The limitless creativity of " the sculptors" in 3D

The 3D-CNC Tischlerei Cluse company can be found in the countryside in the village of Marbeck, in western Münsterland. The grandfather of the current owner, Thomas Cluse, founded this joinery workshop in 1926 and Thomas has been running it since 1996. After the sudden death of his father, he found himself completely out of his depth and struggling to survive. At the age of 30, from one day to the next, he was forced to change his plans: "I could no longer hide behind my father and I had to take control of the reins", he says.
Cluse also remembers how he worked a great deal on himself and that, from timid carpenter, he grew to become an out-going and extrovert businessman. Thanks to him, the joinery workshop that previously produced every kind of wooden product indiscriminately, from trusses to rocking chairs, started to specialise in 3D routing even changing its name to 3D-CNC Tischlerei Cluse.

Technology and tradition

The decision taken by the German master carpenter was clear cut, as well as visionary: they needed to specialise in order to compete on the market. The trusses had to go, and the CNC technology take centre stage. And so, twenty years ago, Cluse got himself his first second-hand 3-axes numerically controlled machine: a SCM Tech 99. He told us how he bought it at auction: "At that time, a nearby colleague had a 3-axes machine. I watched impressed from a distance and thought: “You need one of those too!". And to think I had no idea how it worked", chuckles Cluse.

Initially, the owner used the machine for no more than five hours a month, but after uncovering its numerous potentials, he created the first relief, a multiplex propeller. Then he fitted it, including the ball bearing, onto the engine compartment of his T4 car and sped around the village with this original propeller. "You need to be a bit crazy too!" he laughed.

It is individual actions like this that made him well-known in town and contributed to making a name for his company and its works. From that point onwards, the first requests for milled pieces began to come in and, from then on, the master carpenter accepted numerous orders for wooden models and shapes.

The digital turning point

Another breakthrough came 17 years later. "We were making good money and I wanted to make an investment, but it had to be something worthwhile", explains the 56-year-old master carpenter. This is how the purchase of a new SCM 5-axes machining centre came about, a Record 110 model, and with this choice, Cluse began to use Alpha-Cam software. It was by no means easy: at that time, he was a young father, he focused on his work by day and his family in the evening, so, after just four hours of sleep, at 3:00 in the morning he was back at the PC facing new challenges. "It was a difficult time, but it was definitely worth it!".

Now the post-processor, the converter between Alpha Cam and the CNC machining centre, also works perfectly. "So, Alpha Cam developed the software to suit our needs and we were a kind of guinea pig!", explains Thomas Cluse.

For the last four years, the joinery workshop has specialised almost exclusively in CNC routing. Niklas Cluse, his 24-year-old son has been part of the team for the same amount of time. He received his Master Artisan diploma in September following his training: "I always knew that one day I would become a carpenter and start working in the company", he tells us enthusiastically.

Top technology with SCM

Like his father Thomas, Niklas is also a CNC-technology enthusiast. Nowadays, with four 5-axes machines, the company is highly advanced in terms of innovation. Thanks to the partnership with SCM, an accord 40 fx CNC machining centre was added in 2015 and an accord 50 fx in 2018. The latest purchase was made just a few months ago, an additional accord 50 fx, in the large 3680 x 2150 version. For the pre- and post-treatment of the components that come to the CNC machining centres, there is a 900 m2 operating surface, with another pair of classic machines for machining the wood.

Nowadays, with a Professional Bachelor's Certificate to his name, Cluse Junior can concentrate fully on the business that he will one day run by himself. But right now, his father Thomas has no intention of retiring because he loves what he does.

So, the routing strategy is created in Alpha Cam which, in the case of difficult items, can easily take several hours. Each program is personally produced by father or son. Niklas now uses CNC technology in a completely different way compared to how his father used it in the past, and it means a lot to Thomas that his knowledge is handed down to his son. The only thing that, to date, has remained a prerogative of the boss is work with the Geomagic CAD Freeform software.

Thomas Cluse uses it for unusual requests, drafts completely free of designers and shaped parts with no corners or sharp edges, together with the Geomatic Touch insertion device. Thanks to a mobile style, the master carpenter can freely form the shapes on screen as though using plasticine. "The crazier the requests, the more interesting we find them", explains the joyous owner. And this is always the case: whether we are dealing with the portrait of one's husky, a fish bone the length of a small car, an XXL cappuccino cup or a seven-metre hand with built-in conference table.

From luxury to a whim

Nothing is impossible: with this approach, the family company thrills clients all over the world. "We work for designers, interior designers of yachts, the car industry, numerous carpenter colleagues and even in the field of medical technology", explains the owner. The template for a forearm prosthesis was even produced by the Cluse Joinery Workshop.

The Cluse's technical expertise evokes a great deal of interest: "We occasionally hold presentations with our machines and word gets around", Thomas tells us. "Have you seen what they manage to make? You need to go, they can make it!": this is probably what so many of Cluse's new clients have heard said. The creative and technological potential of this joinery workshop is such that no one is surprised to learn that, nowadays, Tischlerei Cluse is in a league of its own in the field of 3D routing. And who knows for how long it will remain so.
 

By Anna-Katharina Ledwa (BM)

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