George recently purchased a Lamont matrix table for its advantages in speeding up his production and in ensuring a perfectly square product.
“I had six gates to make and not enough sash clamps to do it,” George told PW&SS.“By the time I would have bought enough I would have spent a quarter of what the Lamont matrix table was. I felt it was best to buy the matrix table and have it for evermore than continually buy clamps, of which you would never have enough.
“I had a corner in the workshop where I could set up the machine without any problems: it is very space saving. It does not limit anything you do, and it is easy and quick to use. Most of the work I do on my own: when you have glue and lots of gates and need to glue them up and clamp quickly before the glue goes off, it is much easier to do it with the push of a button with the Lamont matrix table.”
George chose Lamont as his supplier as “It was about the easiest one to find on the internet. I did speak to some one else who had a second hand one coming which I could have had in three weeks, or I could buy one from Lamont immediately. I chose to go for Lamont.
“I could not find any bad reports on the internet; he is in Scotland; and the price was right.
“I spoke to Alan [Lamont] on the phone and he is a very genuine fellow: that is important when buying tools. I know if I phone him I will get an answer from him quickly and it will be the right answer. He will always see you right.”
As well as the gates for which the matrix table was originally purchased, George used the clamp to make a toy box for his six month old nephew as a Christmas present: the clamp held the box while it was glued up.
George sums up the advantages of the Lamont matrix table as “It saves space, it is easy to operate
single handed and is guaranteed to be square. That is a very big thing as the gates are not complicated, but there is a lot in them and everything is very tight, so once you have got them all cramped up to move them would take a bit of effort. By having Alan's machine I know it is square in two directions, down and across: it has to be square as his machine is square. It is a very good piece of machinery for that type of operation.”
When asked if he would recommend it, George replied, “Yes, no problem. It has a lot of power to do the job. With sash clamps you feel you are getting a bargain but you can't get any pressure. This machine has a good amount of power behind it.
“The company is very swift and easy to deal with: it was a pleasure to deal with Alan. If he said it was going to be delivered on Thursday, it was ready to be delivered on Thursday. That was Alan's way of saying thank you very much for the business. It was a great help as here in Shetland you know it has to be in Aberdeen at a certain time or it is not going to get on the boat that night and it might spend the next few days in Aberdeen at the back of a shed: machinery and equipment can get stuck in Aberdeen for a week if there are other things in the shed in front of it. Knowing it is on its way when it says it will be is very much appreciated.
“We have not had any problems yet, but I am sure that anything that does arise can be sorted over the phone. Alan would send up to anything required with no hassle. He always seemed to be very keen that you got the right machine you needed. He was very genuine, and went out of his way to explain the differences between each machine he had. It is his name that is on the machine, so he has to be good!”
This article was first published in the Feb/March 2018 issue of Panel, Wood & Solid Surface
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