Bob Evans started the Shropshire Pine Company in 1988 to supply a standard pine furniture range to the trade but has shifted the emphasis over the years so that contract work now accounts for about 50% of his business. The company moved to its present site near Telford in 1993 and, since 1998, Mr Evans has also established two successful direct retail outlets.
His philosophy is always to strive for the best: ‘I always look for quality,’ he says. ‘I don’t want to sell cheap pine furniture, nor do I want to buy the lowest priced machines on the market.’
It was this philosophy, he claims, that led him to buy his lathes from Hapfo Pollards. In 1997 he bought a Hydro lathe and, just before Christmas last year, he took delivery of the latest Hapfo model, the AP7000 CNC machine with computer programming facilities.
Tailor-made furniture
‘Our strength on the contract side is supplying high quality specialised and tailor-made furniture and fittings for hotels and pubs,’ says Mr Evans.
‘We are also able to meet individual requests for bespoke items for retail customers, such as a bookcase to fit in an alcove, a mobile kitchen work unit, or a fireplace surround, for example.’
Everything is made to the same standard, whether it is a small bureau, a large wardrobe or a pub table, and Bob Evans has always invested in machines which can produce that quality. Four years ago the increasing demand for twists and turnings on furniture – such as decorative columns in fitted kitchens and fluted or twisted legs on pub furniture – prompted him to look at the best lathes.
‘We were not happy about the quality of the bought-in barley twist work and wanted to produce our own,’ he said. ‘So I opted for Hapfo’s Hydro lathe to enable us to do that and found it very easy to use.’
One of Hapfo’s AP5000 series, the Hydro lathe brings a high level of automation to straight turning and twist work. With cast iron construction the Hydro is robust enough to meet the demands of manufacturing and accurate enough to provide crisp precision on everything from columns and curtain poles to finials.
Retail business
As the company expanded to 16 employees and the retail business grew alongside the contract work, Mr Evans decided to invest in a second Hapfo lathe in order to maintain the flow and quality of his manufacturing operation. This time he decided on Hapfo’s top-of-the-range AP7000 CNC which incorporates the latest in sophisticated woodturning technology.
Swivelling cutter head
With a special swivelling cutter head as well as laser scanning and MegaCAD software, the AP7000 CNC has a bed length of 1800mm or 2500mm and comes with a twist unit and built-in milling unit. This caters for any type of twist work, with any lead and any number of starts.
The swivelling head produces perfect lines for the difficult 90O square cuts and complete spheres and can produce them in one pass. The milling unit can tackle grooves and edged profiles on up to 24-piece surfaces.
Software program
The MegaCAD software program which delivers the CNC system enables the operator to reproduce any shape, either by laser scanning an original piece or by drawing the shape on the computer screen. The software then programs the lathe controls for multiple passes to produce the required cutting, twisting and milling for the finished product – whether it’s a staircase spindle, chair leg or decorative twisted moulding for a kitchen unit.
‘It has proved its worth on the specialised twist work we do, both for the contract work and the retail side,’ says Mr Evans.
‘The multi-pass system makes life very easy and saves time spent on taking workpieces in and out of the lathe. On turned 3in farmhouse table legs with square ends, for example, we can produce the finished item in two cuts with no need for a centre steady.’
Although it is the Shropshire Pine Company, Mr Evans’ staff work in all kinds of wood and raw materials including solid ash as well as MDF. In an era of product and price standardisation they have found a steady demand for individuality and quality.
‘And, because we have the machinery as well as the imagination to offer something a bit different, we have now been able to add innovative furniture items such as Tudor and Jacobean four-poster beds to our retail range,’ Mr Evans added.
