… And Then We Decided To Automate, Part I

September 6, 2005

   December 2004: I walked out to my shop and surveyed the chaos. It was the busiest month our company had ever had.
   Our shop had six production bays, with the space to lay out six full kitchens. (To put it into perspective. we’re a small custom shop that averages five to seven big kitchens a week.) We were running a bridge saw and three portable routers; on the personnel side, we had a sawyer, a foreman, three polishers, two laborers, a broom boy and two installers.
   There wasn’t a flat space in the entire shop that didn’t have, at some stage of processing, granite on it. Our schedule was a mess, and we were buried alive in undermounts. Having switched to 3cm slab for our work, the undermounts were taking much longer to finish.
   We were screwing up our customers’ Christmas program of getting new stone for the holidays. And, we were screwing up our own Santa Claus festivities to boot.
   I had never contemplated automation. We had been cranking out perfect kitchens for years by hand; why would we ever incur more overhead?
   Fear, as it turns out, is a motivator.
   We had a big meeting about what to do. We needed to address the immediate need – dealing with undermounts. We considered a radial-arm polisher. Then we discussed getting an inline machine; we reasoned that if we could get the edge work done faster, we could have more time to do the undermounts.
   Eventually, we ruled out inline technology because we do some really whacked-out custom kitchens. That left us with the CNC option.
   It’s funny … I’ve been to many stone shows, but I never looked at CNCs. Not from the perspective of actually buying one, anyway.
   There are a huge amount of choices to make. Once we decided to go with CNC technology, the amount of options are staggering and confusing. The amount of money you can spend ranges from around $125k to $300k and up. Talk about staggering and confusing.
   Luckily, the shop next door is heavy into metalworking, enough to keep 22 (and that’s no typo, it’s 22) CNC machines running. So, I waltzed over and started talking with the guy in charge of the CNCs. And, he had a wealth of knowledge to share.
   The main thing we discussed was machine controls, which are the heart of the CNC. Controls consist of the drive motors and the software that commands them. I’d never pretend to be an expert in this field, so I relied on his experience. He told me that, no matter what I purchased, to make sure it has GE Fanuc controls. (As it turns out, they are the most-expensive.)
   I also wanted automatic tool changers. It made no sense to me to purchase automation that was not, well, automated. The idea of have to change the tools by hand seems silly.
   I wanted a machine that could be easily loaded and unloaded. Some machines had the bed way too high off the ground; others had smooth slabs for the bed. Some had slots that the vacuum pods locked into, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
   When I started researching vacuum pods, the ones that got the highest praise were from Blick Industries. We put that on the list; they employ a combination of surface tension and suction, along with vacuum, to hold the part.
   As I looked further into the way CNC machines are assembled, I slowly became convinced that monoblock construction was important. I didn’t want a giant hole excavated in the floor of my shop and then pour a huge slab of concrete with tons of rebar to support the machine.
   We concluded that laser pod/part placement was an essential feature. This is basically an overhead projection that shows where to place the pods and the granite parts. I watched a shop setting parts with pins, and decided that that was just way too slow for us.
   We decided to stick with stick templates. As a result, we choose a digitizing board from Template Technologies Inc.; it’s a well-made board with magnets that hold the templates in place. It came with a laptop and some simple software.
   Once we decided to throw in the towel as far as money was concerned, we decided to go for the gusto, so to speak. Bigger is better, and we wanted a big machine with a big bed.
   I wanted to purchase an U.S.-made machine. I’m a little old-fashioned in that regard and make no bones about it. All of my customers are American and, when given a choice and a quality product, I will buy American every time. (Our outstanding bridge saw is U.S.-made from Park Industries.)
   I choose a Northwood Machine Manufacturing Co. 138SW CNC. I flew to Kentucky and visited the plant. I met the engineer that designed the machine; I toured the production facility and watched the entire production process. The enthusiasm and energy of the people working there is overwhelming and infectious.
   We’ve had our machine now for more than five months and couldn’t be happier, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. Next month, I’ll discuss the training and the stress associated with it; machine delivery setup; power & water requirements; and other little unexpected things in bringing CNC into the shop. (There are some hidden costs you need to know about!)
   If you have any questions related to fabrication or this article be sure to visit the forum at www.stoneadvice.com. We’ll do our best to answer your question.
   ‘Till next time… Mark Lauzon, stonecutter.
   Mark Lauzon is a fabricator in Oregon and the administrator of www.stoneadvice.com, a Website dedicated to slab fabrication.