A small family-run joinery manufacturer in King’s Lynn, Rolfe Joinery, has halved the time it takes to sand components by buying a Timesavers-Sandingmaster twin head wide belt sander.

The Dutch-made machine was supplied by Leicester-based sole UK agents TM Machinery Sales Ltd which has serviced Rolfe Joinery’s 12-year-old single belt SCM sander and other machines for several years.

Ron Rolfe, who runs Rolfe Joinery with his wife and two sons, invested around £20,000 in the machine to help make standard and purpose-made constructional joinery items such as windows, door frames, staircases and conservatories, using mainly pine and some hardwood.

The Sandingmaster 3200 model features a 1,350mm working width, a large 280mm calibrating roller, extended infeed and outfeed tables, digital single point thickness setting and high powered motors.

All flat components, regardless of size, are put through the machine prior to assembly.

&#8220Where before we often had to put a piece through up to three times before it was really smooth, most of the jobs can now be done in one pass. I reckon it saves us half the time it took before.”

Rolfe Joinery joiner Dave Marriott

Joiner Dave Marriott said: ‘Where before we often had to put a piece through up to three times before it was really smooth, most of the jobs can now be done in one pass. I reckon it saves us half the time it took before.’

He said 400 sashes for windows were recently sanded in just half a day.

The Sandingmaster has a coarse belt on the front and a fine one at the rear, with a powerful suction head to take dust away. It incorporates membrane-controlled segmented pads, as opposed to most machines which use cylinders.

The Timesavers-Sandingmaster retails from £6,000 upwards.