Granite Kitchen Worktops blog

We are please to announce the launch of our new granite worktops newsletter. The idea behind the newsletter is to keep our regular trade customers up to date with relevant news about us, the stone industry and the kitchen industry as a whole. Although we are not journalist we’ll try our best to make the articles as professional and interesting as possible. The newsletter is free to anyone, simply go to the newsletter page and subscribe. You can unsubscribe anytime you like.

Robert Shaw

CNC stands for ‘computer numerical controlled’, which basically means a machine that is run by a computer. We at Shaw Stone have a CNC milling machine for milling and polishing shaped cuts, for example polished bowl cut-outs and shaped worktops. We also have one of the only CNC saws in the country used for cutting granite slabs into granite worktops. For both machines we use a sophisticated CAD program for the design of the pieces to be cut. The big advantage of using CNC machinery for the production of granite worktops and quartz engineered stone worktops is accuracy and quality of finish. These machines work to within point three of a millimetre, something that cannot be matched by cutting by hand or manual machine.

Robert Shaw

Well, digital templating is a way of templating without making physical templates. There are a few digital templating machines on the market, some use lasers and others use a wire. The market leader is Proliner as it is the most accurate and user friendly. We at Shaw Stone use the top spec Proliner 8-series. See it in action on our about us page. The biggest advantage to using digital templaters is accuracy when templating granite worktops or quartz engineered worktops (i.e. Silestone). The accuracy of the Proliner is with 0.5mm over 3 metres. By creating such highly accurate digital drawings which can be fed into our state of the art CNC computerised saw the end result is a granite worktop which fits perfectly. However at £15,000 per templating machine and £80,000 for the CNC saw only premium fabricators such as Shaw Stone use this technology!

Robert Shaw

Well obviously I would say yes wouldn’t I. I had this conversation with a customer last week although it was a bit like preaching to the converted. But when you think about it, it makes sense. If budget is a constraining factor, which to be fair for most of us it is, wouldn’t it be better to spend more of the budget on the area of the kitchen that is going to take the most wear and tear and less on the hidden bits that no one ever sees? Also when you walk into a kitchen what is one of the most dominating features? The worktops! By spending at little less on the units in order to afford the granite worktops or quartz engineered stone worktops that you want, you can make a cheaper kitchen look expensive and fabulous like the ones you see in all those glossy magazines.

Robert Shaw.