Technoisel AFFORDABLE CAD/CAM SERIES Fine … · AFFORDABLE CAD/CAM SERIES Fine Custom Furniture Produced ... Technoisel Culin-Collela, Inc., Mamaroneck, New York, is a woodworking

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Techno book of CAD/CAM/CNC

AFFORDABLE CAD/CAM SERIES

Fine Custom Furniture ProducedWith $17,000 CNC Router

Techno isel

Culin-Collela, Inc., Mamaroneck,New York, is a woodworkingshop specializing in producingbuilt-in and free-standing customfurniture and casework andpaneling which typically is usedin offices and homes worth$1,000,000 and up. The companyhandles jobs ranging from acomplete millwork packageincluding molding, cabinets,windows, doors and wainscotingpaneling for the renovation of a$5,000,000 house down to asingle chair sold for $1,200.

Culin-Collela usually works to aplan provided by an architect orcontract, but also offers designservices to clients who approachthem directly. Most of thecompany's output requirescontoured router work, andcompound curves often must beproduced. In the past, these werecreated by generating the designon a CAD system, laying out thegeometry on a piece of fiberboardand cutting the template by handwith a router. Router work wasalso frequently required togenerate templates and trammelsneeded to accurately produce thevarious contours required. Usingconventional manualwoodworking methods, the timerequired to generate contours wasoften so lengthy that the itemcould not be economicallyproduced. Even less challengingpieces were quite time-consuming

because of the need to producerouter templates and trammels orbeam compasses by hand for manycontours. President Ray Culin hadseen a numberof computercontrolledwoodworkingmachines atprices in theneigborhood of$60,000 butfelt they wouldbe impossibleto justify at the company's currentworkload.

Then, he heard about the TechnoSeries III. He purchased the routerwith MasterCAM® CNCprogramming system which,although originally designed formetalworking, is ideally suited forwoodworking because of its abilityto generate the most complexcontours with little programmingeffort. The program features true3-D geometry construction plusIGES, DXF and CADL convertersso that geometry can be uploadedfrom nearly any CAD system. TheTechno system, which has nowbeen in use at the company forabout three years, has made itpossible to bid on and win jobswhich would have been far tootime-consuming to produce byhand. And, among projects whichthe company was previously ableto produce, average productiontime has been cut in half and

accuracy substantially increased.An example of a part which couldnot have been produced previouslyby the company is a coffee table

consisting of a circular woodframe with a hammered coppersurface. The circular frameconsists of a contour with a heightof 2 inches at the outside diameterand 1/2 inch on the insidediameter. The top surface of theframe is sloped creating a shapethat resembles a funnel.

Previously, without an economicalproduction method, Culin-Collelawould have had to charge about$6,000 for the table, which wouldhave been prohibitive. With theTechno router, it was producedeasily by drawing the frame inAutoCAD®, importing the drawinginto MasterCAM®, and using theprogram's swept surface techniqueto generate a toolpath.Programming, including theoriginal drawing, took only 1/2hour and routing took anotherhour, allowing the company tomake the table for only $3,000.Another piece which would have

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been difficult or impossible toproduce by hand is a cherry woodcabinet produced as part of amajor house renovation. Thecabinet features a profiled coveextending across its width ontoround column base blocks oneither side. The complete projectconsisted of 22 cabinets, each ofwhich had two base blocks withcoves on both top and bottom.The cove cut is a quarter circlerecess with a 1-1/2 inch radius.The cabinet base and column basewould normally be miteredtogether, but the existence of theconcave molding shape meansthat a 3-inch deep compound-curve miter cut is required toproduce a flush intersection. Theintersection would have taken atremendous amount of time just tocalculate by hand, and producingthe required 176 cuts to the levelof accuracy required for a flush fitwould have been a nightmare. Onthe computer, the intersection wascalculated without majordifficulty.

Looking at the flat section of thecove in elevation view, the CAD/CAM system operator divided itinto 20 equal segments with aseries of parallel lines. Thesesegments were then copied up thecurve at regular intervals, with thesegments creating concentriccircles, with the diametersgrowing smaller just like the linesmarking latitude and longitude ona globe. Equally spaced linedsegments were then generated onthe flat section of the cove andcopied up its height. The twodrawings were then manipulatedwithin AutoCAD® so that the

straight lines intersected with theconcentric circles. Thismanipulation determined theintersection of the flat section ofthe cabinet and the round cornerblocks which turned out to be atwo-dimensional complex contour.Once the geometry wasdetermined, it was imported intoMasterCAM® and the toolpathwas generated by invoking theprogram's contouring function.Three passes at a depth of 1 incheach were used to contour eachpiece. To locate the blocks on themachine table, a 3/8 inch hole wasdrilled in the center of each and asimple plywood positioning fixturewas devised which held three ofthe blocks at a time. This made it

possible to completely produceall three in a single setup. Thetotal project, consisting ofproducing 44 base blocks with 2mitered surfaces each and anadditional 88 mitered surfaceson the flat sections of thecabinets, was produced in aboutone week. It would have takenat least three weeks to produceby hand, and allowance wouldhave had to have been made fora considerable amount of scrapmaterial. These examples aretypical of the gains achieved onnearly everything produced bythe company with productiontime reduced by an average of50% and quality significantlyimproved.

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Woodworkers Can Expand BusinessBy Using Computerized Router

Techno isel

Designer Woodworking, a custom woodworking business nearFt. Riley, Kansas, now takes on jobs it wouldn't have wantedin the past. Tricky one-of-a-kind restoration projects andintricate architectural milling work, that used to take too muchtime to be profitable, have become a source of growth andprofit. By completing difficult jobs like these in hours ratherthan days, the company makes a profit on them yet keeps itsfees in the range the customers can afford.

Designer Woodworking is one of the latest woodworkingbusinesses to benefit from automation, although not in thelarge-scale mass production sense of the term. The companystill does mostly one-of-a-kind jobs; but by doing them on aTechno computer-controlled router, its level of efficiencymatches that of mass production operations. This efficiencyhas opened a wealth of new business opportunities as a result.In business for 10 years, Designer Woodworking specializesin restoration, of both antiques and modern furniture that havebeen damaged during moving or by excessive use. In additionto restoration work, which makes up about 75% of its business,

Designer Woodworking also does woodwork for localarchitectural projects. Examples include stair rails, customredwood screen doors to match decks, unique moldings, andso on. For both types of projects, the company formerly lostsome jobs and didn't bid on others in situations where too muchtime was involved to make their work cost-effective.

Typically, the problem was curved pieces. Prior to acquiringthe computerized router, things like curved moldings inrestorations and stair rails with sweeping curves were verytime-consuming. Designer Woodworking personnel workedfrom templates and, in some cases, just getting the template

right took many tries. Following the templates, they cut thepieces by hand, but since hand cutting was imprecise it wasusually followed by a great deal of sanding.

In January, 1995, Designer Woodworking purchased acomputer-controlled three-axis gantry router from Techno,New Hyde Park, New York. The router cuts according toinstructions from a CNC programming package calledMasterCAM. Once a program is generated, producing a part,even one with curves or ellipses, is the simple matter of loadinga piece of wood and pushing a few buttons to start the machine.

A recent project involving a custom walnut door offers a goodcomparison of the computerized router versus DesignerWoodworking's previous hand practices. The door was anarrow solid door designed to be placed between a showerand a hot tub room. The designer wanted the door to containan ellipse-shaped inset starting at about two feet from the floorand going up to about six inches from the top of the door. Thedoor itself was 1.5 inches thick; the inset panel was 3/4 inchthick.

Without a computerized method of cutting out the ellipseshape, Designer Woodworking would have attached a patternto the door to guide the cutter. With the cutter's ball bearingriding against the pattern, the operator would have cut out theshape. The greatest difficulty was making the pattern perfectly.Typically, a number of tries would have been needed to get itright. In all, just making the pattern would have taken at leastone day.

With the Techno router, creating the shape of the ellipse in thecomputer, then instructing the system to program theinstructions for cutting, took between 15 and 20 minutes.Another 15 minutes were needed to set up the door on thetable, so that within an hour Designer Woodworking wasaccurately cutting the ellipse. Because the Techno routereliminated at least seven hours on this project, DesignerWoodworking's price of $800 was acceptable to the customer.Working by hand, the company would have charged between$1200 and $1300 and probably wouldn't have gotten the job.

The efficiency made possible by the Techno router has allowedDesigner Woodworking to take on all kinds of jobs thatpreviously weren't profitable. For example, the company isoften asked to repair Schrunk wall units that local soldiersbring back from Germany. These units have crown moldingsthat often get broken in transport. The sweeping curves in the

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moldings made this a difficult job in the past, but they arenow easy to reproduce. Similarly, Designer Woodworkingsees a lot of broken rockers on rocking chairs. These, too, hadbeen difficult items to make profitably by hand due to theirlong curves. But it takes only a few minutes to program rockerson the computer. The actual cutting takes only minutes, aswell, so that Designer Woodworking can handle a few dozenrocking chair repairs each week.

Although the efficiency made possible by the router has beenkey to winning new business, Designer Woodworking alsofinds that the greater accuracy they can now deliver also helpswin work. In the past, the company didn't bid on projects likea 30-slot mail insert for a roll-top desk because dividing thearea into 30 slots of identical size would have been nearlyimpossible by hand.

Using MasterCAM for this project, the operator simply createda line of the desired width, 1.5 inches, duplicated it 30 times,and then used the resulting geometry as the basis for thetoolpath. This took about 15 minutes. Grooves for the dividersin both the top and bottom halves of the insert met perfectlyand each slot was exactly 1.5 inch wide. Cutting took between30 to 45 minutes compared to three hours by hand, but resultswould not have been nearly as accurate. The entire job tookabout eight hours, which included finishing and installation inthe desk. This was about half the time this project would haverequired if done manually.

The Techno machine has a positioning accuracy of ± 0.1mm(±0.004 inches) over 300 mm, and a repeatability of ±0.01mm. Since this is far greater than hand cutting, manualfinishing operations are minimal. This also cuts down on thetime Designer Woodworking must allot for its projects.The accuracy of the router is the result of several features

inherent to the table, such as the use of ball screws andservomotors. For example, anti-backlash ball screws in Technorouters permit play-free motion that makes it possible toproduce circles accurate to the 0.0005 inch machine resolution.These ballscrews also make it possible to produce woodenparts as accurate as the machine resolution. The ballscrewshave excellent power transmission due to the rolling ballcontact between the nut and screws. This type of contact alsoensures low friction, low wear and long life.

Designer Woodworking opted to have its router equipped withservomotors rather than stepper motors because servomotorsgive smoother cuts on long curves. Normally, when a routerhesitates, it either cuts too deeply or burns the wood. Whenworking on a long curve like the ellipse in the walnut door, itis important for Designer Woodworking to have a continuousmotion to prevent burning and inaccurate depth cuts. Aservomotor is better than a stepper motor in providingcontinuous motion because it works on the principle of constantfeedback. The program tells the router to follow a specificpath by giving it a series of voltages. It drives to the locationsby getting constant feedback along the way. In contrast, astepper motor takes a large number of little steps.

Stepper motors have significantly less power than servomotorsto change direction and follow curves. Stepper motors areless expensive than servomotors and are fine for straight linemotions and simple circular arcs. But, in general, servos areup to three times faster and more reliable when performingarbitrary curves like splines or 3D carvings.

Designer Woodworking enhanced the functionality of itsTechno machine even further by adding a Carter flip-podvacuum piece-part holding system to the table. DesignerWoodworking's table has 87 pods, into which any pattern canbe utilized to align and hold pieces for cutting. The pod patternis cut (on the Techno machine itself) out of UHMW plastic,assuring accurate alignment of the x, y and z axes. The podsserve dual purposes: they act as vacuum pods to hold workand they can also be used as fixed stops for locating edges ofparts. If the pod is not needed for either function, it can beflipped so that its top sits flush with the table and is out of theway, allowing the operator to rout around edges or throughboards while the piece is held on the table.

The accuracy provided by the machine/vacuum tablecombination came in handy when cutting the ellipse out ofthe walnut door. The door was so long that it exceeded thelength of the machine but Designer Woodworking was able tocut half, flip the door over, and cut the other half. Both sidesmatched perfectly. Another advantage of the Carter system isthat it makes possible to set up very quickly. It isn't necessaryto make jigs or spoil boards to hold parts. This helps DesignerWoodworking price jobs like rocker repairs competitively.

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Techno Gantry System Proves Indispensable forAntique Reproduction Manufacturer

Techno isel

The Techno machine has helped Pasqual revolutionize theway he shapes and saddles the chair seats, a process knownas scooping. Originally, Pasqual says he would do the seatsby hand with a draw knife. Each seat would take about twoand a half hours to produce -- and remember that is only theseat, the rest of the chair would need to be produced andassembled in addition to that time. At one point, MountRoyal had an order for 40 such chairs. Says Pasqual, "I waskilling myself doing it by hand." To improve the scoopingprocess, Pasqual tried suspending the knives by chains. Thisdid speed up the process somewhat, but cutting became veryrough, and clearly antique reproductions are productsrequiring accuracy at all costs.

Enter the Techno Gantry system. Pasqual purchased aTechno table and MAC Controller. Using this, inconjunction with MasterCAM Software, Mount RoyalReproductions was able to drastically revise the way theyscooped chair seats. What once took two and a half hours,Pasqual reports, can now be done in 17 minutes.

The fact that each chair seat, can now be manufactured inless than 1/8 the time it previously took, with no sacrifice of

Mount Royal Reproductions(Bristol, RI) is a furnituremanufacturer which specializes inantique reproductions. These are notcheap reproductions, but verydetailed wood pieces which canoften cost about $500.00. Oneparticular item which Mount Royalproduces is a Windsor chair, whichrequires extensive, and elaboratemilling and carving. The workrequired for these chairs can be along, tedious, and costly process.However, when John Pasqual,owner of Mount RoyalReproductions, discovered Techno'sCNC machine, he founda means of making the processeasier, faster, and cheaper. Fiveyears later Pasqual reports, "Withoutthis machine, I wouldn't be where Iam now."

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detail or accuracy, has had tremendous production benefitsfor Mount Royal. Pasqual says he can now run the machinefor 4 hours and produce enough chair seats to keep himbusy for two to three weeks. Consequently, he finds thatthere are periods when he can go for days without runningthe machine at all; hence time can be spent assembling thechairs and creating other items.

The savings in the time provided by the Techno systemtranslates directly into savings in dollars. This isimmediately seen in the way the machinery cuts down man-hours. Mount Royal Reproductions is a small company,with a handful of workers, and Pasqual feels it is to theiradvantage to remain that way. The Techno machine allowsthem to do just that. Some companies need as many as fourpeople to do scooping. With the Techno machine, themilling is done via a PC and the MAC Controller. Hence,one person can do the work of those four people. Byeliminating the need for the extra workers, the TechnoSystem allows Mount Royal to remain a small companyand reap the financial benefits of remaining a smallcompany. Without the machine, says Pasqual, labor costswould cause the prices he charges to be "blown out of thewater." Instead, he can produce quality products atcompetitive prices.

In addition, Mount Royal has found that they can use theTechno System for applications beyond that which theyoriginally intended. For example, at times the company isinvolved in doing case work. Cabinet doors often requirereeded columns which would normally be carved by usinga shaper. Once again the Techno machine makes the jobeasier without sacrificing attention to detail. The Technosystem can also be used for cutting the ears for the backsof chairs. Finally, Mount Royal has recently discoveredthat the machinery is useful for making foot moldings.These require accuracy of 1/16th of an inch, a need theTechno machine, with an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch,has no problem fulfilling.

In the business of antique reproduction, detail andaccuracy are all important. The Techno Series III Systemhas allowed Mount Royal Reproductions to continue toproduce the high quality furniture they once produced byhand. However, they can now do it more quickly, moreeasily, and more cheaply. The Techno machine has becomean indispensable tool in their manufacturing process, andhas allowed them to survive in today's competitivemarketplace.

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Inlay Artist Creates"An Enduring Tradition"

Techno isel

Using a Techno CNC router has greatly increased thenumber, size and complexity of inlay commissions that artistEugene Jacobs is able to undertake.

When Eugene Yehuda Jacobs was only 10 years old andliving in his native Romania, he carved a menorah(candelabrum) for his grandfather as a Hanukkah gift. Theboy had already shown an interest in drawing andcaligraphy, but this was his first attempt at woodworking.

It was also the beginning of a lifelong tradition of creatingJewish ceremonial objects such as Hanukkah lamps, prayerbook coves and special bread trays, using wood inlaytechniques to inset prayers and bible quotations. Threeyears ago, Jacobs, who is now 78, was honored with aspecial exhibit of his work, "An Enduring Tradition: WoodInlay in Jewish Ceremonial Art", at Yeshiva UniversityMuseum, New York.

Jacobs and his family escaped from Romania after WorldWar II and arrived in Canada in 1949. He was graduatedfrom the University of Toronto and later came to the UnitedStates with his wife and children. After teaching in anumber of Hebrew schools, he became the principal of theTorah Academy for Girls in Far Rockaway, NY. Throughouthis career, Jacobs "stayed after school", teaching hisstudents how to make ceremonial pieces that fulfill thebiblical teaching to "beautify" the commandments.

After retiring from teaching several years ago, Jacobs finallywas able to realize his dream of devoting himself to creatingJudaica. He set up shop in the basement of his Brooklynhome where he not only designs and crafts ceremonialpieces, but also designs the individual Hebrew letters thatembellish each one.

Jacobs works with exotic woods such as purpleheart, Gabonebony, mahogany, lacewood, cocobollo and zebra wood.His inlay materials are silver, gold and semipreciousmaterials: ivory, malachite, mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli andabalone shell – which take an enormous amount of time tocut by hand. Inlay artists can be limited by their tools ormaterials, and some artists require another person tophysically create what they have designed. No matter whocreates an inlay, it is grueling and repetitive work.

Four years ago, Jacobs purchased a Techno three-axis gantryCNC router which has enabled him to produce about six

times more work than he could manually. Machineperformance is more consistent than that of hand tools,and makes it easier to estimate the amount of time a jobwill take to produce.

Because of the router, Jacobs said he has overcome theusual difficulties of inlay work and is able to craft a widerrange of religious artwork, particularly large pieces for theJewish community. Major commissions include: arks forsynagogues in England, Austria and Israel; a SephardicTorah case of vermilion wood inlaid with silver; a 9-footby 8-foot by 12-foot huppah wedding canopy in thepermanent collection of Yeshiva University Museum.

The huppah, with its 5,000 inlaid pieces, would have takenfour years to complete using normal hand tools, Jacobsestimated. He completed it in eight months using theCNC router. The router not only saved time, but the inlayfit was also much tighter because the router has a toleranceof ±0.1 mm. In addition, very few clients could afford thecost to commission a four-year project.

After Jacobs sketches his inlay designs, they are copiedinto a personal computer using MasterCAM, CAD andmachining software. Sketching and programming for the

canopy required two months. Cutting and assemblingwere completed over a six-month period. Solid wood orveneer is precisely incised by the router, and the sameprogram is used to cut the inlays and the negatives. Jacobsuses an hydraulic drill capable of speeds up to 400,000rpm to cut hard stones and precious gems. After the inlaysare glued, the entire piece is laquered.

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Jacobs completes as much work as he can in hisbasement, and seeks outside help to assemble his largeworks. The canopy, weighing 1,200 pounds, wasassembled by Al Chabot Woodworking of Brooklyn andtaken to the museum by professional movers.

A 2-foot-high octagonal Torah case (tik) in vermilionwood was commissioned for a Sephardic synagoguein New York. Sephardic Jews, who are of Spanishancestry, read the Torah in its case while it is invertical position. The silver crown represents thebible, and was not made by Jacobs.

Across the front of the huppah is a 9-foot panel of Africanrosewood inlaid with 1,200 pieces of mother-of-pearl,abalone and silver. Suspended at the rear, a 7 1/2-footwalnut panel is inlaid with the prayers and blessingscustomarily said by the rabbi during the wedding ceremony.More than 1,600 pieces of gold, silver, mother-of-pearl,abalone and ivory form the Hebrew letters in this panel,itself a three-month project.

The ebony base has stainwood and purpleheart parquetcentered with a circle of Carrara marble surrounded by silverand gold, where the wedding couple stands. A separate tablefor wine cups used during the ceremony has satinwood legsand an ebony top inlaid with a grape vine design.

Four satinwoods pillars with ebony bases support thealuminum alloy frame of the canopy. Its silk ceiling iscentered on the underside with a needlepoint inset of doves,flowers and leaves, created by Malvina, Jacobs' wife of 54years.

A porcelain sculpture of doves by Boehm tops the work.According to Jacobs, doves are images of lifetime fidelity.Olive branches within the work represent the universalsymbols of peace as well as the emblem of the State ofIsrael.

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Techno isel

If you make wood moldings, then you are all toofamiliar with the profile grinding machine used tocut carbide and steel knives into the correct shapefor carving a particular molding. However, beforeyou can cut a knife, you must first make atemplate to place on the grinding machine. Thisearly step to creating moldings can be time-consuming and troublesome. Most people cutsuch templates manually, filing them out of metalby hand. This process in itself, is a not majorproblem, but can be difficult to master.

Often it takes years to train someone to filetemplates correctly. Yet despite training, anytimesomething is done by hand, it is subjected tohuman error. If the person making the templatefiles it inaccurately, the resulting knife will beinaccurate, and the final molding will beunsatisfactory. This may mean repeating theprocess, and hence additional costs. Anotherpotential problem is the need to periodicallyreplace templates. If a metal template is dropped,or just wears out, a new one must be filed. Onceagain, due to human error, this new template maynot be exactly the same as the original. This willresult in moldings which are not identical to thosemade with the original template, and if thesemoldings are for the same project, the customermay be unhappy. Finally, the use of hand-mademetal templates leads to the problem of storingthe templates for future use. Some organizedfiling system must be devised, and then spacemust be made for filing perhaps hundreds oftemplates. Some companies have drawers filledwith such stored templates.

Clearly there are many potential difficulties withthe templates, too many for what should be asimple, preliminary step in the process of makingmoldings.

However, Equipment Ltd. has come up with asolution. The company specializes in profilegrinding machines so they well know thenecessities and implications, along with thepotential problems, of creating knife templatesfor a grinding machine. With these in mindEquipment Ltd. has developed a computerautomated template maker with which you cancreate and store templates more accurately andeasily than ever before.

With this newmachine, youcreate thepattern for thetemplate on a PCusing a CADprogram. Thiscan be done in avariety of ways.An image can bescanned directlyfrom a currentmolding or knifedirectly into the

CAD program. Or, a molding sample can beprojected on to a digitizing tablet. Tracing theimage on the tablet produces XY coordinateswhich can be imported into a CAD program.The software converts this pattern into signalswhich are sent to a 3-axis gantry system(Techno, New Hyde Park NY) which has arouter attached to the Z axis. All the user has todo is mount a piece of acrylic plastic onto thegantry table, and press a button. The template isautomatically cut from the plastic in the patternthat was drawn on the screen. The result: aplastic template, more accurate than any done byhand, which can then be used directly on thegrinding machine.


Creating Templates With Techno Gantry,Saved Equipment Ltd. 50% of Production Costs

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Equipment Ltd.'s system has numerousadvantages over the manual production oftemplates. Not the least of these is the speed ofthe system. Libby Estes of Equipment Ltd. saysthe time to make templates can be cut by 50%using the new machine. In addition, whenreplacing templates, the time savings is evengreater. Rather than starting over from scratch,as you do when filing manually, you can merelyrecall the saved pattern for the template, and runthe program to re-cut the piece. At a touch of abutton, a new, template, identical to the originalis made. The time savings created with theTechno machine translates directly into costsavings.

Another major advantage is the improvement inaccuracy versus manual filing. With the inherent

accuracy of theTechno system,templates arecut to within.004" of thedrawing everytime. Henceone does notneed to worryabout humanerror. The

template will be produced exactly as planned.Plus, if you need to replace a template, you cando so with a nearly identical version.Additionally, the router on the Z-axis uses a 1 mmdiameter bit, so the .019" radius allows forextremely accurate corners, even when the corner isa 90° angle.

Another major difference in using EquipmentLtd.'s system is the use of acrylic plastictemplates instead of metal. Such plastictemplates cost about $.50 apiece to produce. Youmight think a plastic template would be lessdurable than a metal template. Yet actually, these1/8" templates are quite durable, and if they dowear out, replacement is extremely quick and

easy as mentioned above. In addition, with theplastic templates, storing and filing problems aresolved: you no longer need to save plastictemplates at all. Since you can save the patternsfor the templates on the computer, you can throwa template away as soon as you are finishedusing it. When you need to use it again, merelycall up the pattern (up to 24 can be viewed on-screen at one time), and re-cut. With theEquipment Ltd. machine, it is more efficient andcost-effective to throw away used plastictemplates and create new ones, than it is toexpend the time and space needed to store metaltemplates.

The price for the whole system, with all optionsis only $19,000, and the basic machinery andsoftware can be purchased for as low as $13,000.In addition, the ease of the system meanstraining time is very short: Equipment Ltd., saysEstes, can train someone to use the system inthree days. Contrast this to the years of trainingand practice which may be required for someoneto learn how to correctly file templates manually.

Clearly the Equipment Ltd. system hastremendous advantages over the manualproduction of wood molding knife templates.Production time of the templates is cut in half,the templates can be reproduced with .004"accuracy, and storage is completely eliminatedsince patterns can be saved on the computer.The savings from the speed, accuracy, andstorage capabilities of the Equipment Ltd.system means manual production of thesetemplates is destined to become obsolete.

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Techno isel

A well-known Yoga instructor helped express hisartistic talent at a commercial level by turning a newexercise machine concept into a profitable businesswith the help of a Techno CNC router. The newconcept involves wooden, multipurpose exercisemachines that are designed to simulate the movementsused in ballet, swimming, gymnastics and yoga. WhenJuliu Horvath began designing these machines about10 years ago, he built them with a jig saw andtemplates. Each machine took so long to build by thisapproach that it seemed impossible to build aprofitable business from his concept. Several yearsago, however, he switched to a Techno computerizedrouter that has allowed him to cut the time required tobuild the machines by 80% and turn what waspreviously merely a labor of love into a growingbusiness.

Horvath began his career as a ballet dancer inRomania and defected to the United States in the late1960's. Not long after his arrival, he gave up dance to

Computerized Router Turns Yoga Instructor'sLabor Of Love Into Profitable Exercise Machine

pursue the study of Yoga. He developed a Yogasystem based on the underlying principle oftranslating breathing patterns to movement patterns.Teachers and students from all over the worldcontinue to flock to his studio in New York City tolearn his original Yoga system. Horvath's systemincludes a unique series of floor exercises designed toenhance flexibility while increasing strength. Findingthat many students had difficulty learning theseexercises, he began building wooden machines tomake it easier to perform them. "I saw that existingexercise machines were too rough and too linear,"Horvath says. "Length and breadth were missing.They made it hard to build coordination andflexibility."

Horvath's machines incorporate the kind ofsweeping organic curves one expects to find in ArtNouveau furniture. The platforms are curved in theSanta Cruz style of wavy red and blond woodworkand patterned after the swirling shapes of bonsai

trees. They are created tocommand a "melodicmovement" that increases theindividual's effective rangeof motion. These sweeping,circular movements involvethe whole body at once,building strength withoutadding bulk. Horvath'smachines emphasize thearticulation of the joints andstrengthening of thesurrounding ligaments insuch a way that it makes theconnection between thebones much stronger.According to Horvath, "Mymachines are designed forathletes, dancers and healthconscious people, not bodybuilders." While the conceptwas developed in the mid-1980s, it took until 1994 todevelop the design to absolutefullness including determiningthe exact proportions to fit anybody type.

Wood and aluminum parts of this exercise machine were fabricated using aTechno CNC router

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Horvath set up the first machines in his Yogastudio in New York City called White Cloud Studio.The machines, which he calls the GyrotonicsExpansion System, developed an almost cult-likefollowing from the very start among the New Yorkdance community and since then the system has wonfollowers worldwide at affiliated studios in LosAngeles, London, Paris, Seattle, Munich, Mexico Cityand Florence. New openings are scheduled in PuertoRico and Tokyo. The machines are also used by anumber of dance academies and studios. While thesystem was originally conceived for dancers, it hasproven equally successful with children, the elderly,and those recovering from injuries and illness.

The Gyrotonics Expansion System is a patenteddesign that uses hand and foot-operated wheel basesand pulley suspensions to precisely hone the bodythrough some 130 variations on 50 different sets ofexercises. The body moves in three dimensions andexperiences multifunctional joint action on the order ofa universal joint. The machines are easily adjustableto any length or breadth of movement. Workoutstypically last between one and two hours and consistof slow turns synchronized with rhythmically-releaseddeep breaths. Weights used are much lower thantypical exercise machines – generally on the order of30 pounds.

Horvath builds each machine himself and this is akey selling feature of the equipment. The base andsupport elements are made of wood while othercomponents are machined aluminum. In thebeginning, Horvath built wooden components with ajig saw using intricate template to guide his hands andheavily sanded each piece after cutting. There weretwo problems with this approach. It took so long tobuild each machine that, considering his other timecommitments, Horvath was precluded from turning theexercise machines into a serious business. Second, thelack of precision provided by jig saw cutting meantthat the components of each machine had to beindividually fitted.

Then, about five years ago, Horvath heard aboutthe Techno computer-controlled router that canproduce wooden components in far less time than a jigsaw. The 3-axis gantry router from Techno follows apattern that is programmed with a drawing program.Rather than tediously trace the contours of thetemplate, Horvath can now simply put a piece of woodon the Techno router and flip the switch. It producesparts in about 1/5 the time required on a jig saw. Akey advantage is that the router can generate a 3-axismotion. This means that operations such as roundingthe edges of a part, which would normally be done in a

second operation after jigsawing, can now beaccomplished in a single setup.

The accuracy of the computer-controlled routeris also far greater, which provides additional timesavings. The Techno system has an accuracy of ±0.1mm (±.004") in 300 mm and a repeatability of ±0.01mm (.0004"). This precision eliminates the need formost manual finishing operations and forindividually fitting components. It makes it possibleto build more accurate and better looking parts thatare interchangeable with each other.

The Techno router was relatively inexpensive.Horvath estimates that he paid for its cost last year inone single order for five machines. Horvath himselfis computer illiterate, but he has a friend whoconverts his sketches into AutoCAD drawings thenuses a CNC programming package called Mastercamto produce a file that the router understands. Oncethe program is finished, Horvath operates themachine in his workshop. When he wants to producea part, he simply loads a piece of wood and pushes afew buttons to start the machine. He does nearly allthe manufacturing work himself although he does usepart-time employees from time to time.

Techno routers have anti-backlash ball screwsfor play-free motion that make it possible to producecircles that are accurate to the .0005 inch machineresolution. These ballscrews also make it possible toproduce wooden parts as accurate as the machineresolution. The ballscrews have excellent powertransmission due to the rolling ball contact betweenthe nut and screws. This type of contact also ensureslow friction, low wear and long life.

In five years of operation, Horvath has never hadany problems with the machine. This is partly due tothe strength and rigidity of the table. The Technomachine is constructed from extruded aluminumprofiles that can support all the materials thatHorvath uses and provides easy clamping capability.The machine also has four ground and hardened steelshafts and eight recirculating bearings in each axis.This shaft and bearing system produces very smoothplay-free motion and an extremely rigid system thatproduces high quality cuts.

All in all, since purchasing the new router,Horvath has been able to turn his exercise machineconcept into a profitable business venture. Theprecision and repeatability of the router makes itpossible for him to perform all production workhimself and will make it easy to delegatemanufacturing to others, if required by future growth,without sacrificing quality.

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Technoisel AFFORDABLE CAD/CAM SERIES Fine … · AFFORDABLE CAD/CAM SERIES Fine Custom Furniture Produced ... Technoisel Culin-Collela, Inc., Mamaroneck, New York, is a woodworking