Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast

Hosted by Jacob Edmond

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Episodes

118

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Welcome to Verify In Field. Your host, Jacob Edmond, CEO of DuckWorks, will be interviewing experts in the architectural millwork industry to bring you insights and knowledge about updates, techniques, and challenges in millwork. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, this podcast is for you. Tune in biweekly on Wednesday for a new episode, and visit duckworksmw.com to join our growing community of millwork professionals.

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60 recent

November 11, 2026Episode 2038 min

Connor Paton on Building a Millwork Shop Around Its People

Text us your feedback on the podcast! Introduction In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Connor Paton, owner of Connor Paton Fine Millwork in Austin, Texas. Connor shares how growing up around his father's garage wood shop led him into the trades, how he went from field installations and trim carpentry to running a full cabinet shop with an engineering department and CNC, and what he learned from the leaps that shaped his business along the way. He and Jacob talk about investing in automation without losing the handcrafted feel, building a culture that keeps skilled craftsmen around for years, why shop owners have a responsibility to train the next generation, and how AI and stronger project management could change the industry. Whether you run a shop, lead a team, or are thinking about starting your own business, this conversation offers an honest look at growing a millwork company around its people. About Our Guest Connor Paton is the owner of Connor Paton Fine Millwork, a luxury residential millwork company in Austin, Texas. He grew up around woodworking, since his father's garage doubled as a wood shop, and he has worked in construction since he was young, starting with framing and siding before moving into trim carpentry while attending community college in Austin. He eventually left school to pursue the trade full time, working in luxury commercial shops on restaurant outfitting and later in a luxury residential shop, where he started from the bottom and honed his skills. After about eight years working for others and growing into a managerial role, he started his own company about five years ago. What began as cabinetry installations and trim carpentry has grown into a full shop that handles projects beginning to end, from kitchens and closets to door packages and complex architectural moldings, supported by an in-house engineering department, CNC, and automated edgebanding. Where to Learn More Connor Paton Fine Millwork Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connorpatonfinemillwork/ Connor Paton Fine Millwork LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-paton-a49ba3254/ Connor Paton Fine Millwork Website: Connor Paton Fine Millwork Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

October 28, 2026Episode 1931 min

Inside the DuckWorks and UPSA Design Build Lab with Santiago Solis

Text us your feedback on the podcast! Introduction In this episode, host Jacob Edmond and DuckWorks managing director Nicolae Cespedes sit down with Santiago Solis, the instructor in charge of the Fab Lab at UPSA, the university in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Together, they talk about the Design Build Lab, a partnership between DuckWorks and UPSA that puts DuckWorks drafters and engineers in the shop alongside UPSA students to build what they draw. Santiago shares how the Fab Lab works, how his students responded to the program, and how the lab has already shaped UPSA's own curriculum. Along the way, the conversation covers why DuckWorks went looking for shop access in the first place, how each Build Squad is structured like a real project with a real client, why mistakes on the shop floor have become one of the most valuable parts of the program, and the gap between on-site cabinet building in Bolivia and the prefabricated, AWI standard work DuckWorks does for its clients. Whether you train drafters, teach design, or want to understand why shop experience matters for anyone drawing millwork, this conversation shows what happens when education and industry build together. About Our Guest Santiago Solis leads the Fab Lab at UPSA in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. He joined the university four years ago as a part-time professor teaching one or two subjects, moved into a full-time teaching role, and later joined the university's administration before taking charge of the Fab Lab. His own area is industrial design. The Fab Lab sits under FADU, UPSA's architecture and design school, while also working with the university's commercial side on supplies and machine maintenance. It is open to the whole university and is used most by students in engineering, industrial design, fashion design, graphic design, and architecture, with equipment that ranges from manual hand tools to 3D printing, laser cutting, and CNC. In the Design Build Lab, Santiago supports the DuckWorks team with guidance on tools and machines, quality control, safety, and how to structure the training itself. Where to Learn More UPSA: https://www.upsa.edu.bo/ UPSA Industrial Design Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/difadu.upsa/ Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

October 14, 2026Episode 1842 min

Volodymyr on Building AI That Reads Architectural Drawings

Text us your feedback on the podcast! Introduction In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Volodymyr Hresko, co-founder and COO of Coxit, an engineer led AI and machine learning development shop that builds custom AI for document and drawing heavy workflows. Volodymyr walks through Coxit's path from software development into AI, how the company's work with Stevens Industries brought them into the millwork industry, and what they have learned from building CaseVBench, their benchmark for testing how well different AI models read architectural and casework drawings. They also get into how shop owners should think about choosing and switching between AI models, protecting sensitive project data, and where machine learning still beats general AI for high volume, repeatable tasks. Whether you are experimenting with AI for takeoffs or just trying to understand what is realistic today, this conversation lays out the tradeoffs clearly. About Our Guest Volodymyr Hresko is co-founder and COO of Coxit, an AI and machine learning development company he started with his co-founder Irina seven years ago. He holds a computer science degree and worked as a full stack software engineer before completing a master's degree in management and finance. Coxit's work began with C++ projects for radio companies in the United States, moved into Python development, then machine learning, and shifted into AI as the technology matured. Volodymyr and his team have spent the past several years applying that experience to manufacturing, starting with a machine learning project for Stevens Industries before the current AI boom and growing into a company that now spends the majority of its time on AI and machine learning work for manufacturers. He is based in Lisbon, Portugal, while Coxit's roughly 40 person team is anchored in Lviv, Ukraine, with additional staff working internationally. Where to Learn More Volodymyr's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vovgre/ Coxit Website: https://coxit.co/ https://coxit.co/industry/manufacturing/ CaseVBench: casevbench.com Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

September 30, 2026Episode 1747 min

Inside REHAU's Evolution with Jesse Collins

Text us your feedback on the podcast! Introduction In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Jesse Collins, Director of Marketing and Product Management at REHAU, to talk about how the company has grown from an edgeband manufacturer into a full decorative surfaces and cabinet door provider. Jesse shares her 17 year journey at REHAU, starting as an intern and working her way into leading both marketing and product strategy for the company's Millwork Solutions division. Together, they cover polymer technology, the REHAU Laser Edge and zero joint edgebanding, how European design trends get filtered for the North American market, sustainability, and how REHAU approaches marketing in an industry that still runs largely on word of mouth. Whether you manufacture cabinets, specify materials, or just want to understand what is changing in millwork products, this conversation is full of practical detail. About Our Guest Jesse Collins is the Director of Marketing and Product Management for REHAU's Millwork Solutions division. She grew up around the company, her mother worked at REHAU for 32 years, and Jesse started as an intern doing odd jobs while still in high school before taking on a more formal internship in college. She joined REHAU full time right out of college and has spent the past 17 years building her career there, starting on the edgeband side of the business in a marketing coordinator role and gradually taking on more responsibility across branding, communications, and product management. Two months before this conversation, she took over product management for REHAU's decorative surfaces and cabinet door materials, a move built on her deep product knowledge and her early hands on experience with the business. Where to Learn More Website: https://www.rehau.com/us-en/millwork Jesse's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-collins-9144b96a/ REHAU's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rehauinterior/posts/?feedView=all REHAU's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rehauinterior/ REHAU's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rehau.interiors.na/ REHAU Laser Edge: https://www.rehau.com/us-en/millwork/edging/zero-joint REHAU Edgeband: https://www.rehau.com/us-en/millwork/edging REHAU Interior Surfaces: https://www.rehau.com/us-en/millwork/surfaces Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

September 16, 2026Episode 1620 min

Inside IWF 2026

Text us your feedback on the podcast! In this episode, host Jacob Edmond breaks down his takeaways from IWF 2026 in Atlanta, covering the wave of software consolidation reshaping the millwork industry alongside a surprising surge of grassroots innovation happening at the same time. From the acquisitions reshaping Microvellum, EMOS, and Cabinet Vision to the rise of AI tools putting software development directly into shop owners hands, Jacob shares what he saw on the show floor, who is disrupting the market, and why this moment feels different from anything the industry has seen before. Whether you run a shop, specify software, or just want to know where millwork technology is headed next, this episode is packed with insight straight from the ground. Where to Learn More Grainwork: https://grainwork.io/ Phill Anton Consulting: https://www.phillanton.com/ Production Mirror: https://productionmirror.com/ Millwork Suite: https://www.millworksuite.com/ AWI National (2026 Annual Convention): https://awinet.org/mc-events/2026-awi-annual-convention/ CMA (Cabinet Makers Association): https://www.cabinetmakers.org/ IWF West: https://iwfwest.com/ Final Thoughts IWF 2026 showed two trends unfolding side by side. The big software players are consolidating into a handful of dominant ecosystems, while individual shop owners and consultants are using AI to build their own solutions faster and cheaper than ever before. Jacob's biggest takeaway is that this tension, between roll ups at the top and grassroots innovation on the ground, is what will define where millwork technology goes next. Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

September 2, 20260 min

Verify In Field - No episode this week

Text us your feedback on the podcast! There won't be a new episode of Verify In Field this week as we take a short break. We'll be back on September 16 with a special episode featuring conversations and insights from IWF . We can't wait to share what we brought back from one of the biggest events in the millwork industry. See you soon! 👋 Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

August 19, 202635 min

Brian Milburn on Solving Millwork's Biggest Field Challenges

Text us your feedback on the podcast! In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Brian Milburn, Vice President of Operations at Modular Millwork and founder of Praxon, a field operations software platform built specifically for the millwork industry. Having spent nearly three decades working his way from the shop floor to executive leadership, Brian shares how firsthand experience with installation, engineering, and operations inspired him to solve one of the industry's biggest challenges, managing what happens after the product leaves the shop. Together, they discuss Brian's journey through commercial and residential millwork, the lessons he learned leading manufacturing teams, the realities of field operations, and how artificial intelligence helped him build software designed by millwork professionals, for millwork professionals. If you've ever struggled with field communication, documentation, scheduling, or protecting project profitability, this conversation offers practical insights from someone who has lived those challenges firsthand. Where to Learn More Modular Millwork https://www.modularmillwork.com/ Connect with Brian Milburn on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-milburn-55613ab1/ Modular Millwork on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/modularmillwork/ Praxon https://praxonops.com Praxon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/praxon/ Contact Brian brian@praxonops.com About Our Guest Brian Milburn is the Vice President of Operations at Modular Millwork and the founder of Praxon, a field operations platform created to improve communication, documentation, scheduling, and accountability for millwork installation teams. Raised in the woodworking industry by a cabinet maker, Brian began working in a millwork shop as a teenager and has spent nearly thirty years learning every aspect of the business, from building cabinets and running CNC equipment to engineering, estimating, production management, and executive leadership. Throughout his career, Brian has helped lead both residential and commercial millwork companies, implementing operational improvements while developing a passion for engineering systems and technology. His latest venture, Praxon, was born directly from years of experiencing the challenges that millwork companies face every day in the field. His mission is simple, provide contractors with better tools to protect their projects, improve communication, and help the industry become more efficient. Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

August 5, 2026Episode 1450 min

Becoming an Expert Still Matters with Ben Dipzinski

Text us your feedback on the podcast! In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Ben Dipzinski, President of Höcker North America, better known throughout the woodworking industry as The Dust Guy . From discovering his passion in a high school wood shop class to becoming one of North America's leading experts in industrial dust collection, Ben shares the experiences that shaped both his career and his leadership philosophy. Together, they discuss what separates great woodworking companies from average ones, why proper dust collection is about much more than keeping a shop clean, how European engineering has influenced modern manufacturing, and why mentoring the next generation is one of the industry's biggest responsibilities. If you've ever wondered how expertise is built, or why continuous improvement still matters in today's manufacturing world, this episode is packed with valuable insights. About Our Guest Ben Dipzinski is the President of Höcker North America and is widely recognized throughout the woodworking industry as The Dust Guy. His career spans more than three decades across quality assurance, product development, machinery sales, industrial engineering, and dust collection system design. After working with companies including Karona Door, Hackman Furniture, Stiles Machinery, and Miller Veneer, Ben introduced Höcker's European dust collection technology to North America, helping manufacturers improve safety, energy efficiency, and production performance. Beyond engineering, Ben is passionate about mentorship, workforce development, and helping woodworking businesses build stronger teams. His dedication to continuous learning and technical excellence has earned him a reputation as one of the industry's leading voices in industrial dust collection. Where to Learn More 🌐 Höcker North America https://hockeramerica.com/ 🛠️ Dust Collection Solutions https://hockeramerica.com/products/dust-collection/ 👤 Connect with Ben Dipzinski on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-dipzinski-57114a5/ 🏢 Höcker North America on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/hocker-north-america/ Connect with Ben during IWF 2026 in their booth A10315: Hocker North America, LLC | IWF Atlanta 2026 Exhibitor Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

July 22, 2026Episode 1339 min

From Furniture Design to Engineering the Impossible with Adam Kessler

Text us your feedback on the podcast! In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Adam Kessler, Design Engineer at SPM Design and former Education Manager at AWFS, to explore what it really means to engineer one of a kind projects. From custom millwork and themed conference rooms to waterfalls, sculptures, 3D printed components and immersive installations, Adam shares how creativity and engineering come together to solve problems that have no standard solution. Drawing from a career that spans furniture design, project management, education and manufacturing, Adam discusses why hands on experience matters, how emerging technologies like 3D printing are changing the industry, and what the next generation of millwork professionals needs to succeed. Whether you are an engineer, designer, student or shop owner, this conversation is packed with practical lessons on problem solving, innovation and continuous learning. About Our Guest Adam Kessler is a Design Engineer at SPM Design, where he works on highly customized architectural and experiential projects that blend engineering with creative design. Before joining SPM Design, Adam served as Education Manager at AWFS, leading the Fresh Wood student competition and helping connect the next generation of woodworkers with the industry. He holds a degree in Furniture Design and brings experience in estimating, project management, product development and engineering. His passion for learning and tackling unique challenges has made him a respected voice in custom manufacturing and workforce development. Where to Learn More Adam Kessler on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kessler-583b8a122/ AWFS Fair https://awfsfair.org/ Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !

July 8, 2026Episode 1228 min

From Drafting to Engineering Leadership with Jeff Richard

Text us your feedback on the podcast! In this episode, host Jacob Edmond sits down with Jeff Richard, Millwork Engineer at Dovetail Wood and Metal, Executive Secretary of the Texas AWI Chapter, and Technical Chair for Cabinetmaking at Texas SkillsUSA. Jeff shares his journey from studying mechanical engineering technology to discovering millwork almost by accident. What started in a residential cabinet shop in Oregon eventually led him into commercial millwork, engineering leadership, CNC manufacturing, and industry volunteer work. Along the way, he discovered that great engineers are not defined by their degrees, but by their willingness to learn, solve problems, and help others grow. Together, Jacob and Jeff discuss engineering education, commercial millwork, remote engineering, manufacturing processes, SkillsUSA, AWI, and why investing in the next generation is one of the most rewarding parts of a career. About Our Guest Jeff Richard is a Millwork Engineer at Dovetail Wood and Metal with nearly two decades of experience in residential and commercial millwork. His background spans drafting, estimating, project management, CNC programming, Cabinet Vision, Microvellum, AutoCAD, and manufacturing engineering. Outside of his day job, Jeff serves as Executive Secretary of the Texas AWI Chapter and Technical Chair for Cabinetmaking at Texas SkillsUSA, where he helps develop future talent entering the woodworking and millwork industries. His passion for teaching, mentoring, and continuous learning has made him a respected voice within the industry. Where to Learn More Dovetail Wood and Metal https://www.dovetailwoodandmetal.com/ Texas AWI Chapter https://texasawi.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/texas-awi SkillsUSA Texas https://www.skillsusatx.org/ Architectural Woodwork Institute https://www.awinet.org/ Listen to more Verify In Field episodes https://verifyinfield.com/ Share The Love: If you like Verify In Field: The Millwork Podcast … Never miss an episode by subscribing via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Amazon Music , or by RSS !