A workshop in Warren, Michigan, a precise machine, and a carpenter who finishes every piece by hand.
How the workshop began
I worked in a display shop, building the stands and fixtures the car companies show their cars on. That is where I first watched a CNC machine at work, and I knew I wanted one. For years it was a private pursuit. I would make something, someone would see it and ask for one of their own, and in time the pursuit became a business with my name on it.
I'm Todd Melanshek, a carpenter by trade. I have spent a working life building in wood, and the CNC came late to it. Here it is a tool like any other in the shop. The cut is the quick part. Choosing the board, reading the grain and bringing the finish up by hand is the part that took thirty years to learn.
The machine is only half the work
A CNC will cut a shape precisely, all day long. It will not choose the board, read the grain, decide where a knot should fall, ease the edges until they feel right in the hand, or notice that an engraving sits poorly against a streak in the wood. That half of the work is done by a person, and it is the half that makes a piece worth keeping.