“I enjoy woodworking”, he says. “Creating something gives me highest satisfaction.”
The Wood Work Folk is a newly founded company in Singapore that specialises in furniture prefabrication. After having set up the workshop, owner Shao-Huay Wang has successfully completed jobs. In order to offer a variety of joinery works, he purchased machines from HOMAG Asia; a traditional flat table, nested-based WEEKE Vantage 43M CNC router, a WEEKE BHX 200 drilling machine and a BRANDT 1440FC edgebander.
Changing direction
Shao-Huay had to start from scratch when he decided to start his own business. His story is quite unique as he completely changed his profession. He used to work long hours in the financial industry for 10 odd years but it wasn’t really what he wanted to do. He quit his job and participated in a carpentry course for three months – and does not regret to have chosen this path.
When moving into the new workshop located in the Woodlands Industrial Park on level 9, he first looked at an empty work space. Even though he had ordered the machines, he had to wait to get started. “In Singapore you need to buy the factory space after you’ve got your machines sorted. It is not easy to find that space and some machines require certain power supply that not all workshops offer.”
When the machines arrived and the installation process was completed, Shao-Huay received a helpful training from Homag on all machines. “All the rest was self-study, even going through the software. I’m learning while doing”, he says. Shao-Huay’s can-do attitude is helping to shape his new company. The entrepreneur also wants to build up the business as a backup for his children. “I will leave it to them if they want to take over one day”, he says.
Making the right investments
When he started looking into machines, he had a rough idea of which machines to get. “With the help of HOMAG I finally made my decision. “
The Vantage 43M covers complete processing such as drilling, routing and sawing as well as grooving of work pieces in a single clamping step and remains flexibly expandable due to a modular system. Shao-Huay has used the machine for several nesting projects.
With the BHX 200, the Wood Work Folk owns a next generation of compact, vertical CNC technology on less than 10 square metres. Equipped with two individually moveable high-speed drilling heads and CNC-controlled clamping devices the BHX 200 provides a great deal of power.
The single-sided BRANDT Ambition 1440FC edgebanding machine is suitable for processing straight workpiece edges and for gluing and post-processing different edging materials in longitudinal and cross through-feed.
Shao-Huay didn’t shop around much. “I had confidence in HOMAG. Why do we buy German cars? Also HOMAG has an office in Singapore and I can get local support.”
Does he ever want to return to the corporate life? “After I bought all this, I’m not going back into finance again. I enjoy what I’m doing”, he says with quiet confidence.
“HOMAG has an office in Singapore and I can get local support.”Shao-Huay Wang, Owner, The Wood Work Folk
