A small family-run joinery firm based in Luton has overcome the problem of finding suitable skilled staff by investing in CNC technology.
Cole Joinery’s wide variety of work, which includes specialist jobs for domestic and commercial customers, meant it was finding it increasingly difficult to recruit people with the right combination of skills.
Its new Masterwood Winner 3.2 CNC machining centre has now taken over most routine joinery and panel work, reducing production time and allowing more work to be taken on.
The company claims the combination of the machine and the Masterstair software program is halving manufacturing time of staircase components, a process previously carried out with traditional tools such as hand routers.
The Winner, available from Masterwood UK from around £40,000, is also being used to make complicated curved work on doors and window frames.
It is a three-axis cantilever type machine, with an X axis of 3200mm, a Y axis of 1295mm (for routing) and a Z axis of 110mm. Standard features include a 10.5hp router with four post automatic tool changer and two working zones.
