CNC Router

We have a KOMO Innova 510 3-axis router with a powerful 12 HP spindle motor. It can speed through 3/4" plywood at up to 450 inches per minute.

The bed is 10' long and 5' wide. Raw materials wider than 5' won't fit on the machine. Material longer than 10', such as plank lumber, will fit, but we can't cut any parts longer than 10' from them. Multiple smaller parts are fine.

Our Z axis goes up to 6" from the bed of the table, giving a 3" limit on through cuts (the bit has to be 3" long, and it has to be able to travel entirely above the material). We can sometimes stretch this a little, get in touch to discuss your specifics and we'll see if we can figure out a way.

Laser Cutter

Our Barracuda laser has a powerful 130w laser tube and a large 4’x3’ bed. The passthough allows us to cut and engrave longer pieces of material, and even 4’x8’ sheets (although it can't cut 8' parts, sadly). It can cut through plywoods and acrylics up to 1/2” thick, and we’re continuing to refine our techniques in order to increase the range even further. Unlike other cutting tools, laser-cut acrylic has a glossy, polished edge. Although some materials and thicknesses are not feasible to cut, many of them can still be engraved, such as anodized aluminum and stone.

There are also many flexible materials that are better suited for the laser: felt, fabrics, leather, rubber, and many plastics. However, not everything is safe to laser – check out this PDF if you’re unsure about your material, or inquire with us.

Waterjet

Our local waterjet partner has a Flow waterjet with a huge 8'x13' bed, 2 rotational axes, and the ability to cut up to 6" thick material. Materials ideal for waterjet cutting include all kinds of steels, aluminum, brass, copper, titanium, Hastelloy, Inconel, carbon fiber, plastic, (untempered) glass, and stone as well as various softer materials like foams, silicone, rubber, or neoprene. Materials that can't get dirty, such as felts and some foams, can be kept squeaky clean during cutting for an additional charge.

Gerard Dumuk

Gerard Dumuk hails from a family of machinists, engineers, and builders. His grandfather was a machinist as were all five of his uncles. He has always been familiar with tools and tinkering. His hobby is classic cars, and he currently has 13 vehicles in various states of repair. He has been a carpenter, a chimney sweep, a sushi chef and restaurateur, a roofer, and many other things in his varied career. He may be most proud of his time with CalFire, where he served for over 10 years. His uncle Neal taught him CNC machining on his days off from the fire station. When he retired from CalFire, he spent a lot more time here and finally un-retired to buy the shop from Neal, along with Rachel, in 2015.

A few years back while driving, he suddenly had the idea for a new kind of woodworking joint, which could be assembled and disassembled using minimal tools. After developing the idea further, he applied and was granted patent #16101523 in the USA and #EP3837447A1 in Europe.

Rachel McConnell

Rachel McConnell started her career in clothing manufacturing, following her lifelong love of making things. She later moved to computer programming, where she could make virtual things, and ran a business doing custom programming. Later, she became the lead developer at Instructables.com and was there for some years. During this time she learned a lot about computer aided design and manufacturing. When Instructables was bought by Autodesk she took full advantage of Autodesk's internal training center to become proficient with many kinds of CNC machinery, including lasers, routers, 3d printers, and waterjets. After meeting Gerard and Neal in the early 2010s, she delved into CNC programming in much more depth and is currently the primary programmer of the machines at Neal's.

In her spare time she makes oddities of various kinds. Check out her personal work at drshiny.com and her Youtube channel.