MASTERWOOD MACHINING CENTRE IS KEY TO STAIR MAKER'S SUCCESS

Aptly named start-up business, C.A.D. Stairs Ltd, has picked a Masterwood Project CNC machining centre as the mainstay of its new staircase manufacturing operation.

The Project 415, supplied with Masterwood's purpose-designed MasterStair CAD/CAM software, featuring a cut string capability, is currently producing four bespoke staircases a day.

It processes all the MDF treads and risers as well as the strings and posts made of solid pine or oak.

Designed for timber processing, the Project 415 comes with a pod tubeless system or a 3600 x 1250mm matrix bed for nesting. The useable routing stroke in the X axis is 3450mm, the maximum material thickness that can be machined through in the Z axis is 110mm and it has a Y stroke of 1350mm.

Heath Harrington uses a laptop loaded with the MasterStair program to design a staircase on site.

It features an 8-post and 6-post tool changer on the head with the option of fitting a second tool changer on the carriage side that can hold an additional eight or 14 tools.

MasterStair is a Windows-based program designed to speed up the production of straight and conventional winder flights.

The speed and accuracy of the Project and its specialist software has enabled C.A.D. Stairs to guarantee a lead-time from order to delivery of between five and seven days. This has been a key factor behind the business's rapid success.

Housed in an arch beneath a railway line in Shoreditch, East London, C.A.D. Stairs produces high quality staircases for trade customers and the public throughout London and the South East.

A fitting service is provided if required and balustrades can be supplied to match existing internal décor.

Heath Harrington (left) and Russell Bradley of C.A.D. Stairs with a stair component produced on the Masterwood Project 415.

Loft conversion companies currently account for 75% of the company's output, with a five-day delivery promised for standard loft conversion stairs. It also supplies a chain of builders' merchants and makes stairs for shops, offices and warehouses.

Partners Russell Bradley and Heath Harrington set up the business after identifying an opportunity to use a CNC machining centre to simplify and speed up the production of staircases.

Machine operator Dean O'Neill remove a stair component from the Masterwood Project 415 CNC machining centre at C.A.D. Stairs.

Russell had been working for Lawsons, a large independent timber yard and builders' merchants, while Heath was a self-employed carpenter with considerable experience of making staircases by hand.

They had seen a Masterwood machine making stairs at a builders' merchants and decided to base their new venture around one. When they visited the Masterwood factory in Italy they were so impressed with the quality of the components it produced and the simplicity of the software that they placed their order then and there.

Staircases are designed on site by Heath on his laptop, using MasterStair's CAD program. Every customer quote is accompanied by a 3D CAD drawing that gives the full specifications of the staircase, including the necessary building regulation requirements.

Carpenter Dean O'Neill prepares a staircase machining program on the Masterwood Project 415 at C.A.D. Stairs, Shoreditch, East London.

His design is put onto a USB stick and given to Russell who prepares the machining program. This is saved to the USB stick which is given to the machine's operator, Dean O'Neill, who is also a trained carpenter.

Said Heath: "When I made a staircase by hand it took a full day, including all the marking out, and I consider myself to be a very fast worker. The speed of the Project plus its constant accuracy has to be seen to be believed."

Only Russell had used a computer before, when he was working in the office at the builders' merchants, but all three found the Masterwood CAD/CAM software easy to understand and use.

Partners Russell Bradley (left) and Heath Harrington on a staircase produced using their Masterwood Project 415 CNC machining centre.

"We could never have set up the business without the Project," said Russell. "Our success is due largely to the quality of the work it produces, which is superb, and its accuracy, which is always spot-on. This makes fitting the staircases on site so simple, however complicated the location. Often when customers have fitted them themselves, they have phoned to say how well they slot in first time.

"It was convenient to get the both the machine and the software from one source, because if anything goes wrong you know you are not going to sent from pillar to post to get things sorted out."

He added that the actual staircase they were trained on by the Masterwood engineer was good enough to go out to a customer.

"We sell on quality and the speed at which we can turn round orders. Thanks to the multiple benefits provided by the Project we are receiving a lot of repeat orders and the business is growing far faster than we had originally planned."

The Project was also supplied with an optional horizontal router to give C.A.D. Stairs the flexibility to produce kitchen and other doors, together with Level 1 of Masterwood's new MasterCabinet software.


All enquiries to Masterwood (UK) Ltd, Telephone 01436 675000, Fax 01436 678999, Email masterwooduk@aol.com.

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