"Woodworking Comes of Age"
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Fred Mott was beaming as he reminisced. “A woodworking consultant from a university in North Carolina was visiting our school 12 years ago. He commented to me that, between the two of us, we represented a significant amount of North America’s computer-based knowledge in the woodworking industry. It shows you how far we’ve come today. Computers in woodworking is now a growing reality.” Fred is well known to the woodworking industry as an instructor at the Woodworking Centre of Ontario, based at Conestoga College in Kitchener Ontario. The school’s staff was preparing to install some software for the woodworking shop. And, according to Fred, the arrival of his Mastercam Router system represents a major milestone, not only for the school, but also for the woodworking industry as a whole. |
 Dennis Harlock and Fred Mott examine a wood piece produced on the CNC router at the Woodworking Centre of Ontario, at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario. |
“Up to now, our use of CAD/CAM has been very restricted. All the available software was proprietary programs provided by the tool manufacturers. If our students wanted serious instruction in CNC, they would have to get most of it from our metal shop. But finally, a major software developer is supporting woodworking applications. It’s really a sign that our industry has come of age.”
In fact, the software that the woodworking school is installing originated in the metalworking industry. Mastercam Router, just released this month by CNC Software, is a new version of the world’s most popular CAD/CAM software for metal and machine shops. The core program has been in the market for more than 15 years, providing a solid foundation and an extensive feature set for the woodworking application. But there’s more involved here than new “bells and whistles.”
Dennis Harlock, another of Conestoga’s instructors, points out that this is the first woodworking program to come from a major third-party developer – an important distinction. “Third-party software survives by supporting machines from different manufacturers. If you learn to use this program, you can apply your skills to almost any brand of equipment. You don’t have to learn a new program every time you get a new machine. Or every time you change shops.”
The implications for woodworking students are far-reaching. Now, the CNC skills they acquire in school will be more portable between different job opportunities. Their skill level can be higher, too, because they can focus on learning a single program thoroughly. And the design of Mastercam itself gives Conestoga instructors a more versatile teaching tool.
“Many of our students choose woodworking in the first place because they don’t like computers.” Fred explains. “Then we show them CNC, and they have to write all these lines of G-code to run a project. But this new software provides a much better environment for woodworking people. It’s very visually oriented. For instance, the customized tooling it offers means you don’t have to substitute a straight tool and imagine what the real tool would be like.”
“I want to get our students back to the machine as many times as I can, to have the repetitive, hands-on time that gets them comfortable with the machine. Mastercam features such as tabbing and engraving also help us to create assignments that are easier for the students to generate – projects that don’t demand such complex set-ups to get started. Plus, I know that Mastercam has a lot of software in the high schools, so if we get somebody who already has some experience with it, that’s an advantage to us.”
“That commonality is an advantage to business, too,” Dennis continues. “When you go out to buy a machine, you don’t want your choice of machine to be tied down by the software you know. You want one software to run all your machines. Then there’s the difference in tech support, especially when you’re writing post-processors. With 65,000 Mastercam seats out there, not every company has to re-invent the post. You have across-the-board sharing of technology.”
Conestoga College takes some justified pride in the arrival of Mastercam. The Woodworking Centre has conscientiously championed advanced applications in the industry for many years. As well as its three programs for full-time woodworking students and six continuing education courses, the center also teaches a post-graduate course in Woodworking Manufacturing Management. The dean of the centre, Mike McClements, is an engineer whose pre-academic career was in furniture manufacturing. He has seen first-hand how industry trends evolved to create the demand for more computerization.
“In the late 80s, companies would run 250 parts and put them into inventory and assemble them as they were sold. That’s pretty much gone – for the really effective manufacturers now, all the production is focused on build-to-order. That increases the demand for CNC: for machines that are quick to set-up, that are extremely accurate. Previously, people would actually put the piece of furniture together in the plant, and they could fix all the problems before they shipped as they went along. With “ready-to-assemble” furniture, and the requirement for closer tolerances, came a need for accuracy that hadn’t existed before.”
“One of our greatest challenges is that students come to use with no idea of the complexity of the industry. In many cases, they go through a dramatic change…to get more interested in the world of computerization and its application to wood manufacturing.”
For an industry that still cherishes its traditions as a highly personalized craft, a great deal has changed. Customers still look for a certain degree of uniqueness and character in wood products, but the pressure is on to achieve the economy and efficiency equal to mass production in metal manufacturing. As Dennis Harlock explains, “Automotive production drove metalworking to higher efficiencies and lower costs. And the cost of the finished product justified the expense of advanced CNC equipment. Now, our furniture companies are looking south for markets, and they are competing at those economies of scale. Material utilization is the big buzzword these days; we want to maximize our material yield. Now we can work on 4 or 5 jobs in the same sheet and stay in small batch sizes.”
While demand for the benefits CNC manufacturing has risen, costs have been coming down. Woodworking machines equipped for CNC share many key components with their metalworking counterparts. As a result, more shops can afford to upgrade to CNC equipment. As Dennis says, “We can put a controller into almost any machine now. And you don’t have to be selling $300,000 molds to make it worth your while.”
These are the same forces that CNC Software saw at work when the developer decided to add woodworking software to its CAD/CAM line-up. The company’s experience in CNC environments is evident in the feature set launched in Mastercam Router.
“I think the tabbing is an excellent addition,” says Fred Mott. “Anyone who has worked with as vacuum table and CNC knows the problems you get making small parts -- the shifting you get with the torque in the tool. The tabs make set-ups a lot easier, then we just sand them off when piece goes on for finishing. The nesting, the engraving – are features we have to explore.”
“We have just turned the corner on the potential for CNC, and Mastercam Router could prove to be an important tool in the future of woodworking.”
For information on the Woodworking Centre of Ontario, contact:
Conestoga College
299 Doon Valley Drive,
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2G 4M4
Phone:(519) 748-5220 ext. 3466 Fax: (519) 748-3511
Lyn Ibson is a freelance writer in London Ontario who specializes in technology and industrial topics.
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