June/July 2009 - PAWPRINT PUBLISHING

NEWS
Service from RW machines: the crucial
and another for Dimensions 3
NIGEL Bicknell at Dimensions 3
reckons that his new Anderson
Stratos Pro from RW Machines
has given him the means to negotiate
the Credit Crunch and
while he would not normally expect
to be making what is for
him so major an investment in
times of a recession, he said:
“The business realities are clear:
expand or die.”
Dimensions 3 is a small bespoke
cabinet maker in Gloucestershire
and Nigel Bicknell found very little
to choose between the specifications
of CNC machines at the grass
roots level at which he was searching.
Yet he knew that the machine
he chose would make a fundamental
difference to the way his
shop floor operates and it was the
attention to detail that he found
with David Thompson Rowland
and his team from RW Machines
that tipped the balance in favour
of the Anderson Stratos Pro.
Dimensions 3 began as a very
focused manufacturer of bespoke
kitchens at a 6,000 ft 2 factory in
the pretty village of Churcham,
near Gloucester, where the team
quickly built a formidable reputation
locally for quality and attention
to detail. During the past two
years those developing standards
of craftsmanship have extended
that focus into bespoke production
also of furniture for the NHS in
the region and for schools, colleges,
local retail businesses and
even for local authorities — everything
from toilet cubicles to smart
Through cutting nested panels on his new Anderson Stratos Pro, Nigel Bicknell has discovered
simple answers to maintaining and improving higher quality standards in today’s marketplace.
counters for fast food outlets.
It was this diversification, and
the opportunities that it generated
for expansion, that precipitated
the search for quick and
flexible CNC technology, says
Nigel Bicknell: “As a kitchen manufacturer
our work was always
highly specialised but, of course,
that is the nature of bespoke projects
at all levels. Unique shapes
and dimensions were in the past
all cut manually on an old sliding
table saw and routered by hand.”
He adds: “With the automation
our new Anderson Stratos Pro has
given us, we have been able to increase
output exponentially. We
can now do in a day what used to
take us a week!”
When the technology quest
began a year ago, Nigel Bicknell
and his fellow directors reviewed
the market to see where developments
might lead them and they
whittled down their choice options
to a shortlist of three CNC
systems. “Our reputation for quality
and attention to detail locally
has tended to generate more business
than we were realistically able
to address,” he says, “so this was an
investment that had to be made.”
The specification was clear and
The screen on the new Anderson Stratos Pro at Dimensions 3 is
well positioned and easy to read.
The automatic 10 position tool changer on the Anderson Stratos
Pro generates huge flexibility for Dimensions 3.
Page 8 Panel, Wood & Solid Surface June/July 2009