Selco panel saws - excellence in engineering, service and support.

Three diverse woodworking companies rely on panel sizing's bright new star, Selco from the Biesse Group.

When you're riding a fast track, quality engineering is essential.

In the last year, the track has been lightning-quick for W & W Cabinet Co. Inc., a retail and restaurant store fixture manufacturer located in Groveport, Ohio.

Last April, the company Bill Willis started with his father in 1979 had 13 employees, including a three-person office staff. A year later, due primarily to a big-ticket, three-year contract now entering its second year, there are 28 workers in production, while the office staff has doubled.

It didn't take Willis long to realize the table saws his company was using just couldn't cut it anymore. "We had grown dramatically, and we needed a panel saw that could give us increased production and increased accuracy right away," he said.

Fortunately, Willis knows more than a thing or two about engineering. For 15 years prior to starting W & W Cabinet Co. Inc., he was employed as a draftsman specializing in mechanical design.

"It gave me an edge when I went looking at all the different saws out there," said Willis. "My people and I really got into the guts of the saws we were looking at, the way the mechanics worked and all that stuff."

What panel saw did he pick?

"Quite truthfully, compared to the rest of the saws on the market, I found the Selco to be quite superior engineering-wise. It's a woodworking machine built with components typical of metalworking equipment."

What Willis found out was hardly surprising to Randy Jamison, national sales manager of Selco, one of six companies comprising the Biesse Group, which has been delivering a steady supply of technologically advanced machines to the North American woodworking industry the past two decades.

Just like W & W Cabinet, Selco is on a pretty fast track these days; in the past 12 months, it has placed more than 30 machines in woodworking operations around the U.S.

What's the reason? According to Jamison, there's no question it's Selco's unique approach to quality engineering.

"From my perspective, the big thing with Selco is that it engineers from a clean slate," said Jamison. "It was the first company to design a panel saw like a CNC machining center. It engineers from the ground floor up, and it does it without any preconceived notions."

It also helps, Jamison said, that most of Selco's engineers come from the metalworking industry. "We all hate to admit it, but, in terms of engineering, the metalworking industry is 15-20 years ahead of the woodworking industry," he observed.

There are a growing number of fast-track companies similar to W & W Cabinet that couldn't be more pleased with the Selco panel saws they've recently acquired.

Companies like Sharut Furniture Co., Garfield, N.J., a major manufacturer of contemporary, middle-priced wall- and bedroom-units that are sold to major department stores, independents and specialty stores throughout the U.S.

And companies like Northern Woodwork Inc., Thief River Falls, Minn., a custom, commercial plastic-laminate case good and architectural millwork manufacturer that moves all its product on a bid basis over a five-state area.

Sharut Furniture has only in the past few years begun fabricating its own parts. In the last three years, the company has purchased four high-tech saws, half a dozen edgebanders and at least five point-to-point drilling machines. Just last month, it added a Selco to its heavy-hitting machinery lineup.

"After looking at lots of others, we bought the Selco because of its quality and its capacity in terms of how quick and how much it could cut," explained Elliot Bissue, president of Sharut Furniture Co. "It was also quite competitive in terms of what it wound up costing us, and we liked the fact there wasn't a large learning curve involved with the saw's computer."

There was one more big factor -- familiarity.

"We also are a Biesse-type company," said Bissue. "Four of our machines were purchased from Biesse, and given the satisfaction of performance, maintenance and backup support we experienced on the other machines, it made the decision easier.

"So far, we're very pleased," Bissue concluded. "I know it will meet our requirements."

Art Tramby, president of Northern Woodwork Inc., can certainly relate to the people at Sharut. He, too, had a first-hand familiarity with Biesse's special kind of woodworking machinery craftsmanship before adding a Selco WN to his plant this past January.

"We had acquired a point-to-point from Biesse before, and we were pleased with the quality of construction and the way they service their product," said Tramby. "We wanted to have one company pretty much providing our major machining centers. It gives us a better guarantee as far as the support required in this kind of business, where you just can't afford any downtime. Biesse just looked like an aggressive company that was coming into the market with a quality product."

Tramby said the Selco has already far exceeded expectations. "It has reduced our time spent sizing panel at least 30 percent," he said. "It's fast, it gives us a square cut, it's excellent at holding tolerances and we can control the programming and downloading directly from our office. It's just an exceptional piece of equipment."

Bill Willis of W & W Cabinet agrees wholeheartedly. "Before we got our Selco, we were subbing out some of our cut-up," he said. "We were improving our bottom line, but we also had a 15-20 percent rejection rate because of pieces that were not being cut square or straight-lined from top to bottom.

"With our Selco, though, everything has been dead on the money," said Willis. "A cut-up for a 10-store unit used to take us 240 man hours. With the Selco, it's down to 40."

With the Selco, it's also not just a case of "putting a bigger engine in the same car," which is what Jamison feels has been the extent of the technological advances from the competition the past 10-12 years.

"We have a big advantage in that respect," he said. "It's not just our motor that's gotten more powerful, but also the drive system, how the carriage moves from one end to another.

"In seven years, cutting speeds have jumped from 60 feet to 330 feet a minute, and every inaccuracy is just multiplied," Jamison said. "To hold the kind of tolerances that everyone demands now at these speeds requires a special kind of engineering. Other companies are making the necessary advances on paper, but not in their machines."

Willis can vouch for that. When he went shopping for a panel saw, he was particularly impressed by the balance and setup of the Selco WN 125. "The other manufacturers tried to tell me their machines had balance, but they all had these hefty side-load adjustments and bearings on them," Willis explained. "Selco, had them, too, but not nearly to the extent of the others. I also really like the spring-loaded split pinion on the pusher assembly."

The promise of top-grade maintenance also figured heavily into the purchasing decisions of all three Selco panel saw end users mentioned in this article. "I've talked to other companies who bought competitors' saws, and they tell me they've already spent as much as $8,000 on maintenance since installing them four years ago," Willis said. "Selco tells me to expect very little maintenance for the first five years."

All things considered, it's not difficult to see why Selco panel saws are starting to catch on big-time in the States.

"Four years ago, we were the new kids on the block," said Jamison. "But that's changed now with our engineering expertise getting more recognition all the time. The Biesse Group has won two Challenger's Awards with its panel saws (1990 & 1992). We are invited to bid on more projects and are having very good success.