Wells Wellcut, Britain’s own manufacturer of stone saws, croppers and tumblers, based in Lincolnshire, has been so busy that Director Luke Wells’ father, John, has come back into the business to help out. The company is proud of not having made any redundancies during the downturn and has even had an export success this year, sending a Wellcut 1200 to New Zealand, specially made so it would fit into a container – although it was close.
Wells had not realised that containers are not precisely the same size and can vary by as much as 50mm. When the company came to load the saw it had made specially to fit into a container it was a tighter fit than had been intended. It squeezed in with just 2mm to spare. “We put a drawing on it showing them how to pull it out in New Zealand,” says John Wells.
The historic Cathedral in Christchurch was largely demolished by earthquakes in 2010 and ’11. The whole stone structure will be rebuilt, which is what the saw is for. In the meantime, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has been working with the Cathedral since May to build a NZ$4million (£2million) cathedral out of cardboard that can seat 700. It will be used while the stone cathedral is rebuilt.
The cardboard design is based around 64 cardboard tubes, 830mm in diameter, ranging in length from 17m to 22m. Apparently, it should take only three months to construct and should survive many years while the work continues on the stone cathedral.
The cathedral authorities contacted Wells via the website, which John Wells has been keeping up-to-date since he returned to the company. They asked for references and were more than happy with those they received from the masons at Salisbury and Canterbury Cathedrals which use Wells saws.
Making bespoke machines is nothing knew to Wells. It makes its machines to order, so it is easy to adjust dimensions to satisfy individual customers’ requirements. And even though the machines are only started once an order is placed, it still normally takes less than three weeks to produce a 1600mm saw, for example, and that is less of a lead time than for most imports.
“The lads have just finished a tow-away cropper this week that was ordered just 10 days ago,” says Luke. “The customer wanted it quickly to start a contract.”
To help Wells maintain that level of service it has invested in a robot welder for making cylinders.
Just as important as production time is the response speed when spares are needed. John says: “I have been back here for six months now and I have heard so many customers complain about the time it’s taking to get Italian machinery repaired.”
Wells has a niche market for site and workshop machines that are uncomplicated and relatively low-tech – although for an extra £4,000 saws can be fitted with Siemens programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that allow up to 40 cuts to be made automatically.
The machinery is as straightforward to use as Wells is to deal with. Luke Wells says: “There are no hidden charges and the machines will do what it says on the tin comfortably.”
As well as the saw for New Zealand, Wells has lately supplied a 2.2m rise and fall saw to Goode Stone in Bambury, Oxfordshire, another saw to existing customer RJH in Sheffield, and a scant saw with an extended, powered bench for Denfind in Orkney.