Last week offered a rare opportunity to reconnect with the furniture industry, one of North Carolina’s core industries for a long time, at the Stiles Manufacturing Solutions Seminar in their Greensboro facility. The folks at Stiles do a terrific job of showcasing their various technology solutions. The ones I (Steve Walker) was particularly interested in related to the latest in panel/flat sanding, or wide belt sanding as it used to be called. All attendees were given excellent demonstrations of equipment from Heeseman and Buttfering, two of the biggest names in wood sanding for a long time. A few photos, below:
Stiles also had some first-rate moulder demos. Moulders are 4 sided feed through shaping equipment which has been essential productivity tools in volume woodworking for a long, long time. Controls are dramatically more sophisticated and easier to use, and safety features are built in and foolproof in many outstanding ways, but the technology of moulders hasn’t really changed in my entire career. You still have to have good tooling properly set. See below:
It was a good day for all in attendance. Many thanks to the folks at Stiles for having me.