A passion for woodturning has led to worldwide recognition for the Ommundson family of Express Woodturning. Luke Ommundson, Owner and Director of Express Woodturning spoke to us about the company’s beginnings, growth and future.
Express Woodturning was started over 23 years ago, by Vic Ommundson, a wood turner by trade. As with any new business, Vic was limited in both space and budget. In fact the first workshop was the garage next to the family home.
As the business has grown, so too has the level of machinery sophistication. “My father started the business with a hand lathe, a docking saw and a band saw” commented Luke. “One of the company’s first major investment in those early days was a machinery purchase from Barry Gabbett of Gabbett Group. Most of the machines we purchased, Barry had earmarked for the scrap metal yard” Luke joked.
Today, Express Woodturning’s workshop in Western Sydney features high production CNC routers and CNC lathes featuring CAD design systems. The change in machinery has reflected the change in customer’s expectations. The advent of CNC control has allowed Express Woodturning to cater to small production runs, and even one off jobs.
To achieve this Express use a combination of software programmes, Xilog3 from SCM runs the Record router, while the 3d CAD software runs the CNC lathes. “The CAD software allows us to show our clients an accurate image of the final product before it is made, so we can refine the design on computer, before we go into production” said Luke.
When asked about the his most significant purchase, Luke has no hesitation in responding “The machine which has had the most significant impact on our business is the SCM Record 110 CNC router. It’s allowed us to offer a complete service to our customers. We now have customers who get us to produce almost all their components for them and they assemble and finish them off” The most recent addition to this high production woodturning business it a Locatelli CNC lathe, also from Gabbett Machinery. This machine has justified its purchase many times over, Luke has calculated a reduction of 50% in time and labour costs since its commissioning.
The Locatelli lathe is a unique machine in many ways, but most significant is its integrated routing head. This allows intricate spirals or fluted carvings to be incorporated into the designs, normally a time consuming, labour intensive job. The routing head also gives the added flexibility of being able to put any mortice slots or dowel holes in the turning, once again saving time.
Express Woodturning became a globally recognised company when in late 2004 they won the contract to design and supply the timber component of the Athens 2004 Olympic torches. This was the culmination of over 9 months of negotiations, involving Express, the Athens Olympic committee and Harringtons (another local company responsible for the metal pressings within the torch) Initially, there was resistance to Australian suppliers manufacturing torches for the Greek games, however in the end, both Express Woodturning and Harringtons were an integral part of the design process – even to the point of recommending a local Beech timber.
“We had to produce over 17000 highly detailed torch bodies – a task which required us to run our factory 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 5 months straight in order to meet the strict deadlines” smiled Luke “Not only did we source and recommend a timber species, but we turned, routed, hand sanded and polished every torch” Each torch is individually numbered, and built to the exacting standards required of the Olympic committee. With all that hard work, does Luke think it was worth it? “We finished with time to spare and a fantastic end product” Luke said with a smile on his face.
Even though Express Woodturning is a growing company exporting to the world market, Luke is mindful of the hard work that has gone before him. To this day, when hand turning one off articles he still uses the original tailstock used by his Grandfather, three generations ago.
