Hi,
I am having problems constructing a recently purchased Cedar Brood box from Flow.
I initially tried to assemble the box without checking it was square and when I placed it on a base it was clearly not square and out by over 20mm
I have since tried a few things to square the box up but found that the CNC cut on the ends of all the pieces is consistently out by ~3 degrees.
I initially contacted customer service and have received a replacement box, I have checked the replacement only to find it has “exactly” the same angle of error.
I have since contacted customer service again to be told this is within tolerance and I shouldn’t have been sent the replacement box which I need to arrange to return.
Can anyone please help me understand why a CNC laser cut piece of wood would have a consistent error of as much as 3 degrees?
Please see attached image, inside finger joint cuts are the same angles as the ends.
the laser doesn’t make a perfect 90 degree cut because the laser beam burns away more wood on the side that’s closer to the beam source than the far side. It kind of burns an upside down V shape if that makes sense? The width of the V may vary depending the on the timber, and other variables. This issue gets worse if there isn’t a good exhaust system sucking away smoke and heat. Without an exhaust the timber can catch fire…
I don’t think I am expecting perfect cuts with 100% accuracy but considering it is a machine cut piece of timber for the purpose of making as near as possible square joints 3 degrees and 20mm off square is outside my tolerance.
As I have explained to customer support I am happy to resolve the issue myself with a rasp but I am concerned that these boxes are being shipped globally and this will affect the reputation of the flow company products.
It could be argued that you’re paying a premium price for a product that one could also argue is the Rolls Royce of bee hives. Therefore you’d expect that the products would match the premium price paid.
I have to say that the inferior fake Flow boxes that I put together for a customer last year went together perfectly square.
