Tool Box
Issue No. 11 - June/July 2003
A Cut Above
Cutting Edge Engineering
Cutting Edge Engineering was founded in 1985 as a general welding and fabrication shop, specialising in TIG aluminium and stainless steel welding. When founder Ian Elston made the ambitious decision to give himself state-of-the-art capability, he was taking a substantial risk.
It was a calculated one: general engineering work was subject to considerable time wastage, whereas the high-tech machining work might not be.
“As in most jobbing shops, because of the varied nature of the work, I ended up being able to charge out eight hours’ labour for a 10–12 hour day. This was a constant source of frustration,” Ian says.
“The idea of precision repetition engineering using state of the art CNC machine tools that could run all night appealed to me. In 1995 I purchased our first Star SR 20 seven axis sliding head CNC turning centre. It was the first machine of its type in SA.”
An opportunity arose when a local electrical manufacturer sought a local supplier. This stroke of luck didn’t mean a fait accompli; a qualified fitter and turner with many years experience running his own business, Ian still had to convince the potential customer that Cutting Edge could do their job, since he had no experience with CNC machinery.
He still has that valuable customer. The business has grown and now runs three CNC sliding head machines, three full time and five part-time employees.
“Welding and metal fabrication now performs a supporting role rather than a core activity, but boy was I wrong about the all-night thing. It was only after many months of fiddling, tweaking and modifications that I was able to run two grey shifts reliably. It still gives me a great sense of satisfaction to walk into the factory in the morning and see machinery still running properly from 5pm the day before,” he says.
Persistence has been the key to negotiating that steep learning curve. Other SA fabricators now run the same technology, but Ian reli...
