind or leave it unlocked and we can open and close the door. It's mortise is really, really nice. It's nice hardware.

[00:12:50]>> When it comes to this type of hardware for each of the doors, typically the external hardware supplier for the builder is going to be supplying us this. We'll ask for a template or an actual piece. So, we'll mill it out.

[00:13:01]They'll ship that hardware to the job site. Then the installer installs it on the job.

[00:13:05]>> Yeah. This has the knobs already in it already, which still look beautiful.

[00:13:09]>> That still looks brass. It hadn't been handled yet.

[00:13:10]>> It hasn't been touched yet. The oil in our hands hasn't gotten it yet.

[00:13:13]>> Some unique things. Palmet hinges. I don't know if you ever seen these, but these are >> familiar with that name. So these are European style pal that lift off.

[00:13:22]>> Kind of neat.

[00:13:22]>> These are a couple different styles from some previous projects that we have done.

[00:13:26]>> Cool.

[00:13:26]>> This particular one here, we received them. We had 500 of these hinges.

[00:13:31]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:13:32]>> They were hand forged. So there wasn't one that was exactly the same.

[00:13:37]>> So what we did was CNCed them down to a 302th of an inch. And then they all had to be completed by hand >> cuz they were all off just a little bit.

[00:13:47]>> Just a little bit. The wobbishab you have a custom handmade hinge.

[00:13:50]>> Yes. So >> custom cast.

[00:13:52]>> So those are the kind of stuff that keep you up at night there.

[00:13:54]>> Now what is this? I'm not familiar with that at all.

[00:13:57]>> This is a Harmon hinge.

[00:13:59]>> Harmon.

[00:13:59]>> Yeah. We're doing more and more of these. This is actually a door setup that we looked at yesterday.

[00:14:04]>> Okay.

[00:14:04]>> When you open the doors, it creates a cased opening and they fold back flat into the If you remember seeing that.

[00:14:10]>> Yeah. You sent me some pictures about that. So, you've actually got a you got a a a panel on the top as well as the sides >> and it looks like a deep cased opening when they're open, but you can close them and close off that room.

[00:14:22]>> That's correct. So, when you the doors are in a closed position or open, you see the door panels and you see a panel cased opening and then the doors actually fold back up into that panel cased opening.

[00:14:32]>> And Harmon, is that a manufacturer or is that a style of hinge?

[00:14:36]>> So, that is both. That was a manufacturer and a style. And there's other people that replicated along the way, but Harmon was the original >> purveyors of our >> Harman hinge. I've never installed one of these before. That's really cool.

[00:14:47]>> So, speaking of Harman hinge doors, we just happen to have one.

[00:14:50]>> Ah, this is that same hinge we were looking at.

[00:14:52]>> That's right. So, you saw one in the field yesterday, which we can show everybody.

[00:14:56]>> But this is kind of how those hinges operate.

[00:14:58]>> Wow.

[00:15:00]That is a complicated routing job. So, look here where it's all prepped. Look how much work went into that. It's got this pocket. It's got a mortise.

[00:15:12]That is not an easy thing to uh to get prepped and routed for. That is wild.

[00:15:17]>> And there's where it goes back in the door there with a giant piece of popler.

[00:15:21]>> The door is actually rounded to to fold in there. So, it's going to be filled in. But that gives you an idea about how that engine mounts in there.

[00:15:27]>> Wow. That's neat. I'm going to I'm going to do that. I definitely need toh find a project to utilize those Harman engines.

[00:15:33]That's really cool. Guys, let me explain Chris Lewig and the Ultra team at Builder First Source. I kind of think of these guys as the Navy Seals of Milwork Suppliers. Chris and his team do all kinds of impressive, crazy one-off projects where they manage all kinds of stuff for the builders they work with.

[00:15:53]The builders really feel like he and his team are a partner in their business.

[00:15:57]And if you're a builder who's building those types of projects, you know, $10 million and up, $20 million and up projects, you may want to get a hold of Chris and the Ultra team for your projects. But if you're like me and you do kind of normal projects as well, know that Builder's First Source, 570 locations around the country, has access to multiple Millwork locations. And frankly, a lot of things you may not know they do. You know, they're not just a lumber or a trust supplier. They do windows and doors. They do cabinetry.

[00:16:31]They do all kinds of mill work and interior doors. And they can do these special projects for you, too. You don't have to be a building multi-million dollar houses to do some of these special projects. And lastly, I want to tell you, I can't tell you all the prices, but for instance, they told me what they charged the builder for this giant custom door, and it was way less than I expected. Like I expected that to be a six-f figureure project. It wasn't.

[00:16:57]Uh this was not affordable obviously, but nowhere near what I thought it could have gone to in terms of the amount of time and effort that it took to build this 4-in thick front door that's fully custom. So, if you have some special projects, talk to your local builder first source. Find out what they do and what they can do for you and give them a call if you have some of those special projects. I'll also leave in the description below the contact information for the Ultra team if you have the kind of projects that would mate with what you saw on this build show today. But big thanks to Builder First Source. They've been a longtime partner of ours. I've been a customer for almost 25 years of theirs. Uh both when I worked in Portland, Oregon and when I worked in Austin, Texas. And they're quite large. As I said, I think 570 locations nearly nationwide now. So, big thanks to those guys for sponsoring today's video. If you're not currently a subscriber, guys, hit that subscribe button below. We've got new content here every Friday. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Otherwise, I'll see you next time on the Build Show.