How Doors Are Made On The Kval Door Machine: Behind the Build at Magbee Contractors Supply, Part 2

Most people who sell doors have never seen one built. That is a problem. The product is more technical every year, the margins are tighter, and the warranty claims come fast when something is installed incorrectly.

In this episode of Behind the Build, I walk through Magbee Contractors Supply in Winder, Georgia, with owner Bob Magbee. We tour the custom door shop and watch the process of making a door from start to finish.

You’ll learn how doors are made on the Kval door machine, the Lamborghini of door machines. We cover the steps it takes to run a vertically integrated door manufacturing line at scale, including hinge routing, screw application, weather stripping, and threshold seal protection for the jobsite.

You’ll learn what a split jamb is and how it comes apart in the field so casing can be pre-applied at the shop. We see a V-nailer in action, making brickmold hoops, and discover the benefits of assembling and applying these to the door unit in the shop instead of the field.

Bob talks about why being vertically integrated matters for a dealer, how it solves warranty problems for builders, and why volume matters when you’ve made this kind of investment.

This is the kind of behind the scenes content I wish I had when I started selling doors. If you are a dealer, a sales rep, or a builder, this door shop tour will change how you think about the product on your jobsite.

What you'll take away today:

How doors are made from raw components into a finished unit.

Why the Kval door machine is the most trusted piece of equipment in a serious custom door shop, and what it can run.

How split jamb installation works in the field and why dealers in Georgia pre-apply casing in the shop to save builders time.

Why Magbee Contractors Supply built a vertically integrated custom door shop and what that solves for builders on warranty and turnaround.

Tips that door sellers should know about how doors are made.

Explore Magbee Luxury's Beautiful Products:
https://magbeeluxury.com/

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Transcript

Welcome To The Door Shop

Stefanie Couch 0:00

Welcome to Behind the Build with Stephanie Cows. Today I'm here in Winder, Georgia with Bob Magbee at MAGB Contractor Supply. We're about to take you behind the scenes to see all of the things that happen here at MAGB.

Cutting Trim And Building Casings

SPEAKER_01 0:12

This is where the vast majority of our doors are made on these little all your interiors and exteriors, and we actually pre-hang on a ton of them.

Stefanie Couch 0:22

All this machinery that's green is Pavol, which is I think the best school machinery there is.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

It takes a year to get one of those machines.

Stefanie Couch 0:31

Yeah, and they're very expensive. They're very expensive. But they have a lot of technology. So you're actually showing here what length of the cut and the trim, and then you're saying what it sets it for you. And then it's running it based off of that. He's mitering one by four right here, and he's doing it for each side. So he's got one hand on the other, and one hand on this side. So this is a V-nailer. She's actually gonna put this casing together to nail it. This is called a V nailer because of the shape here. Taking two pieces, this machine is gonna V-nail it together, and then this is gonna be one side of that casing hoop. And then she's gonna take the other leg, which they've cut on their machines straight to sides and by hand, and then they are going to V nail this out of staples. So one thing about a door shop is there's like a million components, and you have to have a lot of different things to make one door unit, and a lot of people or machines have to touch it. It's a very labor-intensive thing, even with technologies. So, like you've got they call these brick mold hoops, right? Right. So you've got trim here, this is interior set up for a unit to put on here already. So this saves a little bit when you actually make the unit.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

These are all cry to link off a computer, and we just assemble them together, and then it also makes the application on the door unit quicker.

Split Jambs And Why Georgia Uses Them

Stefanie Couch 2:03

Well, in Georgia, we do something that a lot of places don't do, so we use something called split jams. Alright, so this is a split jam, this is a head jam. This is gonna come apart like this, and then in the field, you can take this apart so you can actually install this with casing on it, and then they're gonna nail this in. So this is already installed on these units you're seeing behind me, but this is how it works. These are not common in all areas. So we'll look on this right here, and this has actually got trim applied on both sides already because of the split dam. So you take it apart in the field and install it. Don't see this very often in other places. This is the hoop of the trim, and they're gonna put it on one side and then flip it and do it on the other. You can make it a hoop already, but still very manual.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, it is, and it's but it's a lot more accurate because they put the hoop down and they're not having to, you know, it's the length, the header's the length, absolutely, and the uh legs are the length, so it's just much quicker for them to put it on. Yeah. And and more accurate.

The Million Dollar Prehang Machine

Stefanie Couch 3:08

Alright, so this is the cabal machine. You're running singles and interior doubles on this, and then exterior singles on this. This machine will run uh 6'8 and 8.0 at the 994X. This is basically like a Lamborghini of door machines, like the best thing you can buy.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

This costs more than a million dollar ounce.

Stefanie Couch 3:29

Yeah. A lot of dorms gotta go through this to paint for this bad boy. So he's putting the leg jam on one side of this interior, and this machine will do interiors and exterior. Now applying the hinges and the screws. So the screws are coming from the hopper in the top. Now this door unit is going to have another jam applied and a head jam. This is an automatic nailer right here. These are gonna automatically nail the casing and the head jam. Alright, so now we're putting the head jam in. This is a split jam. So this jam actually has two pieces that go together, and in the field they're gonna take those two pieces apart to make it be able to be applied and installed with the casing. If you have a heavy door, split jams are never a good idea. If you have something like a holocore commodity door, which is what we're looking at right now, these work really well.

Exterior Jambs And Weatherstripping Kerfs

Stefanie Couch 4:28

Alright, so we're gonna run an exterior door. This is an exterior two-panel door. The jam's on an exterior difference, so you can see as you're looking at this that it actually has weather stripping in it, and it is a one-piece jam. So this is a 4916 exterior jam he's putting into there. The weather strip is already applied. Goes into a little groove called a kerf, and the weather stripping has a kerf on it, so it fits in there like a puzzle piece. Now it's routing for the exterior hinges, and it's applying the hinges. Now he's manually having to put in the screws with the machine and the hinges he's putting on there. This is going to roll down, and we're gonna put the other jam on the other side. This is gonna actually turn this for us. So this is diverting this to the exterior line, which you can see here has got a bunch of stuff already

Installing Full Lite Glass Inserts

Stefanie Couch 5:27

made. These doors are actually cut out, so they are cut out for inserts where you're gonna put a full view glass in this. And as you can see, these doors already have a double bore here, which is made for a deadbolt and a single lock. You're only really gonna see that on the exterior. These are gonna actually go into those doors over there that we just saw that were cut out for a full light. On a door insert, you actually have two pieces that go together, but they actually come apart when they're installed, and then the glass is inside. So this is a pretty common commodity full light glass, 22 by 64 for a 3.0 or a 2.8 door. So they're actually looking at the paperwork from the interior of the shop, telling them exactly what glass needs to go into this door, what type of seal, and what kind of jams and casing are gonna go on it. So he's gonna take this apart like a sandwich. That's called the lip-like frame. Those are plastic and they are bolded in the factory, and then the glass is put in there. This part of the machine, if you did not have glass, it would just keep rolling past it. So he's lifting this up with a machine so he doesn't have to do that manually. And then they're gonna fit this glass insert right in that hole, and then they're gonna put the lip-like frame on the side, and this is the interior of the glass. They're putting the screws in. The screws always go to the interior, otherwise, somebody could just unscrew the glass and walk right in the house. Once these are installed and painted in the home, they're gonna actually put some little plugs in there that will cover those screw holes. But they don't do that in the factory, they those are taped on the glass, and you do that after you install the door and paint it. These are the little things that I wish I knew before I started selling doors, like how this works, you know? Until you see it, you don't really know.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

We're very vertically integrated as much as anybody in the industry, really. Yeah, you can't go any further uh than this.

One Stop Shop And Fixing Mistakes Fast

Stefanie Couch 7:28

But you do have to have volume. I mean, it doesn't make sense to put a book on this piece up. Yeah, it's too expensive to start it and machinery and the people, but you guys are doing a ton of all this.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah.

Stefanie Couch 7:38

The good part about it is that, like you said, you can do everything so people can one-stop shop. They don't have to go different places to get custom.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Well, and if something's wrong, you're not going, well, we bought it from Fred, and you know, like we just go. If there's an issue, we we can solve it though, because we're putting them together.

Stefanie Couch 7:55

Yeah, absolutely. So they're nailing in the head jam here to the frame on the leg jam on a hit on a hinge jam. So you're looking here, these are handed, uh, just for somebody that may not know. This

Threshold Details And Jobsite Protection

Stefanie Couch 8:07

left side is a hinge jam, and the right side is the strike jam, and then you have a head jam. Every door unit has that, even doubles. Um, and then they're gonna put a threshold or a seal on the bottom here. They're doing a little caulking here. Make sure it's all sealed up like it should be. So, something that they do here that some people may or may not do is they're actually have a seal cover or seal protector on this seal. So during construction, people are walking over this, this thing will get really stuffed up. That's just a little extra safety point there. Then they're putting that on there to be able to transport and slide that across the pallet without the bottom getting messed up. Alright, so this table, he's gonna press a button with his foot, it's gonna lift up. That is keeping them from having all these injuries that can happen by doing the same thing a million times a year. That thing is done. Now he's gonna put casing on it. So this is actually what the threshold or the seal looks like without that still cover on it. This one has a wood piece here, some of them are composite here. This is a cap, it's what we call this, and they're adjustable. This one is mill. This is like more of a commodity seal that's really inexpensive. On every single exterior door unit, there's some type of threshold. Alright, so now they're gonna put exterior brick mold on

Brick Mold Fit Up And Final Wrap

Stefanie Couch 9:23

this. 180 brick mold is the most common exterior trim that there is or casing, and they are applying that here. They've got a head jam and two legs. As you can see, he's having to measure this. So those are made for 3.0 doors, and he's cutting it for a 28. We'll see you next time.