Our New Bedroom Furniture Collection Launches in Halifax

We were delighted to travel out to the East Coast as our new Bedroom Collection was launched this weekend at our retail partner Statement in Halifax. Roger and his team hosted a wonderful couple of days for us in honour of the new collection.

The new Highland Half Dresser in natural beech in the showcase window. 

Two of the new bed designs (the Stirling and Argyll) on the showroom floor. 

On Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking to aspiring design students from the Nova Scotia College of Arts and Design (NSCAD). I spoke about our company's creation and the evolution of our design language over time.

On Saturday there was a lovely launch party. Peach and Champagne Mimosas and tasty organic treats tempted all the visitors who browsed the collection and Statement's beautiful showroom space.

Guests chat in the showroom. Our Touch coffee table  serves as a cocktail table for refreshments.

Another image of the showroom. Our Rowlands coffee table acts as a play table for a young guest.

Our solid wood Rowlands Bed on display. 

Speke Klein and the Statement Team - from l to r - Ray (Design Director), Robin, Mark (Store Manager), Roger (Owner and host extraordinaire), and Thomas (holding our daughter who joined us for the trip). 

Week 46: The machine is up and running!

Our CNC router installation continues. We have been joined by technicians from Homag Canada who are fine-tuning everything, training us in the machine's operation and making sure things run smoothly. Here is the crew posing in front of the machine. From left to right: Ian (Homag), Bruce, Chad, Thomas and Nelio (Homag), with Kai (Homag) perched on top.

Here are images of the machine running its first test programs.

Thomas and Chad discuss the set-up of a part on the machine bed. You can see the computer console that runs the programming in the forefront of the image. The black mat at the front of the machine is a safety feature and contains sensors that will stop the machine immediately if someone steps on the mat (on the side where the part is being machined) when the router is in operation.

Chad positions a test part on the machine bed.

Here is the test part (the side of a drawer box), positioned and ready to go. It is placed on "pods" and is held down by vacuum suction.

Here is the same part getting machined. You will notice the router bit on the right side of the wood piece notching its side. The large hood over the router head deals with dust extraction.

Everyone watches as the machine runs the program to mill the part. From left to right: Kai  and Nelio (Homag), Chad, Ian (Homag), and Bruce. You will note that Chad is holding a control console as he watches the operation. This allows him to stop the machine if he has a concern about the program running correctly.

Week 44: Special Delivery!

After much anticipation, we finally took delivery this week of our brand new 5-axis CNC (computer numerically controlled) router. The beautiful BMG 511 from Homag, Germany is the very first of its kind in North America.  We cannot wait to explore all that it will do for us!

Here are some images of its delivery to the workshop.

The rigging company needed 2 trucks - one for the machine itself and one for the special heavy duty forklifts and equipment needed to offload it.

The machine bed gets off-loaded from the truck...

...and manouevred through the workshop to its final position.

Kai, the technician who is going to install the machine for us, oversees the final positioning. When the workshop floor was poured, we had to create a special area with extra thick concrete to support the machine, so the accuracy of the positioning was crucial.

The machine gantry is readied for off-loading.

Preparing for "the marriage": the gantry gets positioned over the machine bed with only 1mm of space between the components so there is no room for error.

More images of the installation to come!

Week 36: Still Settling In

It has been a while since an update, and we just wanted to say that we will be posting more infrequently now as our re-start is nearing completion. We are focusing on ironing out the wrinkles as production returns to normal and then we will be setting our sites on designing and introducing new products to add to the collection.

Please check back in the coming weeks as more details emerge.

Week 28: Back in production!!

Finally, after 28 long (and somehow very fast) weeks, we are starting to build furniture in our new workshop!!  The road to get here has definitely been up and down, but we are so excited and very much relieved to be finally producing furniture again.

Here is our first large load of wood, delivered and ready to go.

John doing some panel dimensioning on the new table saw.

Some walnut panels that are in the process of being finger-jointed.

Here are a number of prepared finger-jointed panels that are awaiting glue-up to become a batch of our very popular Touch benches.

And here are Thomas and John putting parts for our Petits Fours Bed through the sander.

Week 27: All the final details…

The organization of the shop is continuing. Even though it would be nice to just get production started, it is important to get everything in place so that when we start making furniture again it can happen efficiently and effectively. Here are some images of the fine details that have been keeping us occupied.

Creating shelving and cupboards for all our supplies and small power tools.  This wall of storage is awaiting doors to close it all in and keep it dust free.

Organizing our assembly area so all our hardware (door hinges, drawer runners, etc) are easily accessible.

Finalizing airlines (blue), dust collection piping (silver) and creating hanging racks for long sand paper belts.

John making shop carts.

Salvaged clamps that have been scrubbed off and are all set, ready to go.

Week 26: Taking the plunge with new machinery

Well, this week saw us take a very exciting step to push our business to the next level. After much planning and deliberation (that began long before the tornado took place) we have invested in a 5-axis CNC (computer numerically controlled) router! Our machine of choice is the Homag BMG 500, an amazing German-built machine that is considered one of the best in the industry. 

While the business person in me is continually scrutinizing the cost vs return on investment, the designer in me is giddy with excitement about the possibilities this machine has to offer. Not only will it improve the accuracy and speed of our production, it will allow us to open up our design scope to incorporate curves and angles in a way that we never could produce efficiently before.

The order is in and the machine is expected in the summer. We cannot wait to get it into the workshop and put it to work for us!

Week 25: Adding return air to the dust collector

Just when you thought we could not add any more piping to the workshop, we have gone ahead and installed a return air system on our new dust collector. This allows the air that gets sucked out of the shop with the dust system to be returned back into the workshop dust free, saving on heating costs and improving general ventilation. It is a small opening (as you can see below in the foreground), but makes a huge difference. 

One of the hazards of fine wood dust is that it is extremely explosive in the right (or perhaps I should say wrong!) circumstances. All dust collection units are equipped with blast gates that allow the force of an explosion to release outside of the building and not blow back into the workshop through the collection piping.

In light of this, a dust collector with a return air system requires an essential feature called a spark detection system. It operates to detect any possible flammable material (a minor spark) and sprays it with water before it reaches the main dust container, avoiding an explosion. You can see the attachments for the spark detection  (waiting to get wired in by the electrician) on the main out-feed pipe below.

The other element necessary is an abort gate on the return air unit, which will automatically shut if a spark is detected. In the case that an explosion does occur, this would prevent any of the fire being forced back into the shop through the return air piping.

Here are some images of the guys installing the outside section of the return air to the main dust collection system on a grey snowy day.

Week 23: The building is complete!

Although the work continues apace on the inside, we are so excited to see that the outside of the building is finished! Here are some views of how it looked on a recent bright winter morning.

Week 22: Freshening up

While we continue to focus most of our energy on the set-up of the workshop, we also started the face-lift of the office, including some nice bright paint there and in the foyer to help keep us awake on dark winter days.

We also took delivery of our new front door, and the exterior light fixtures were put into position. Looking good!