<h1>Time saving design</h1><p class="byline">By Kim Kaiser</p><p class="deck">Kelsey Woodworks uses solid design software to create designs of small shops</p><p>The time spent in the design phase of cabinet or furniture building can be a nuance, and often those in the shop don't have the time to devote to a design program to truly become experts. That's where Kirk and Connie Kelsey of Kelsey Woodworks come in.</p><p>Before shifting the focus of their business, the Kelseys ran a small woodshop building primarily furniture to sell at local galleries. They continue to build wood snowflakes that are a big item at the galleries during the holiday season.</p><p>Realizing the time constraints cabinetmakers are under, the husband and wife team shifted the focus of their woodworking shop and began offering up their expertise in design to other woodworkers. The relationship has proved beneficial to both the Kelseys and the woodworkers they work with, Kirk says.</p><h2>SOPHISTICATED DESIGN</h2><p>Kirk and Connie Kelsey didn't start their careers as cabinet or furniture designers; instead they started off as a mechanical engineer and an engineering technician, respectively, at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard's design department.</p><p>Both had extensive experience working with AutoCAD, CAM programming and production before starting Kelsey Woodworks, so the transition into a design-based business was a natural one. Line drawings made in 2-D CAD can be hard for customers to conceptualize; they want to see what the product will really look like, Kirk explains.</p><p>"The days of talking to a customer and scribbling out a design on the back of an envelope are, for most woodworkers, gone," Kirk says. "Their customers are more sophisticated and want to see what the finished product will look like and exactly what it will cost."</p><p>Knowing this, Kirk began to search for design software that would create 3-D renderings of the final product. His search led him to Alibre, a 3-D solid modeling software.</p><h2>SOLID DESIGN</h2><p>The software allows the Kelseys to model based on parameters, keeping track of the lengths, angles and volumes, which cut down on the time needed to make changes as they come up. Before, a change in size or scale of one part meant a lot of reworking, but now the program easily makes all of the adjustments that one change would require.</p><p>"If we're working on a pantry and it needs to change from 12 ½ in. to 13 ¼ in., we only need to make the adjustment in one view. The software will automatically change all of the other views," Kirk says. "Before we would have had to go in and individually make the change on each view."</p><p>The ability to be able to change the parameters of each view all at once significantly cuts down on the amount of time each design takes, Kirk explains. The software also has a function that will check for any missing parts in the design. For example, if you create a tenon with out also creating a mortise, the software will alert you of the mistake, Kirk says.</p><h2>TIME AND MONEY SAVERS</h2><p>The goal of Kelsey Woodworks is to use Kirk and Connie's expertise in design and manufacturing to provide design services that are better, and perhaps more importantly, more affordable than those a woodworker would be able to provide in-house, Kirk says. Their customers tend to be smaller shops — similar to their previous operation — that may not be able to afford the expense of design software and hardware, not to mention the expense of maintaining a design staff that has extensive experience and proficiency.</p><p>"Our designs allow our customers to know exactly what a piece will look like, how much wood and how many fasteners or fittings to buy. They can estimate accurately how much time it will take to build, and they can tell their customer exactly what it will cost and where the money will be spent," Kirk says.</p><p>Time and how to spend it is the biggest critical issue of woodworkers, Kirk says. "Turning architectural drawings into buildable designs with a cut list often isn't the best use of a woodworker's time," he says.</p><p>The Kelseys view themselves as virtual woodworkers. Kirk and Connie are able to produce 3-D drawings that are photo-realistic, Kirk says. They have even taken a picture of the site and used a photo editing program to show how the design will look once it is installed, which Kirk says, makes the woodworkers sale much easier.</p><p>There were a few initial challenges however. For example, solid design technology is just starting to make its way into the woodworking business, Kirk says. Since there are not a lot of woodworking models out there, the Kelseys had to create their own. However, now that the model exists they can create a design in a fraction of the time old design methods would have taken, he explains.</p><p>Focusing their energy on creating these models means the Kelseys' customers can focus their energy in the shop instead of in front of a computer. "We're getting a level of expertise you just can't always get when you are doing the work on the shop floor too," Kirk says.</p><div class="sidebar"><h2>Kelsey Woodworks</h2><p><b>Location:</b> Rockaway Beach, Ore.</p><p><b>Products:</b> Solid modeling design services</p><p><b>Market area:</b> United States</p><p><b>Employees:</b> 3</p><p><b>Owners:</b> Kirk and Connie Kelsey</p></div>