A Cambridgeshire based couple with a burgeoning woodworking business have established a reputation for precision made products, based on basic flair, topflight equipment and buying high quality performance board products from the West Fraser range.
Natural Workshop began trading back in 2013, when Michelle Elener wanted to get back into the workplace after having the couple’s third child and began producing table mats and artwork using a technique known as pyrography – burning images into wood with a soldering iron. And despite the cost of initially buying small blanks of birch plywood from high street art shops, increasing demand soon saw her partner Josh Anders getting involved. Since then, they have moved premises twice, with the current one in the town of March turning out everything from chopping boards and pottery stands to bespoke speaker cabinets and kitchen units.
Josh Anders recounted:
“Michelle was selling a lot of her pyrography on eBay but also began producing bespoke sections of ply for other businesses. When we got more space in 2019, we installed an 8 x 4 CNC router as well as a laser cutter and began diversifying further. Up until Covid hit, we were doing a lot of work for the hospitality industry – making coasters and menu boards etc – but when that industry was shuttered by the lockdowns, we began working with interior designers and specialist joinery companies. Most recently I have been building some exhibition stands for a new client, using the SterlingOSB Zero on a timber frame.
“Unfortunately, apart from the economic ups and downs of recent years, we have also had some bad experiences with very poor quality boards so we started buying West Fraser’s CaberMDF Pro some 18 months ago. This is a quality product which cuts and engraves really well, while we also use the MDF to make our router templates for shaping beech chopping boards. I now go out of my way to purchase West Fraser products, currently getting them from Travis Perkins – in a world where so much seems to be being dumbed down and inferior, it is great to know there is material you can buy which won’t cause you stress.”
The premium grade CaberMDF Pro is part of a range of high quality, medium density boards widely used in shop-fitting, furniture manufacturing and other applications where accuracy and sharpness of cut are crucial. The range also includes the CaberMDF Trade and CaberMDF Trade MR options, the latter being ideal for making kitchen and bathroom units where the enhanced moisture resistance is required. Being precision-made in the UK means less waste onsite and the associated costs of disposal to landfill, plus lower transportation charges. As well as guaranteeing a more secure supply in a currently challenging global market, specialist manufacturers, fit-out contractors or other customers can specify West Fraser’s well proven MDF options with total confidence.
Josh and Michelle are meanwhile in the process of designing a new range of precision made marking and measuring tools which will be sold in MDF presentation cases, and they are also planning to invest in a computer-controlled ACC machine which features an automatic tool-changer so they can produce more complex fabrications.
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