SFA: What's the Answer?
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Atl granie Free Member
Hello, I’m looking into CNC options and the choices and price ranges are a bit intimidating. My parents do a lot of business but they automate almost none of the process from paper drawings to a saw man who measures every cut to a back shop that has to do all edging and finishing by hand. Any ideas to help me get their feet wet with automation would be appreciated. We are located in Boynton Beach, Fla., and we have plenty of turnover. Have been in business 20+ years. Any suggestions are welcome, and info appreciated. Thank you.
ufGatorHarv Premium Member
Start with a Proliner and plotter. They're based in Ft. Pierce, Fla. Training is easy and will only take a day. You'll be in around $30k and learning that first will make the transition to a CNC saw much easier. It will dramatically transform your templating process in that it will make it faster, less expensive, and far more accurate. This, in turn, will lead to quicker and easier installs. No more buying, transporting, or storing stick templates. No more return trips because the glue softened up in the summer heat. I tracked the square footage numbers for a year and a half before we bought our saw, and it was still much cheaper and less time-consuming to plot vinyl templates versus doing it with plastic or wood. Spend the money and COMMIT to doing it the new way. It will seem intimidating and tedious at first, but you'll be in the groove within a month.
Ken Lago Premium Member
I just closed my shop down before Xmas. I have everything to get you going if interested. I will finance myself if you need. Call me on 757-214-4944
Atl Granite Free Member
Thanks. Proliner, I think is a great first move. Deals with all the potential issues of using a laser. Will probably try to Find a used and reliable one to start. Thanks.
RJM Premium Member
First, how many kitchens do you do a week? I went digital about two years ago and it was a complete waste. Look at the total time of a job. I can manually template a project and lay it out on the slab within 30 minutes complete. My Laser would take 30 minutes to get set up. If you are in the 3-5 kitchens/week there is no way a Proliner/Etemplate makes sense. The biggest amount of time is on the sinks. I got a dedicated sink CNC for $20,000. I blank out the sink, hit start and walk away. I come back in about 15-20 minutes and it is perfect. We do about 1 home per day ... average 3-5 sinks and it goes from 5-8 hours to complete the sink portion of the job (cut to polish) to around 1 hour. And, the quality is flawless. I was able to eliminate 1 full time guy at $24/hour which is around $50,000/year. The CNC paid for itself in 6 months.
Angel Premium Member
LT2D3D or Flexijet or Proliner, they all work, and they all have their +&-. A plotter is a waste of time in my opinion. Then a CNC saw; buy who YOU feel comfortable with. Look at software and service. Then a CNC or line machine depending on the type of work you do. This business is one big bottleneck.
Gssfabrication Premium Member
Before you do any of this: Contact a shop nearby and ask if you could visit for at least two days to spend time with their templator/programmer (smaller shops will be the same person). If none nearby respond or are hesitant about you visiting (thinking you might be trying to learn their secrets or capture their business) contact a shop that is a little further out and not really in your market. Visiting another shop that has automation will get you much-more-valuable information to bring back to your parents. Leave plenty of room on your smartphone to take quality pictures and videos to show them (and remember what you were exposed to). At the end of your first day, make a journal of everything you learned and a list of questions to follow up with the next day. Seeing a shop that is underway is much-more-valuable than any initial training or sales information you are going to get. We all started at the beginning to get where we are today. When I was first brought on, I was fortunate enough to go to a shop a few hours away and spend a day learning and observing what they did to be successful. The money you invest in automation is only as good as the training and support you get that comes with the automation. Let us know how things pan out. Rick
Tm Farr Premium Member
What Rick said.
Dave.Scott Premium Member
Coming from SKIL® saw with a diamond blade, and a hose in my other hand, all the way to fully automated digital shop, I agree with Rick and Tim on this one. Anyone who is operating, and is a insightful individual, would LOVE to show you their shop. Know why? Because they can learn, remember, integrate, and perhaps look forward at themselves and their business with a critical eye while they show you what they are doing. Yes, you might teach them something. Learn. Share. Prosper. Be Well.
Ryanberglind Premium Member
I started with a semi-auto bridge saw and line polisher for the first 12 years all while making hard templates. Then upgraded to a 5-axis CNC saw and LT-55 laser template system. I got the LT six months before the saw arrived and was damn comfortable with it when the saw showed up. This was a game changer. We are a 2cm mitered market and were cutting 4-6 slabs a day (very custom kitchens). The 5-axis doubled that slab number within two weeks. Five years later and 2 months ago we got our first router, Park Titan 3800. I can't believe I waited this long. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to a HOT job between 7-8 a.m. and emailing the template to my sawyer, and I'm pretty confident the job will be complete by 3:30 p.m. It's roughly 70 square feet of kitchen and two 72" vanities with 1.5" laminated edges. We don't do this all the time, but knowing you can is great. This is a great place to ask questions. I also want to say thanks to all of you that helped confirm my decision on getting the router.