Investment in a CNC Router
Expedite production, quality control and business development; three reasons we brought CNC in-house.
Despite a tricky year financially due to Covid, County Signs continued with their investment plans by bringing CNC router tooling in-house for the first time early in 2021.
Owner Mark Naylor says “Since taking over County Signs in March 2019, we’d seen a steady increase in enquiries where products aren’t a standard square sign format, lots of circle shaped signs for example or simple panels with a curved top, arrow shapes, nothing too fancy. For the short-term we teamed up with a local CNC manufacturer to cut sheet material for us as we monitored growth, of course as soon as word got around we were able to cut shapes and letters etc in-house, the more work we seemed to start picking up.”
The traditional route would be to visit a trade show to shop for a machine but all shows were cancelled due to Covid, never-the-less, the hunt for some new kit started in earnest.
“We looked at laser cutters too; there is a trade off between laser and CNC, laser will give you a nice glassy edge when cutting acrylic for example and is faster at processing materials, but you can’t cut ACM on laser; over 75% of the signs we make are ACM… and we can finish acrylic by hand if need be, so we decided a CNC router was right for this stage in our plan.”
A handful of jobs completed with the Smart Bench…
Mark continues “We started looking for a solution at the beginning of 2021, space is at a premium in our workshop (based at Winnards Perch near Padstow, Cornwall) and the CNC work continues to build, so we knew a full blown all-singing, all-dancing machine wasn’t right for us, yet”
We needed the ability to convert full standard 8×4 sheet material and ideally we wanted to be able to move the machine, or even put it away if it’s wasn’t being used, I didn’t think a machine like that existed but then I stumbled across the Smart Bench by Yeti Tools, which is exactly like that.”
The machine comes in 6 easy to assemble parts and is designed with portability in mind, so trades can work on-site cutting custom pieces if required.
“I made an initial enquiry to Yeti Tool in Clevedon, who arranged a Zoom demo with John Tigg at Trend Tool Technology who are the UK distributors, I bought the machine the next day and it arrived the following week, unpacked and assembled within a couple of hours and we we’re cutting our first test piece that afternoon and made our first circle shaped sign the next day.”
“It really has slipped in to our workflow seemlessly. Having a CNC router in-house means we are able to monitor quality, reduce our turnaround times, we can suggest more unusual shapes at design stage too, most of all it’s enabling us to manage the entire process from concept, design, manufacture and installation of stand-off letters and sign panels without involving a third party.
Mark continues “We have plans to use the machine to cut and assemble our own ACM tray signs (sign panels with folded side returns) and we have some prototype products we’re working on using ply and timber – watch this space!