Euroken Supplies, Builders Merchants, Middlesex

Euroken Supplies, an independent builders’ merchants specialising in timber cutting, has bought a new-look Striebig Standard vertical panel saw for its new branch in Stanmore, Middlesex. Like the company’s other branch, in Willesden, north-west London, it stocks large quantities of sheet material. These range from standard plywood and MDF panels to top-of-the-range veneered boards in Oak, Walnut, Wenge and other timbers.

Euroken acquired the Willesden outlet, which traded as Megachoice, in 2004. It promoted the timber cutting service, using an existing Striebig Standard II saw, and the branch now does between 500 and 600 cuts a day.

Director Sandeep Halai said: “As an independent merchant we can’t complete with the big boys on price, so we decided to create a niche market by offering a specialist timber cutting service.

“We take a lot of pride in the service and wanted the best possible saw for the new branch. As customers at Willesden liked the Striebig’s accuracy and quality of cut and we had experienced no problems with it, we decided to buy the latest model.”

Striebig Standard

The recently updated Standard TRK2 can size panels to a maximum dimension of 3.3 x 2.2m. It has a depth of cut up to 80mm which Euroken finds useful for trimming door blanks. To guarantee a smooth cut, the saws’ blades are changed to suit the material being sized. The panel cutting service, for which a 50p per cut charge is made, has proved particularly popular with cabinet makers.

“If cut pieces are just 1mm out it can make a big difference when making a piece of furniture,” said Mr Halai. “One cabinet maker recently came in to the new branch and bought 60 panels that required 900 cuts. He was quite happy to pay the £450 cost.”

Euroken uses an optimisation software program which allows it to obtain the best possible yield from the panels. Both saws were supplied by Striebig’s exclusive UK distributor, T.M.
Machinery Sales of Leicester. Its engineers make regular service calls to ensure the saws always perform to the high levels they are capable of.

The Standard range is available in nine frame sizes for handling panels up to a maximum of 5,300 x 2,240mm. All models guarantee dust limit values of well below 1mg/m3.

Among the numerous improvements are the addition of a power supply via a flexible chain duct for increased safety, and a moving support frame fitted with an optimised bearing system for smoother movement and increased reliability.