Woodworker's Journal European Blog

Final Days Abroad

2006-12-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

The morning broke on my last full day in Germany with the first real hint of wintry weather. High on the hillsides tree branches were covered with frost. First thing on the agenda was a trip to the Festool manufacturing facilities. We toured the plants and got a ground floor view of how the tools are made and the super efficient methods in place to create them.
Then we went back to Festool’s headquarters for a discussion of the importance of exceptional quality and the methods they use to ensure it and test for it. Dr. Hartmut Frei, the head of Festool’s quality assurance program began by giving us some definitions of what exactly quality is: to the worker, to Festool and to their customer. I have to say that I was worried the Dr. Frei’s quiet demeanor portended a less than scintillating lecture. But as soon as he started talking about the testing done to determine tool durability, my fears were allayed. Dr. Frei’s eyes lit up and he became much more animated as he began flinging expensive power tools around to room and bouncing them off the floor to demonstrate the abuse they put the tools through prior to their initial production runs. He employs an entire staff of people whose only job is to break Festool tools by misusing them. It was enlightening and entertaining.
After that, we embarked on a tour of a local furniture making company. They are a customer of Festool and use Festool products in their production. They produce modern styled furniture of solid hardwoods. After we went through their shop, we then visited their showroom. It was very impressive.

While the day’s events were enlightening, it was a long day of activity. The visit to Festool opened my eyes to their heartfelt philosophy that Festool holds to. Exceptional quality in power tools creates durable tools that enable woodworkers to be more effective. This creates a value equation that works exceedingly well for both the customer and the toolmaker. What became crystal clear is that the folks at Festool believe in this methodology completely. And their success over the last several years seems to be all the proof that is needed.

Photos top to bottom: Frost on a German hillside. An example of high quality furniture. Festool drill drivers on a well used workbench. Woodworking editors on a workshop tour. Some clever shop made knock-down joints fixtures. A cabinetmaker apprentise working on a bed frame.

Festool: New Tools to Look For

2006-12-11T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today I (and a passel of other woodworking magazine editors and writers from the US and the UK) began two days of meetings with Festool at their German headquarters. Located in the region of Swabia – the premier manufacturing area in Germany – Festool has a modern facility with a long history of quality tool making.
The folks at Festool took care to explain their philosophy of only producing tool that meet the highest standards in the industry. They have a rigorous project development process that focuses on delivering systematic solutions to woodworking problems and that measures their efforts all along the way. The product development process is so exacting that it takes them an average of three years to bring a new concept tool to market. All aspects of the design effort are measured and held up to the initial goals set for the new tool. If a tool fails to meet the expected metrics, then it is reworked until it does. This supports Festool's mission of being the performance winners in every category in which they participate. (They realize that with this philosophy, they will never be the price winner.)

It is in light of those discussions that later in the day we were introduced to Festool’s newest offering the Domino joining system. You say that you’ve never heard of a Domino tool before? That is because it is a totally new product.

Looking like a high-tech biscuit joiner, the Domino is something like a hybrid of a router, doweling machine and a biscuit joiner. It forms perfectly shaped mortises for various sized “dominos” – which are in truth, mass-produced loose tenons. The dominos are made of beech. The concept is elegantly simple, but Festool’s execution is meticulously well done. The knobs and levers for setting the depth of cut and location of the domino slot are intuitive and easy. The series of attachment allow you to place dominos into the end of a narrow piece of wood (just under 1-inch wide) – perfect for picture framing. The cutters for the dominos range from 10mm down to 5mm.

The assembled editors (including your intrepid reporter) each got to use this new tool in the process of making a small stool. I have to say that I found the tool easy to use and very effective. I was able, after just a bit of instruction, to jump into using the Domino tool with confidence. And after just a short time, I ended up with a groovy little stool. I was also able to talk to a British furniture maker who had just finished using a Domino tool on a large project – he was effusive with praise for the tool.

Without a doubt, this new tool will make a significant splash when it arrives in the US in early April of 07. I will have more on this tool when I use it to build a project in my March April magazine.

A Year Older
Later, after our time in the shop, the entire group gathered for a lovely meal at a local restaurant. A good time was had by all – especially because it was my birthday. I was given a birthday “cake” with three candles on it. (The actual 51 candles would have violated a local fire ordinance.) The assembled editors sang Happy Birthday to You – giving evidence as to why they chose to write rather than sing for a living. It was a lovely ending to a great day.

Photos, top to bottom: One side of my stool. A domino in a piece of plastic. Your hardworking editor using the Domino tool. The same indefagitable editor using a slick Festool saw.

More than Just Work

2006-12-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

While the heart of this trip is to visit various tool companies and to learn about their methods and new product, all work and no play does make Rob a dull boy. So I have been able to spend a bit of time doing things that are not just work related. My hosts, Lucia Spallacci of CMT, Simon Hornby of Felder and Christian Oltzscher and Lorilee Torrey of Festool; all have gone out of their way to entertain me (and my wife, Maggie) in a number of different ways. And on top of that, there is just the experience of being in Europe – traveling via train, seeing castles and historic sites and experiencing local customs. Tomorrow I will be back at it – this time writing about Festool – but for today, here are a few things of interest.

Christkindle Markts and Christmas Markets
Innsbruck, Austria is a wonderful city – and especially so during the lead-up to Christmas. It is a tradition in Austria to set up Christkindle Markts. These markets consist of many stalls of merchants selling seasonally themed items – everything from roasted chestnuts to handmade wood products to Tyrolean sweaters. The community comes together to decorate the public spaces (Innsbruck’s old town area in this case.)
Whole families (mom, dad, children, grandma, grandpa, the dog … the whole family) attend travel to the Christkindle Markts, where there are pony rides, visits from St. Nicholas and many wonderful traditional treats. As a visitor I found the tradition to be charming and the people to be warm and friendly.
In Germany the tradition is very similar, but the events are simply call Christmas Markets. We even got to see a medieval version of a Christmas Market in Esslingen.

Train Travel
After arriving in Venice by airplane, we have traveled through Italy, to Austria and finally Nurtingen, Germany by train. It has been – for the most part – comfortable, convenient and effective. One enjoyable night we shared a compartment with four students from Spain. They were sleepy, but entertaining – on their way to meet a friend, who would let them sleep at his apartment. On the same evening we met a charming expatriate Britain who 15 years ago sold everything he had in the UK and moved to Italy. He has never looked back.

Burning the Schnapps
One evening we were taken to a Schnapps distillery where we watched and learned how schnapps is made. It was fascinating and fun. The distillery we visited was a family business and the whole family entertained us all evening. (And there was live music – an accordion player … he was a hoot.)

Images top to bottom: My wife Maggie and I in an Italian garden. The famous Golden Roof in Innsbruck, Austria. Your ever vigilent editor at a Christkindle markt, looking at antique woodworking tools -- Stumpers anyone? An evening seen at a holiday market. Some beautiful wooden gifts at a Christmas Market. A 16th century church and the carving above the entry door. A "castle" in the distance at Esslingen. Our four Spanish students on holiday. A $20,000 Euro distilling machine.

Felder and Hammer Woodworking Tools: Austrian Engineering

2006-12-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

Located in a beautiful valley in the Austrian Alps, just outside of Innsbrook proper, is the home of Felder and Hammer stationary woodworking tools. Felder and its newer sub-brand, Hammer, are power tools for serious woodworkers. Extremely well known in Europe, they are less of a known entity in the US. (Although that situation is changing.)
Felder was started about 50 years ago by Johan Felder, a man whose family had been blacksmiths for hundreds of years. Although understandably antiquated by today’s standards, the first Felder machines had innovation and high quality in common with the products of today.
Born in (or perhaps better described as forming) the European tradition of using a single chassis to house components that perform several different tasks, Felder machines (which include the less pricey Hammer brand) are multi purpose in design. Because of this fact -- and this is often misunderstood by US woodworkers -- these machines can be “assembled” in different configurations. For example, you can buy combination planer-jointer. (Which makes so much sense because with it you can face joint lumber as wide as you can thickness surface – brilliant!) But you can also hang a very powerful slot-mortiser on one side of the planer-jointer. (One chassis, three “tools.”) But hold on, why not add a really great table saw (with a sliding panel-cutting table and a fore-and-aft adjustable rip fence) and call it a day: one chassis four “tools”. Now you’ve got your whole shop set up. But hey, you’ve already got a very good mortising machine, and you like to use your groovy new router for slot mortising, so – get rid of the slot-mortiser. (Back to one chassis, three “tools.”) Such is the advantage of multi-use stationary woodworking tools.

I visited the main Felder facility to have a look at how they go about making these top-flight woodworking tools. Having just spent a good bit of time observing many different sorts of woodworking machinery being made in Asia and other places, I was able to make informed comparisons. The various buildings are situated on a large campus. The processes are integrated throughout these buildings. There is a significant use of CNC machining tools – but also a surprising number of manually performed tasks. As you may imagine, there is a huge emphasis on efficiency. According to my guide on the tour, only by producing high-quality innovative products with the most modern and efficient methodology, is Felder able to continue to manufacture these tools in Europe. What I observed confirmed my previously held opinion that these are robust tools of superior engineering.

Before I went to the factory, I spent a bit of time in their showroom. The tools are set up in various configurations demonstrating the scope of the Felder/Hammer product line. Also in the showroom was a small “museum” of historic Felder products. They were fascinating to me. One observation that hit home was the long years that the Felder Group has spent actively refining this technology. And that steady incremental improvement over the last 50 years has accumulated into tools of exceptional value.

All in all, it was a fascinating and educational visit, one which I will remember for a long time.

Images top to bottom: Your wayward editor sitting with a hot new friend. An example of Felder's new 500 series. A couple of images of very early Felder woodworking machines. Several images from the manufacturing floor of the Felder complex.

CMT – Making the Moves to Make More

2006-12-07T06:39:00.001-08:00

CMT, the orange bit company, long known for excellent saw blades and router bits, has been making some major changes. But it is unlikely that you’ve noticed them. That is because the changes have been in the tooling and machines that make the router bits, etc. By adding more advanced computer (numerically) controlled machines (CNC), with multiple machining heads and stations, CMT has been able to increase their production capabilities without eroding quality. Owned and run by the Tommassini family, these changes have been made along with an increased focus on router bits and boring bits.
The CMT factories that I visited are located in and around the town of Pesaro, Italy. It is a beautiful locale, situated on the Adriatic and nestled into green rolling hills. Even in December the weather was wonderful and the people hospitable. All these characteristics have kept this region popular from Etruscan times, through the Roman empires until today.

Quality is the Target
Whether you are talking about the machining of bit blanks, or the application of Teflon® coating, or the sophisticated and automated application of flux to tri-metal, and even brazing and cooling – CMTs processes are all aimed at producing superior quality products. High quality steel is used and their carbide is formulated and made at one of the world's best carbide production companies. Every process is examined for continuous improvement, and the investment in new CNC machinery was key to this plan. An added goal was to increase the volume of product that could be manufactured, to avoid any potential problems of vendor back orders. According to my host, Lucia Spallucci, CMT has been very cautious to not overproduce. This has meant that some products were slower to market than they would have liked, but it kept customer satisfaction very high. Increased capacity will solve the problem without causing any erosion of service.

I was able to go into the factories (as you can see in the photos) and see first hand the system improvement. I was impressed with the people on the floor as well as the machinery they were operating. I also got a sneak peek at a new product (the first five pieces were just made when I walked up to the milling machine). I am honor bound not to reveal what it is, but I can say without a doubt that it will be a great new product. I wish I had begged for a test model right there and then.

I am no prophet, just a lowly editor, but I would say the CMT that I observed is positioned well for a successful future.

Oh, and the accommodations in Pesaro were so very excellent. We stayed at a Villa built in the 1600s; it had a beautiful garden, exceptional antiques and wonderful paintings and tapestries.

Images top to bottom: Your favorite editor in a lovely Italian garden. CMT's founder Osvaldo Tommassini and Lucia Spallacci, CMT production faciliities, a fantastic antique tapestry.

Back in the Saddle – Um, Gondola.

2006-12-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

My wife, Maggie, and I spent Monday in Venice, Italy. We had two goals: one to see the sights, the second to spend all of our money. We only saw some of the sights, but were successful in the second goal. Fortunately we walked so much that I only gained a few pounds from the wonderful food we consumed. Venice is a treasure, and we felt very lucky to get to see some of it.
Tuesday we traveled by train down the coast to Pesaro, Italy, the home of CMT. CMT is the maker of high quality router bits, boring bits and saw blades. Lucia Spallacci greeted us at the train station and brought us up to a wonderful hotel, the Villa Cattani Stuart, which was built in the 1600s. It is truly a stunning piece of history, with woodwork to make any woodworker stop and take notice.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will spend some more time with the good folks at CMT. I have already learned a good deal about their manufacturing – more on that tomorrow.

Images in this posting. Various images from Venice, plus yours truly.

European Woodworking Travels

2006-12-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings web-woodworkers.
I am taking off to look at some foreign tools once again! This time I am traveling "across the pond" to visit some European tool producers. While this trip will not have the scope of my Asian travels (I will only have time to visit three manufacturers), I will be getting a real insider's look at how these tools are made, and I am planning on visiting some high-test woodworking shops as well. I know many of you are thinking, "Rob, don't take this heavy burden on yourself.
You can't possibly bear up under this kind of terrible workload!" Well, I appreciate your concern, but I feel duty bound to persevere through great Italian cooking, beautiful Alpine scenery and all that this trip will throw at me. It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it. (This trip my wife is coming with me ... she will help me hold up!)
My next blog entry will be from Venice, Italy ... look for me on the web.
Ciao!