A Somerset fine furniture maker in need of extra sawing capacity has decided to go vertical to avoid building a costly workshop extension.
Longpre Furniture opted for a Striebig Compact TRK, supplied through TM Machinery Sales Ltd, instead of buying another beam saw and extending the building.
The company, which made the Rosewood chair used by the Queen during her visit to Westminister Cathedral, needed extra sawing capacity to keep up with an increased workload.
The machine specified by Longpre for its 5,600ft2 workshop has a maximum cutting size of 3100x1644mm. Standard features include the TRK extraction system and automatic moving backing support.
It is used to cut MDF and ply sheet material, plus resizing of lipped veneer panels. Material used varies in thickness from 2-50mm, with thinner panels loaded in stacks.
Steve Gillingham, Longpre’s foreman, said: “It’s now a one man job to put even the largest panels in position on the Compact’s rollers. With the beam saw you needed two men to turn the panels flat in order to load them, and then to move them around to get different cutting angles.”
