Inez Escamilla started Loose Cannon as a one-woman repair company; since then it has grown into a thriving family business, serving the greater Austin, Texas area. She and her husband, Nick Josyln, co-run the fabrication shop, which they live next door to, while raising their son, Jace.

Escamilla discovered her love of welding in college. After she completed her core requirements, a metal sculpture course ignited her passion for creating with a torch. “Getting dirty and playing with fire,” she remembers, “I found it fun and empowering.”

Escamilla decided to launch her own welding business when she identified a market for repairs in the restaurant industry.

Baileigh Industrial recently came on to Escamilla’s radar when Loose Cannon was shopping for a new bandsaw.

“It’s been really hard for us to buy brand new equipment because we’re such a small business,” she explains. However, Josyln suggested they look at Baileigh’s BS-350SA gear-driven, dual-mitre bandsaw.

“I kind of fell in love with the product,” says Escamilla, adding that she was particularly impressed by “how the saw rotates when you’re mitring, so you’re not constantly having to pull the material out, flip it, and turn it around”.

The new investment is already proving a wise one: “We use our Baileigh saw every single day,” says Escamilla. “That includes any of our last few projects that are on Instagram – tons of railing. The fact that it goes so wide means we can cut structural beams. It’s been used for every job since we got it.”
Loose Cannon will also be using the Baileigh saw for a project that is giving back to the local community. The company is teaming-up with Motorcycle Missions by delivering welding classes to veterans and first responders with PTSD.

For further information
www.baileigh.com

The Thomas range of pull down cut-off saws is now available in the UK from Orbital Machinery. Thomas machines are said to be robust and durable, giving user many years of trouble-free sawing. With cast-iron bases and balanced heavy-duty cutting head assemblies, the machines are vibration-free, while extended saw-blade life between sharpens is another benefit.

There are three models available in the manual pull-down range, with saw blade diameters up to 250, 315 and 350 mm. A range of options is available, including single-phase motors, pneumatic vices, roller infeed and outfeed material support tables, and length stops with metric measuring rules.

In the semi-automatic range there are two models available: the 350 Super Technics SA is for cutting steel and non-ferrous metals, while the Alu-Line TMS450 SA offers a speed of 2800 rpm for the rapid mirror-finish sawing of aluminium, brass and other non-ferrous metals. Roller material support tables and length stops can also be offered.

For over 60 years, the Thomas brand has been operating with passion and determination in the machine-tool field. Today as then, the company sets clear objectives, looking to the future as a continuous evolution of what has been started, through constant improvement, training and dedication. The aim is to provide customers with quality products guaranteed by the Thomas brand and the reliability provided by family management that has continued for three generations of the Tomasi family.

For further information
www.orbitalmachinery.com

The new range of Kinkelder CX1 carbide-tipped circular saw blades is now available in the UK from KR Saws. Both the Kinkelder CX1M and CX1H circular saw blades feature enhancements and supersede the original CX1 blades. According to KR Saws, the blades offer many benefits.

For instance, the Kinkelder CX1H carbide-tipped circular saw blade is specifically for cutting high-tensile carbon steel (>900 N/mm2, carbon content ≥0.60%) at very high production rates.

Features and attributes include: new dedicated tooth geometries; a new type of coating; high productivity when cutting stainless steel (ferritic, martensitic and duplex billets with a diameter larger than 35 mm); cutting speeds of up to 140 m/min; and feed rates up to 0.09 mm/tooth.

The Kinkelder CX1M carbide-tipped circular saw blade has been developed for cutting solid carbon steel (carbon content <0.60%) with a medium tensile strength of between 500 and 900 N/mm2. Features include a new saw body design, cutting speeds up to 280 m/min and feeds up to 0.10 mm/tooth. Servicing the UK from its headquarters in Coventry, KR Saws is able to offer its customers a range of metal-cutting circular saw and bandsaw blades, along with an in-house circular saw-blade sharpening facility supported with expert advice and technical support. The company is a joint venture between saw blade manufacturers, Kinkelder BV of the Netherlands and Robert Roentgen GmbH & Co of Germany. For further information www.krsaws.co.uk

Fastenal, a specialist in fasteners, MRO equipment and industrial supply, has over 3200 in-market locations and 15 distribution centres that span four continents. With more than 200 staff, the largest manufacturing site is located at the company’s headquarters in Minnesota, US, which is also home to two circular saw-blade sharpening machines from Vollmer.

The first arrived in 2018: a Vollmer CHD270 carbide-tipped saw sharpening machine with eight CNC controlled axes and a Vollmer ND230 automated loading station. With the capacity to store up to 250 saw blades, the four-axis robotic loading system with three loading carriages transformed production almost instantly.

“The guys on the shop floor rapidly learnt how to program and use the machine, and we soon got into a rhythm of re-sharpening and servicing special saw blades during the day shift, and then loading-up standard geometry saws and batch-run quantities on the ND230 loading station for unmanned overnight running,” explains Scott Rodeghier, operations manager. “Immediately, our team got into a routine where we could process special saw blades by day, do standards and batch-runs overnight and, in the morning, unload the finished saws and pack them to be distributed nationwide back to our customers – and then start the cycle again.”

From a productivity perspective, Fastenal stepped up from processing 25 TCT blades a day to over 25 on each shift, with capacity to spare.

This instant success resulted in the company ordering a Loroch Solution K850 grinding centre for sharpening, re-toothing and chamfering its metal-cutting circular saw blades. Delivered six months after the Vollmer CHD270 in the spring of 2019, the combination of Loroch Solution K850 and Vollmer CHD270 reduced labour requirement in the saw blade sharpening cell from five staff to two, while replacing seven machines with just two.

For further information
www.vollmer-group.com

Ficep is increasing its customer support focus with a new service engineer appointment. Although the company says it already offers the highest ratio of service engineers to installations in the steel processing industry, Ficep has now appointed a dedicated service engineer to cover Scotland. The arrival of the new engineer takes the total number of service engineers in the business to nine, with coverage across the whole of the UK.

UK service manager Richard Clark says: “Our CNC machinery sits at the heart of the production line for many of our customers, and downtime would cause the entire manufacturing operation to suffer almost immediately. As such, we’re continually looking at ways of enhancing the support we offer.

“Our field team has extensive CNC experience and is highly trained on Ficep equipment,” continues Clark. “We aim to reduce the time engineers spend in the car and increase the amount of time they can spend on site. Adding to our network of service engineers is helping us achieve this, and means that our customers in Scotland can now have an experienced engineer on site even more quickly, if needed.”

Ficep’s focus on aftercare and customer support aims to meet a range of business needs, and the company offers flexible support packages, all designed with customers in mind. For instance, the company offers experienced technical support with its hotline engineers, who can diagnose issues without delay via an internet connection. Ficep also offers numerous service contracts. The standard package includes an annual machine service, a guaranteed 48-hour response time, two call-out days during the year, and discounts on spares. Bespoke support is also available.

For further information
www.ficep.co.uk/services