FOREST SCHOOL IMPROVES ITS CUTS
The Forest Proprietary Grammar School was opened on October 1 1834, with 22 boys in all, and under the headship of Dr Thomas Dry. The great William Morris’ father was a founding shareholder in Forest School and some of his brothers were pupils there. The original intake of 22 pupils has grown significantly to nearly 1,400 today and the School educates boys and girls aged 4-18 with outstanding results.
Estate staff member, Rob Coles, explained: “For some time there has been a need to cut a lot of board for various projects around the school, with classrooms needing extra cupboards and scenery for the active modern theatre. Previously it was not possible to cut up sheets in the confined space of the workshop, we were having to use a handheld portable saw outside, with all the inefficiencies of creating considerable mess and the problem of noise disruption within the classrooms, as well as being limited by weather”. In addition, Rob highlighted that every cut had to be individually marked out, which all took time.
Both Rob and the Estates Manager independently came to the conclusion that a vertical panel saw such that they had seen in the DIY sheds would make an ideal solution, and it was through the internet that Rob found details of the Sagetech Machinery’s range of machines, which was particularly appropriate with them only cutting 8’ x 4’ sheets, as Sagetech Machinery offers a very small compact unit for this purpose.
The school opted for one of the Sagetech Machienry’s Koolkut KK12 very solidly built machines. Rob added, “We are so busy at present that I use this machine almost every day. It really has saved us space, with the added extraction facility there is virtually no dust. It is much more accurate than our previous methods. The finish is better, and if we are doing a number of repetitive cuts, it is so much faster. I can just set the gauge and I know I have got an accurate square cut. I would strongly recommend this machine to others.”
The Koolkut range of machines start from 8’ x 4’ (2500 x 1250 mm) capacity unit going upto 3m x 2m. This is just one of the now five ranges of machines offered by British manufacturer Sagetech Machinery, who specialise in vertical panel saws and desktop cnc engravers for education and businesses. The Zapkut brand is for lighter duties, and in addition to the ZM range they also offer a unique ZK portable unit in two sizes, which when not in use can be folded up compactly and stored conveniently, say by hanging on the wall. The Koolkut brand is for those needing a heavier duty machine, where the KF and KK Koolkut units offer capacities up to 3.1 x 2.1M, so these are easily capable of handling big 3 x 2M sheets.The newest range is the TECHKUT, cutting upto 5m x 2m, digital readout system, roller system for material and scoring blade these machines are very well priced compared to other industrial industry leading machines.