The Cor-Tek factory complex in Indonesia
The scale and speed of craftspersonship are something else compared to my one-dude workshop.
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Cor-Tek Factory Tour
- Thread starter Beej
- Start date
The Cor-Tek factory complex in Indonesia
The scale and speed of craftspersonship are something else compared to my one-dude workshop.
Just watched this last night. The speed of their craft was off the hook!
A quarter of a million guitars and basses per year?
Who's buying all them?? Mind blown.
A quarter of a million guitars and basses per year?
Who's buying all them?? Mind blown.
That's not really surprising considering that Taylor Guitars produces around 175,000 per year, and that's almost all acoustic guitars.Just watched this last night. The speed of their craft was off the hook!
A quarter of a million guitars and basses per year?
Who's buying all them?? Mind blown.
Well in TB fashion - we need about 10 more
. I think we are playing it safe just in case the T word is mentioned and P overtones creep up
Don't worry @Beej some of us don't get too far out of the LC so might not see this elsewhere.
At about 4:20 I was very pleased to see that in a CNC world they were using a pin router. I'd guess @Bruce Johnson might like that also.
Heh. Yeah, you and I were probably the only two people who spotted that. It looked like an Onsrud. There probably are a hundred pin routers in that cluster of factories. And racks of fixtures, ready to go. For simple 2-D routing operations, a pin router with a fixture and a worker will be more efficient than CNC machine. And much less expensive.
This video didn't show much of the machinery and tech side of the operation. The narrator was more fascinated by the endless racks full of guitars.
There was one quick look at a multi-spindle 3-D neck carving machine, presumably CNC driven. Similar to the ones Fender has.
Overall, you can see that this mega-factory isn't some hi-tech robotic showpiece. It's a well designed high volume factory, using mostly older tech. Good industrial engineering, lots of employees of different skill levels, plenty of special tools and fixtures. And lots of racks.
Yeah these infinite racks full of guitars are very impressive. And the girl performing the binding on acoustic guitar too. I didn't imagine that.
I haven't built any acoustic instruments but I have done binding on electrics and she was moving through that quick. She'd probably be done while I was still peeling off strips of tape and sticking them to the bench to get started.
Exactly. It may have been posted "on TB" but how many builders venture widely from the LC?Don't worry @Beej some of us don't get too far out of the LC so might not see this elsewhere.
At about 4:20 I was very pleased to see that in a CNC world they were using a pin router. I'd guess @Bruce Johnson might like that also.
Yeah, that scene of the young woman installing the binding around the soundhole of an acoustic top was a great example of a well-designed factory process. Good industrial engineering. She had a good workbench, a workholding fixture to hold it up at a comfortable angle, and simple tools, right there. And the parts were pre-cut accurately, so they fit right together with no fighting or trimming. And she's a skilled worker, trained to do that operation quickly and efficiently, counted in seconds. She probably does that same operation 2800 times per day. She probably gets paid fairly well, and it's a desirable long term job.
The routed round groove for the binding was probably done by a pin router. With a good fixture, that skilled worker could do 5000 per day.
Nice video, however it seems the company kept him away from the cnc machines and processes. The video below by solo king guitars is a better representation of modern cnc and human production. All of you wanting a fret press that does multi radius it is in the video five minute mark.
There is no way any human on a pin router can match the speed and accuracy regarding 2D or any aspect of a production cnc machine. Schecter guitars cnc machine can route a complete body front and back with arm counters, belly carves, cavities, drill holes and etc in 7 minutes. Then the multi head cnc spindle units doing 4 fours bodies at a time or 6 necks. Ron Thorn has an older Haas unit that can do about 70 of the SoCal bodies in a shift.
Servo motors and stepper motors have taken an enormous leap in accuarcy, speed and torque in the last serval years which is allowing for this type of production levels. These motors have a production life along with the spindles about 1 1/2 - 2 years in a factory setting so the cnc machines are getting better with every motor and spindle change.
There is no way any human on a pin router can match the speed and accuracy regarding 2D or any aspect of a production cnc machine. Schecter guitars cnc machine can route a complete body front and back with arm counters, belly carves, cavities, drill holes and etc in 7 minutes. Then the multi head cnc spindle units doing 4 fours bodies at a time or 6 necks. Ron Thorn has an older Haas unit that can do about 70 of the SoCal bodies in a shift.
Servo motors and stepper motors have taken an enormous leap in accuarcy, speed and torque in the last serval years which is allowing for this type of production levels. These motors have a production life along with the spindles about 1 1/2 - 2 years in a factory setting so the cnc machines are getting better with every motor and spindle change.
Yes we know. But a large majority of us are hobbyist builders and CNCs required to do factory scale are not available or relevant to our work. Any process that involves handwork can usually be scaled down to our level.
I'd love to see some sort of "Day job: preferred hobby build approaches" statistics. I write code all through the workweek, and I find I have absolutely no interest in CNC for guitar and bass building, even though my makerspace has quite a few options. Probably because setting up and testing it all is pretty much more programming, and I get enough of that already. Happy to switch over to files, rasps, and saws and "grok the wood" for my hobby time. I should wander over to the CNC lab and chat with the luthiers there, see what their hobby building is helping them escape from.
Sorry for the confusion, my statement on a production cnc in a factory was a counter point to Bruce's statement "For simple 2-D routing operations, a pin router with a fixture and a worker will be more efficient than CNC machine. And much less expensive." However I forgot to quote his statement so my statement can be taken to be applied to any level of production instead being on topic of factory production.Yes we know. But a large majority of us are hobbyist builders and CNCs required to do factory scale are not available or relevant to our work. Any process that involves handwork can usually be scaled down to our level.
I understand most of the builders here are hobbyist level that use handwork and some cnc processes. I am a hobbyist builder as well that uses a pins routers and a higher tier hobby/light production cnc.
Hey frets4ever;
I still stand by my statement that a pin router with a fixture and a human operator can be more efficient in a high production factory. It has to do with dividing production down into operations which can be all be run continuously, at the same time. That's how you get the highest flow of parts per hour.
A single complex CNC machine that does a sequence of operations on the part can end up becoming a bottleneck in the production flow, because while it is doing one operation, all its other operations are shut down, waiting. It can't do them all at the same time continuously.
On the other hand, if you divide the production down into a sequence of individual operations, each being done by its own simpler machine, then all the machines can be kept running all the time, without having to pause and wait for each other. This multiplies the flow of parts per hour.
For example:
A basic slab-style bass body. You can set up a CNC machine with a tool changer to do a sequence of operations covering almost everything on the top face of the body. The blank pops into a single holding fixture. Maybe it's four routing operations, each with a different router bit, and three drilling operations, with different size drill bits. It'll do the whole sequence in, say, 7 minutes.
If you directly compare a CNC machine with a non-CNC pin router, the cutting time for a simple 2-D routing operation is about the same. The pin router, with a good fixture and trained human, can feed almost as fast. The feed rate and depth of cut in both machines will be limited by how far you can push it without breaking the part or burning the wood.
One big advantage of the CNC machine is the rapid tool change. In 2-3 seconds, it can change to a different router bit. Different size or shape. That's something a pin router cannot do quickly.
The other big advantage of a CNC machine is that it can change the depth (Z axis) on the fly, continuously. This speeds up 2-D cutting, and allows 3-D cutting. A pin router can change fairly quickly between a sequence of pre-set depth settings, but not continuously variable. A pin router is basically a 2-D machine, although it can do some limited 3-D cutting with more complex moving-part fixtures.
For drilling holes, a CNC machine is slower. It has the advantage of a tool changer, which can change from a router bit to a drill bit, or to a different drill bit, in a few seconds. But it can only drill one hole at a time, because it only has one spindle. In comparison, a human-operated multi-spindle (gang) drill press can be set up with different drill sizes and a good fixture. It can drill all the holes at the same time, in a few seconds total.
Back to the example: On the other side of the room, you set up four pin routers and one gang drill press. Each with a single, special fixture. Each pin router does its operation with one size cutter. Now, if you take one wood blank and go through the sequence of the machines, four pin routers and one drill press, it'll take maybe 10 minutes total. A little longer than the CNC, mostly because of the time to move the blank from one machine to the next, vs the automatic tool changer. So, the time to make one body is a little longer.
But here's the important thing: Put a human in front of each of those work stations, and keep them running continuously, passing the blanks down the line. Then every 10 minutes, they'll be completing 5 bodies not 1. That's the multiplier.
That's how you make a high production factory. The old Henry Ford idea. Break the job down into individual simpler defined tasks, in a tight sequence, where the workers can all do their operations continuously, without having to wait for others. The key is making an efficient handoff of the product from one work station to the next.
