While the F90 was one of Altendorf’s most basic machines of its sliding table panel saw line up, this panel saw was a robust platform which laid grounds for quality manufacturing with minimal down time.

Catering for a wide variety of clients ranging from kitchen renovations to commercial installations and shop fittings, Gus garnered a solid reputation within the community and quickly saw the need to expand his business.

When it came to the choice of a new machine with more productivity features to streamline his workflow, it was nothing but an Altendorf for Gus, “even the old machine was perfect and never missed a beat.” This time it was an Altendorf Elmo 3 VP C.A.T.S, a higher end modern variant of his existing machine. A true workhorse, the Elmo 3 combines the latest in panel processing technology with the pure engineering and design that over 120,000 businesses across the world have come to trust.

For unique cabinet makers, it’s time saving features proved to be invaluable. “That powered rip fence itself saves us at least 35% (in terms of time),” Gus says. With fully motorised height, tilt, rip fence adjustments and the unparalleled cutting performance of an Altendorf saw, it offered the best of both worlds - productivity increase and higher precision.

According to Gus, the saw has also really helped with Unique Cabinet Makers when it came to reducing time spent for quoting and material ordering, “ARDIS software helps with quoting and not having to work out how many sheets to order every time really is a huge saving in itself…” Armed with an intuitive eye level display, the saw also possess a host of pc connectivity features onboard.

Unique Cabinet Makers are now based in Welland South Australia and continues to deliver high impact joinery work utilising all the different materials on offer today.

That was more than two decades ago. Today, Michael and Rachel Portsch boast an efficient 800 sqm facility delivering premium kitchens and fit outs for some of Australia’s largest retailers.

With a solid reputation comes great demand and need for greater productivity while adhering to the company’s high level of workmanship. For Porsche Class Furniture the solution came in the form of an Altendorf Elmo IV panel saw. The Elmo IV represent’s the pinnacle of Altendorf’s hundred years of engineering and innovation, designed at its heart to be a superior cutting machine with increased productivity in mind.

“The new machine (Elmo IV) saves us up 30% in terms of time compared to our last panel saw,” Michael notes happily, and was even more pleased with the quality of the cuts, “Everything that comes off the machine is just accurate and square. That means a lot to us in achieving the work quality that we want to deliver to our customers in the end.”

12 months on, Michael and Rachel saw the need for a new edgebander to fuel their business growth and invested in the popular Holz-Her 1310-1-MTG edgebander. This is the company’s third Holz-Her in its 20 plus years of history and proven to be a highly successful component on Portsch Classic Furniture’s factory floor.

Distinguished by its reliability and high performance, the edgebander is equipped with fully automated movements of machining stations as well as Holz-Her’s popular glue cartridge system. “The machine is excellent,” commented Micheal, “the parts come off the machine and you can put them together without the need to touch them for finishing, it saves us at least 50% in terms of time compared to our previous edgebander.”

As a testament to how the philosophy of manufacturing excellence can come a long way, Portsch Classic Furniture has now become a name synonymous with high quality joinery beyond South Australia. With a team of 6 skilled professionals, the company’s representatives travel throughout Australia and New Zealand working with a broad range of customers on projects ranging from residential kitchens to commercial installations.

While some have resorted to the use of subcontractors during seasons of increased work load, this leads to varied standards of quality and added layers of complexity in communicating with customers. The Kirrawee based cabinet maker adopts a different approach by leveraging today’s advances in woodworking technology.

Established in 2001, like most Australian cabinet workshops, the father and son business began with an Altendorf panel saw and edgebander. Adhering to the strictest levels of quality standards and materials selection, J & S Kitchens began to see a limitation on their business growth on the production front with traditional technology and design software. In 2009 owners John and Shayne decided to explore new possibilities and installed the Cosmec 51L CNC center from Altendorf. Like many joiners however, new computer software represented unfamiliar territory and the search was on for a software solution that was both powerful and cost effective. Thanks to the modular concept from Altendorf Softlink’s Spazio3D, the entry level Cab Cam package became the ideal software choice, introducing the business to the world of Nested Based Manufacturing.

The complete Altendorf Softlink package of CNC machine and software is a powerful manufacturing solution. “We can do things we would never have been able to do before.” Says Shayne, pointing to an intricately patterned piece of wall panelling, “the machine has really helped with our productivity… This year’s been a really good one for us, we’ve nearly doubled our turnover.” The automating and streamlining of the production process involved from design to manufacturing proved to be an effective way to keep up with the demand for J & S’s quality kitchens. Well, that is the case at least on the production side of things… “we didn’t get a holiday break for the first time in 5 years because we’re so busy taking on more jobs.”

Increased production capacity has been achieved whilst maintaining the quality standards clients have come to expect from the veteran cabinetmaker.  After experiencing the benefits of Spazio 3D software, Shayne has taken the next step and invested in further Spazio 3D modules.  In particular he is keen to impress future clients with advanced design and presentation features and photo-realistic rendering.  Shayne is confident that these advanced capabilities can take J & S Kitchens through the next period of growth and their hard earned success will continue for years to come.

Perfect Kitchens

Unique design, top materials selection and only the best-in-class woodworking machinery...

Perfection is a term few would employ whether in advertising or when making a claim. But for Perfect Kitchens, the word represent’s the ambitious goal of the Sydney based joinery business. With a philosophy entailing ‘honest hard work’ and emphasis on client satisfaction, Perfect Kitchens has become a fixture in the community and has most definitely lived up to its name in the minds of its customers.

Since the onset of their business, Perfect Kitchens recognised the value of using only the highest quality materials, hardware and woodworking machinery. Founded more than two decades ago, Sam Sleiman started in a modest factory in Chipping Norton and laid the foundation for the quality standards the business is known for today with the Altendorf F90 Panel saw as his very first machine.

In keeping up with the joinery’s core values of outstanding craftsman ship, the Altendorf panel saw delivered highly precise and consistent cuts with unparalleled reliability year after year. Starting with the perfect cut to personalised service after completion, Sam’s kitchens quickly found themselves in the homes of satisfied Australian customers in growing numbers. “We treat every one of the kitchens we make as if it were our own”, Says Hassan, son and one of the four current co-owner of the successful joinery factory, “this is why we are so popular among our clients, most of our customers are recommended to us from other customers.”

in the finishing. You can tell especially if you are a cabinet maker and it definitely adds to the overall feel in terms of quality for our customers.”

With a blend of unique design, top materials selection and best in class woodworking machinery, Perfect Kitchens continues to provide their customers with the highest quality kitchens and installations for decades to come.

The new Altendorf system of a sliding table and circular saw accomplished this task much more elegantly. With this system, the wood to be cut was fed through the saw blade while lying on a sliding table. By means of this innovative principle, cutting precision was vastly improved. (At a later date, the sliding table principle was replaced by the double roller carriage, also invented by Wilhelm Altendorf.) Wheras, previously, irregularities on the cutting surfaces had to be eliminated by additional truing up, now both the longitudinal cuts and the crosscuts came out of the machine absolutely even. This meant that by utilising a sliding table and circular saw the joiner or cabinetmaker could achieve a perfect, finished cut in one operation, in addition to eliminating the need for time-consuming finishing touches. It should be added that all sliding table saws built today are based on the prototype of the Altendorf system.

The decision in times of scant means to design and build his own machines from then on was typical of Wilhelm Altendorf. Whenever things got difficult, he began to fight and search for practicable solutions. He viewed financial difficulties as opportunities for venturing forth on new paths. And as a DIY enthusiast, he also took a great deal of pleasure in mastering challenges.

 

The prospects for success were quite promising. In the course of his job as a salaried draftsman, Altendorf had already acquired sufficient know-how to risk the leap into self-employment. What was more, shortly after the turn of the century there were only three firms in all of Berlin that specialized in the construction of stores. On the other hand, more and more new companies and stores were moving into the capital, which led to a skyrocketing demand for good store-building concepts. After working for two years, and when all Berlin was laughing at the play “Der Hauptmann von Koepenick”, the time had come. In January 1906, Wilhelm Altendorf, together with his brother-in-law, Ernst Mueller, founded his own factory for store fittings near the Hackescher Markt at the address Grosse Hamburgerstrasse 20.

Altendorf’s wife, Emma Altendorf, assisted her husband to the best of her ability. During the day, she ran her own cigar store, as well as managing twenty rental apartments which were all located in the same building as the new store construction company. Evening after evening she did the bookkeeping for the young company on her Mignon typewriter – a task that she continued to do for many years. She was reluctant to entrust this important job even to a trained accountant, for she only really trusted her own arithmetic skills. At times, this resulted in double bookkeeping, whereby her version – if an error managed to slip in –was, of course, always the correct one.


The decision in times of scant means to design and build his own machines from then on was typical of Wilhelm Altendorf. Whenever things got difficult, he began to fight and search for practicable solutions. He viewed financial difficulties as opportunities for venturing forth on new paths. And as a DIY enthusiast, he also took a great deal of pleasure in mastering challenges.