Dundee operation assisted by Masterwood duo

Two highly productive and easy-to-use Masterwood CNC machining centres are playing a central role in manufacturing at Dovetail Enterprises in Dundee, an operation employing people with disabilities which produces furniture and doors.

Supported by various central and local government programmes, Dovetail Enterprises has a long history of manufacturing and installing high quality furniture products for contract and retail clients across the UK and more recently in Europe. Its roots go back to 1865 when the first steps were taken to provide facilities for work, support and education for men and women with visual impairment. This enterprise resulted in what was to become Royal Dundee Blindcraft Products.

In the 1920s, a Lord Roberts Workshop was established in Dundee to provide employment for disabled ex-servicemen. These organisations worked independently for many years, and in 1993, they come together to form Dovetail Enterprises. Today it produces a wide range of items including bedroom furniture, chairs and tables, beds, school furniture, doors and door-sets, with topline customers in the hotel, student residence, care home, golf club, local authority and construction sectors.

Within its modern 100,000 sq ft manufacturing facility the traditional skills of its craftsmen are married with state-of-the-art CAD drawing and CNC and other wood machining equipment. The first Masterwood CNC machining centre it purchased was a Winner model, used to produce flush fire-rated doors. It carries out all the necessary machining processes on solid core door blanks, such as machining for hinges, apertures and locks.

The latest Masterwood machine is a Project 415, purchased to cope with the increase in demand for both door and furniture products. Selected partly due to the organisation's positive experience with the Winner, it is used to process panels used in the production of bedroom furniture, carrying out all the shaping and boring tasks.

Both machines feature Masterwood's Masterwork standard operating software, which comes with full CAD/CAM interface. Dovetail has it updated on a regular basis so they can benefit from the latest software developments as they are introduced.

Their purchase, installation and on-site training were arranged through Masterwood's Scottish-based technical specialist, Andy Wells.

Bill Donaldson, Dovetail Enterprises' operation's manager, said: "Both our Masterwood machines are extremely versatile, highly productive and are serving us well. They are simple to set up and the Masterwork software is very easy for our people to learn and use."

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

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