Surfboard Shaping Machines typically are very expensive and there is a ton of mis-information and confusion circulating in the market about what is needed to achieve the successful milling of surf, sail, wake and kiteboards.
In this article I would like to share the inception story of the now Precision Shaper system.
I would like to start by giving you some background about me. I started shaping surfboards in college back in 1991 to be exact. I attended the University of Washington and quickly learned the Pacific Northwest had excellent, uncrowded surf when the conditions permitted.. I shaped boards for friends and family back in Hawaii, Implant Students from other states and my own personal boards. I also shaped boards for some of the more popular surf shops in the Northwest territory during the late 90's..
I was very familiar with CNC machines and was part of a group of shapers in the NW that was looking to purchase a machine from Brazil. I seriously considered building my own machine with the help of a few of my engineer buddy's but after much thought and planning decided it would cost a significant amount in materials and the time it would take was hard to determine. I had a decent understanding of business and how to create a product thanks to the University of Washington and knew the potential issues with any first attempt or start up would cause un-planned for time and money. It's pretty obvious that making and supporting a product is difficult, you really can't fake it especially if you are to sell a product on the open market.
After a few months of debating with the organized partners over business practice, investment amounts and which machine to choose I decided to go off on my own and start Precision Shapes NW. The partnership just didn't pencil out on paper and there were to many sketchy agreements amongst our partnership. Instead of the Brazillian DSD machine I selected to purchase an APS3000 from Australia.. At the time this was the newest machine on the market and had a very unique cutting technology.. After making some phone calls and asking some very respected shapers whom I had a relationship with confirming they felt this was the best value for the money.
I put my deposit in and was told to expect a 3-4 month delivery window.. Month after month I waited and almost a full year later my APS3000 arrived. Instead of real shop space for my new APS3000 I was forced to put it in a outbuilding on my property as I had been making payments on it for 10 months to the bank.. I got her up and runnin and I started producing my quirky short, fat winged swallow quad and twin fin designs that you will find everywhere on shop racks today..
Working with the APS3000 was interesting I quickly learned about things that really didn't make sense for me.. I wanted to move the machine but she is very big which meant lots of shop space needed. Clean up was the act of going into a dust piled room with a snow shovel coming out looking like a ghost and the machine consistently due to its design created certain directional forces moving the blank during cutting and caused 4-8mm difference cutting from side to side. This really became irritating and I eventually got fed up and started retro fitting my APS3000. After working over all the issues which cost alot of time and money.
I decided on building my own machine in my spare time.
You can see the history of my progress here http://www.precisionshaper.com/About.html if you scroll down to the bottom and work your way up you quickly learn how committed I'am to the system I call Precision Shaper.
Building a machine is one thing but you need a software to run it.. At first I used Shape3d a french software that has a big following.. It was a good software program for users that were PC literate.. This is where I felt it necesary to develop a homogenous software that was quick, easy to understand, user-friendly yet powerful enough to satisfy demanding board designers and above average machinists. The PSD-3d project was born.. There was and is the option to use more open source programs that cost no money.. The reason I chose not to do this is the support.. If you were to supply serious board builders a hardware/software package both sides needed to be supported real time.. This is near impossible to pull off in a open-source environment.. There was to many what ifs so I asked myself the simple question. If I were to start a company and spend on the low low end even $20,000 of my money on a system could I accept the concept of open source support? The easy answer was no way! To many risks that things could change out of my own control and with no real time support well you get my drift.. What was most important is that if I was to look at a global picture and have a growing amount of users it would be a nightmare for me to support my customers as there would be no standardization of OS, Software etc.. At that point I might as well throw in the towel..
My PSD-3d software is considered really good by all of our users, most have experience using all the other software SurfCad, Shape3D, AKU Shaper, APS3000 and Boardcad. PSD3d was developed to be very direct and stable while I can manage supporting it and can provide my customers immediate support that they appreciate..
Today my machines are used around the world by craftsmen of all different levels.. We have made great progress and really operate via word of mouth. The only constant negative I hear is that some are skeptical of the price of our system.. I always say we will take more money if you want to pay us however just ask our users and they will tell you how good our machine and software is. How easy it is to quickly master and how we pride ourselves on fast and knowledgeable service..
We are passionate about what we do and believe in our capabilities as do our customers..
Mike
