eNews for the Woodworking Window, Door and Millwork Industry

May 2012 Edition

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In this eNews...

Now Operational! Rangate North Woodworking Solutions Inc.

Increasing Demand on Tilt/Turn Window and Lift-Slide Door Knowledge

"Industry Partners" Business Approach Benefits Me?

Two New Industry Partners

Rangate Euro Tour 2012 - Productive and Enjoyable!

Shop Pals

New Products - Rangate Tool Cleaners by Zuani, Pizzi Hand-Held Glue Dispensing Units

Rangate North Woodworking Solutions Inc.

Now Operational To Serve Canada Directly

Rangate Inc. has been supplying the North American woodworking industry with tooling and accessories for the last four years. As one of our goals to provide more seamless services to the Canadian market and customers, we are thrilled to announce that we have successfully setup Rangate North Woodworking Solutions Inc. in Vancouver, B.C.!

"Our Canadian customers no longer have to deal with mailing cheques to us in the State or being charged extra with foreign transactions fees on their credit cards," Greg said. "Our new Vancouver office is now set up for our Canadian customers to make the transactions within Canada much conveniently and 'borderlessly.' Let us take care of any potential procedures such as importation internally, and let our customers focus on what they do best."

We continue to offer the same product lines. We have started shipping directly to the Canadian clients across the country from Vancouver, and we plan to increase our inventory level over time.

"Canada is an important market for Rangate Inc. and for me personally as a Canadian. Canadian woodworking businesses have long since adopted the European technologies; the industry has an excellent potential for producing more energy-efficient European windows and doors as well as other solid wood related products in the country. Our goal here is to listen then provide solutions by simplifying and shortening the product selection and payment process, and making the delivery easy and transparent to our customers."

Both the new Rangate North Woodworking Solutions Inc. and Rangate Inc. offices can be reached by the same existing toll free 888-810-2522 or e-mail at [email protected] (or now also at [email protected]).

Rangate Inc.	Rangate North Woodworking Solutions Inc.
1001 Avenida Pico, Suite C283	317-1350 Burrard Street
San Clemente, CA  V6Z 0C2	Vancouver, BC  92673
U.S.A.	Canada

Cheers!

Increasing Demand on Tilt/Turn Window

and Lift/Slide Door Knowledge

An Update From Alpine Technical Workshops(c)

2012 has started off fantastically strong for Alpine Technical Workshops(c).  We have had four workshops so far this year (most ever), and we plan to have another five additional exciting workshops before the year end.  Our new three-day SHAPER FOCUSED workshop has also taken off and continued to sell out.  Now it accounts for 50% of our available workshops.

Alpine Technical Workshops(c) are attended by at most four woodworkers in each window/door workshop to ensure proper interactions and learning.

New Hires Training - Sent by Tilt/Turn and Lift/Slide Shop Owners

We have companies that have taken previous workshops utilizing Alpine to train their new hires so that all woodworkers will work off the same skill sets.  This turns into more proactive quality control and production efficiency as well as less reactive customer service.

We believe that Alpine Technical Workshops(c) is becoming an even stronger community over time with new attendees...  Our next Shaper workshop is June 22-24 (3 days)...

>>READ MORE

"Industry Partners" Business Approach Benefits Me?

How Does It Work For Me?

At Rangate Inc. and Alpine Technical Workshops(c), our missions are simple:

• Focus on Solutions Driven: Listen to our customers; advise products only to fit on our customers' needs;
• Care for Bottom Lines: Optimize our business operations which translates to our customers' sound return on investment;
• Server Holistically: Build and maintain suppliers and industry partnerships to provide end-to-end knowledge, products and services to support our customers.

Left: Bob Bein of Colorspec Coatings International demostrates proper application of water-based finish
Right: Functional Fenestration Inc. is an industry partner in the hardware and gasketing segment of the tilt-turn window and lift-slide door industry.

For most good businesses, the first two points can be done successfully with efforts.  We think to be greater, we are to invest in the last point, especially for smaller and medium size shops.  And we are not doing for commission or referral fees.  It's about providing and end-to-end support to our customers.

In our industry, it's not about how well an individual tool or machine works...

>>READ MORE

Two New Industry Partners

Rangate Annoucing...

Bob Bein Of Colorspec Coatings International

Tom Talbot Of Glen Oak Lumber & Milling Inc.

Bob Bein of Colorspec Coatings International

Bob Bein of Colorspec Coatings International has been a strong supporter of the Alpine Technical Workshops(c) and our attendees.  Bob has 37 years experience in the wood finishing industry and has been with Colorspec Coatings International since 2001.  His specialty includes turn-key spray room design, color style development and finishing process efficiency.

Industry Partner in Finishing - Bob Bein gives a finishing demo and shares his knowledge on water-based finishing at the Alpine Technical Workshops(c).

Bob has been our workshop guest speaker/instructor for a few times to share his knowledge on various finishing processes and to demonstrate proper application.  He also shares his experience on choosing finishing products.

"Woodworkers look for a finishing system that can complete the job in a single shift.  Besides the quality and durability of the finish, warranty support and product safety for the employee, environment and the final customers are also highly regarded," Bob explains.  "The top benefits of selecting a water-based finish are that it has faster throughput time, better weather performance, less waste and easier, clean-up and removal."

>>READ MORE

Tom Talbot of Glen Oak Lumber & Milling Inc.

We first met Tom, Founder and CEO of Glen Oak Lumber and Milling Inc., at the fensterbau/frontale 2012 exhibition in Nuremberg Germany during our Rangate Euro Tour 2012.  Immediately, we felt his positive energy and can-do attitude.  We have since come to know Tom for his strong leadership and contribution in the lumber industry since late 1970's.

Besides offering a wide variety of high quality products, Glen Oak has been an advocate and practitioner  of green initiatives since 1984, including the use of...

>>READ MORE

Rangate Euro Tour 2012 - Productive and Enjoyable

Toured Factories, Local Shops and Woodworking Exhibition

Rangate would like to thank our attendees who joined us aboard on the Rangate Euro Tour 2012 as well as our supplier partners who helped making the series of events a reality.  It was TRULY an amazing experience

Day-by-day schedule of events and pictures can be viewed on our Facebook page here.

Fourteen of us started off in Rovereto, Italy, where Cristian and Tomas Zuani gave us a tour of their tooling factory after a Zuani presentation discussion on the European window system, window efficiency and PassivHaus standards.  25%-30% of the building energy loss is from windows.  A typical 1970's Italian style house utilizes about 320 kWh/m2 annually.  And the German PassivHaus standard requires  a total use of power energy to be less than 50 kWh/m2 annually for a domestic building.  It's clear that in order to become less fuel dependent, we need to offer the already-available higher-energy efficient window and door products.  It would be even better if we can produce them in local communities to create jobs and reduce transportation energy and costs.

We then visited both the Felder Group and Martin Woodworking Machine Corp's factories in Austria and Germany respectively.  We were even greeted by Mr. Felder himself in Austria!  Along the way, we have visited local window, door and millwork production shops.  Not to mention there were all great meals with excellent wine spirit and food in between; Cristian Zuani even took us on an informative grappa production tour at a local distillery!

All that ended at the fensterbau/frontale 2012 and Holz-Handwerk 2012 tradeshow in Nuremberg, Germany, where we had three days to check out the new products and meet up old friends like Umberto Pizzi as well as Gerhard Barth Michael Hein of Barth Maschinenbau.

Here are the feedbacks of the tour:

"Thank you… for the great experience. Manufacturing plants, shops… were amazing."

"It's great to see where and how my tooling and machines are made.  It's also good to see the investments in technologies and employees as well as their business strategies so that I feel comfortable growing my business with them."

"It was indeed an extremely exciting trip, and I have gotten so much out of it.  I have attended numerous trade shows; however, none has even come close to this one."

"I just want to thank you... for everything you did, the dinner, being our host at your factory, driving and translating for us... answering all my questions and so much more…  I think the trip was a great success for everyone."

I also have to say personally that the friendships developed along the way will last a life time; not only was this an informative and professionally focused trip, it was also a great medium to build relationships among the woodworkers and business owners while having a ton of fun.  And with the momentum we have, Rangate is already laying out ideas for the Rangate European Tour 2013.

We want to thank our supplier partners (ordered by tour schedule):
Zuani S.r.l.
Cascade Woodwork
Functional Fenestration Inc.
Felder Group
Martin Woodworking Machines Corp.
Pizzi Industries S.r.l.
Barth Maschinenbau

Greg

Shop Pals

Sticking Around No Matter What We Are Doing

These are submitted by Tule Peak Timber, these shop pals look like they are patiently observing in and around the shop.

And here, we have Rangate's receptionist.  Woof!  Thanks for colla-ring Rangate.  Woof!

Please feel free to submit photos of your Shop Pals be shared here; we love a few words about your shop pals also.

New Products

Rangate Tool Cleaner by Zuani

Pizzi Hand-Held Glue Dispensing Units

Rangate Tool Cleaner

Ever wonder how to properly clean your carbide insert cutters?  What about your aluminum alloy tools?  We are often asked how to get the tools properly cleaned to protect the investments.

Now Rangate offers two tooling cleaning agents:  One for carbide (Product # RCL10000) and one for aluminum alloy (Product # RCL20000).  Both are imported from Zuani S.r.l. in Italy, our insert tooling supplier partner.

• For Carbide Tooling Cleaning - RCL10000
• For Aluminium Alloy Tooling Cleaning - RCL 20000

"The product is a water-based, non foaming agent.  It's a detergent that is mixed in hot water, both capable of manual or ultrasonic operations,"  Cristian Zuani explains.  "(The RCL10000 tooling cleaning agent) is specifically designed for the use of deoxidization and cleaning of steel moulds...  It is advantageously used on steel, iron, stainless steel to remove cleaning posts, carbonaceous residuals, glues, paints, etc."  And the RCL20000 product is specifically for aluminum alloy tool cleaning.

Both RCL10000 and the RCL20000 are available in their own 1-kg bags, sold for US$34.95 each.  The 1-kg (2.2 lbs) cleaning agent, mixed into hot water, is capable of providing 50 liters (13.2 Gallons) of cleaning fluids (a 2% concentration detergent).  Mix it, soak it, dry it then lube it.  These cleaning agents provide cost-effective ways to preparing your next cleaner and smoother cut, and it will prolong the longevity of the cutterheads and insert knives.

Please contact us for additional information.  888-810-2522 or [email protected]

Pizzi Hand-Held Glue Dispensing  Units

Our Pizzi hand-held glue rollers are cost effective way to apply glue to wide surface areas, and it's a great way experience the high quality of our Pizzi products.

• Roller Units Available in 72mm, 120mm, 150mm and 180mm Lengths
• Standard Rubber Roller or for Heavier Glue Delivery - Sponge Roller

Each unit comes with the hand-held glue spreader, one rubber roller and a stand support.  72mm, 120mm, 150mm and 180mm units are available.

Optionally, sponge rollers can be ordered to support glue jobs that require a larger amount of glue delivery at once.

Please contact us for additional information.  888-810-2522 or [email protected]

Greg Godbout 888-810-2522 x103 [email protected]

Christopher Chan (Operations/IT) 888-810-2522 x101 [email protected]

Carlos Espinal Gil (en Español) 888-810-2522 x105 [email protected]

John Tremble (WA/OR/HI, British Columbia) 425-894-5502 [email protected]

www.rangate.com

www.alpineworkshops.com