ArtCAM Insignia customer, Mariners Woodshop craft durable and unique custom inlayed cockpit, deck and salon tables for owners of yachts throughout the United States as well as countries as far as Europe and Australia.
Richard Benscoter, founder of Mariners Woodshop had been working in the industry when he first came up with the idea for the inlaid tables. Richard remembers, "I was fortunate enough to be invited aboard a 135 foot yacht for lunch. The lunch was served on a wonderful deck table with a compass rose inlay done in traditional veneers which the owner had commissioned just 13 months before. The table had been in service just 7 months, yet the inlay was failing due the fragileness of the veneers in the environment in which it was used.
For some months after that I believed that there had to be a way of having a wonderful inlay that could be used in a marine environment successfully. When the opportunity for an early retirement was made I accepted and started Mariners Woodshop."
Three years on Mariners Woodshop, located in sunny San Diego now refurbishes or provides additional or replacement bespoke tables for the vessel. These are produced according to the clients’ ideas so that the end result is a unique table created from their own drawing, photo or commissioned design from the Mariners Woodshop. An example of this is this deck table with the customer’s software logo inlayed with gold leaf as a border.
Richard believes that,"What sets mariners woodshop apart from our competition is that our table prices includes an inlay of the boat manufactures logo. All our inlays are all ¼" and 1/8" hard woods, not veneers so the customer does not have to worry about their inlay failing no matter where the table is used or stored. All are tables are hardwoods and no substrates are used in any of our tables or commissioned products."
When setting up the business Richard researched a number of possible methods to achieve his durable inlaid tables. "ArtCAM was my choice after much reading and using the demo version on numerous flights to and from Australia when I was in my due diligence phase and working on my business plan.
What is interesting is that the Delcam representative in Los Angeles was very helpful in my quest to match the power of ArtCAM with a machine that would be compatible and also be repeatable. Unless you have a hundred thousand dollars, a guaranteed repeatable machine in my price range could not be found. The Delcam representative told me about K2 CNC in Los Angeles and recommended that I look at their machines, after finding the machine we then made the deal and the marriage could not have been better.
Richard continued to say:
I have tried other company’s products but rely on ArtCAM as most of my working is design, cutting pockets and inlays. I have found the competition process has many steps and is very time consuming."
Using ArtCAM Insignia, Richard can take a customer’s picture or art work and transform that into a tool path for ready for cutting in just a few hours from beginning to cutting. "My decision to buy ArtCAM was easy, it works, it had good representatives and the documentation is excellent.". Richard feels that:
ArtCAM is a tool and an integral part of my business plan without this software I could still make tables but not the one off table that gets the compliments that my work has received from its customers."
When asked what their aim is for the future Richard’s reply was simple, "Our business plan is to stay the course and do what we do best by building custom tables, whilst managing our growth. We plan to expand our table offerings and venture into three dimensional designs. Additionally we are currently exploring the possibility to work with boat manufactures to match their customer’s desire when they contract for their yacht as part of the design package."
For more information on the Mariners Woodshop please go to: www.MarinersWoodshop.com