2020: Goals Looking Forward
As 2019 came to a close, I took the opportunity to look around the shop and see how things can be improved and for the past two weeks, I’ve been playing shop Tetris to really streamline things dramatically!
Starting next week I should be done moving all the woodworking equipment in it’s own “room” and dividing-up the shop into distinct capability zones where previously, anything was put anywhere that fit.
Like every other year, CNCROi.com beat all records and expectations, our customer base grew, our equipment and capabilities grew and most importantly, a continued focus on diversifying is really playing dividends.
When I first started CNCROi.com, I was very focused to not be a LASER shop, sure, we had an amazing laser in half my parent’s two car garage but I saw this business a custom fabrication and that meant building up the tooling to handle projects across any material, including those beyond just what a laser could do.
While last year was focused on bringing-up our “wood” department, this year I’m focused on doing the same for our metal offerings.
I dipped my toes into welding almost 2 years ago but got so busy with various things that I haven’t had time to really focus on it since then.
Welding is great fun, and something I really want to get more into.
Our full sheet CNC router was a major upgrade in capability, it allowed us to make custom cabinetry, live edge signage and a whole bunch of other neat projects, though it was purchased in 2018, it didn’t come into full force until 2019 with customers and projects.
Although it has been “hidden” since our full sheet CNC router has come onto the scene, I also have a smaller machine that’s exceptional for carving but due to space limitations, I couldn’t take full advantage of it’s capabilities so part of shop Tetris is to take it out of the shadows and have it properly set-up.
Going back to metal, CNCROi.com will be acquiring a plasma cutter along with a proper MIG for welding applications, not only do I want to be able to cut metal with crazy fast industry leading turnarounds, but I also want to be able to weld it too!
Waterjet is amazing, and we already do cut a lot of metal, but plasma is just light speeds faster and for the right jobs, more optimized than any other process, a plasma isn’t better than a waterjet, it’s just another tool to do the same thing in a different way with it’s own challenges.
I continue to believe as we expand in tooling and equipment that in order to keep growing, my company has to become more efficient and part of that is using the most optimized tooling for the project at hand, and having options is part of that process.
As any woodworker will tell you, there is no such thing as too many clamps, well, as a custom fabricator, there is never enough tooling.
I look forward to sharing the continuing journey I’ve been on all these years… and to think, it all started 11 years ago with this simple animation.