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We started our stone shop with all kinds of technology on the solid surface end. The first thing we utilized from the solid surface shop was the templates. We use photo top for all of our templating. We do not have a stone CNC so we cut our templates out of 1/8 inch masonite. The gusy we hired in the stone shop are very experienced. The only thing they had to learn was to trust our templates and the only thing we had to learn was not to follow the walls like we do in solid surface. They would rather cut the drywall than try to follow the accuracy of photo top on the back walls.
Mory
Dang, Mory. I thought you were going to have CNC for the opening. Makes the numbers you gave me even more impressive…
Tom,
We bought a Sahara Bridge saw and a Wizard Deluxe from Parks. Also lots of other tools from Fed Dave. We can very easily average a kitchen a day, but it also takes the right people. I won’t post any numbers, we can talk on the phone. Best investment I made. Our solid surface numbers are also growing because of the investment in the stone equipment. I won’t even try to explain that here. I’ll call you.
Mory
I think I might have an idea how your sol surf improvement was happening, but I’ll wait to talk to you on it.
Tom
Mory, Just an idea for you to kick around. We do alot of E-stone and granite. We do not fab it here, however we still do the digital template. Rather than cutting template out of masonite and such we invested in a vinyl plotter and cut our templates on vinyl. (NOT AN ALLEN DATAGRAPH) The vinyl we use is 30″ wide but available in many widths and is in a 150′ rool. Cost us around 70 bucks a roll. I think this would be much cheaper than masonite.
Graphtec machine is the way to go. http://www.signwarehouse.com
Mory, I have seriously been thinking of getting into fabbing our own stone. Realy the main thing holding me back is staffing. Maybe one of these days you and I could talk. I would like to know a little more about how you went about getting into it.
Travis,
I would love to talk to you about it. We subbed out stone for over two years. I really wasn’t interested in it. Then it slowed down a little bit and we started doing our own installs. The more I kept looking at it the more I knew we needed to make the move. When the building market started to drop off, I knew we need to be a one stop shop in order to survive long term. I spent alot of time researching different equipment from fully automated to what we ended up with. We went with Parks Bridge Saw and the deluxe Wizard. Of course, no shop would be complete with out the goodies from Federal Saw Dave. He helped us tremendously. As far as hiring people, unless you are really lucky to get them the first time out, it was a learning experience for us. We dumped alot of money into people that said they know what they were doing, but did not. I am very happy with the outcome as of now and very happy with our margins. It has actually increased our solid surface work. E-mail me your phone number and I will give you a call tomorrow. mory@premiercountertops.com
Mory
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