“It’s a magic piece of kit: I wouldn't be without one”

BRISTOL Fine Furniture creates bespoke furniture at its Backwell workshop, where the starting point is a customer’s taste, imagination and budget, and the finished product will be individual, well crafted furniture. Company founder, Sean Burrows, has recently bought his second refurbished gluesetter from Alan Lamont. He not only rates the product highly, but the technical knowledge and quality of service that Alan Lamont brings with him. Describing the decision to purchase the first gluesetter, Sean told PW&SS: “I was just setting up a workshop on my own and I knew that I needed that particular piece of kit. I’d met Alan at a Woodmex show previously and gave him a call. We both accepted that it was a very cheap unit on its last legs, but it did us for a few years. It was regularly serviced and repaired, but there came a point a few months ago where I realised it was not worth spending any more money on it: so I gave Alan another
call and asked him what he had. “Alan is a very helpful chap: he had photographs of various reconditioned machines which we were able to look at online. Alan provided a very quick delivery: we were just at the start of a big kitchen job and would have been paralysed without it.“Alan does a very thorough job of looking after the reconditioned machines before they go out. We are very pleased with our latest machine: it is very well set up. “Alan has been building these machines for years and has a lot of specialist knowledge: we went back to him as we are very happy with his service. I know there are other companies out there doing these machines, but this is a piece of kit that is very technical and you want to talk to some-one who is not just a machinery salesman, but knows the product inside and out. I have confidence in talking to him: he will get it right on your behalf.” The gluesetter has brought enormous advantage in saving both time and space. “We are kitchen and cabinet makers. If we are gluing up 30 panel doors, the old style would be to cramp up the doors, then lift the cramps and doors off your bench until you ran out of space and/or sash cramps, while with this piece of kit you can clamp the door and let it cool down, while you are gluing up the next one. We can process a door every 10-15 minutes and do not have to lift everything up and down: we can glue up a kitchen’s worth of doors in an afternoon without too much expenditure of energy.”

The gluesetter is widely used in the workshop: for doors, frames and for putting solid lippings on the edge of veneered boards. “It gets a lot of use!” Sean commented. When asked if he would recommend the gluesetter and the company to others, Sean replied, “Absolutely! When dealing with Alan on the phone he has always been very thorough at answering messages and picking up calls and responding helpfully with a great depth of technical knowledge. It’s not just about the machine, it’s about the back up and service as well, and I rate him quite highly on that front.” And as for the gluesetter, “It’s a magic piece of kit really: I wouldn’t be without one. There are three of us now, but even when I was on my own, it made life so much smoother. “For me, it’s a no-brainer: there are certain pieces of kit that make life so much smoother and easier, and that’s one of them.”