3 ways the Carbitool catalogue helps create innovative designs

Diving into the Carbitool catalogue helps SEAN&HORN solve very specific design problems for their wide range of clients.

We recently profiled the innovative team of Sean Kelly and Billy Horn, partners in the joinery business SEAN&HORN, located within the Space Tank Studio incubator in Melbourne’s North Coburg. You can read about the philosophy behind their business in Wood craftsmen moving away from mass production.

Here are three practical examples of how they’re putting this philosophy into practice for their clients with the help of their go-to Carbitool catalogue of router bits.

1. V-CUTTER FOR A VERY SPECIFIC EDGE

German high-end lighting company Volker Haug had designed an unusual pendant lamp with a unique profile. Their manufacturing challenge was the creation of a mold to cast a large oval aluminium shape, not dissimilar to a ‘Pringle chip’, and they approached SEAN&HORN with the problem.

The curvaceous oval component called for a particular angle on its edge. To create the perfect cast from an MDF mold for Volker Haug, SEAN&HORN went straight to the Carbitool catalogue. “We needed a very specific router bit,” Sean Kelly says. “Sure enough, we found just the right cutter in the Carbitool catalogue. And the V-cutter we purchased to create the mold has been in use ever since for other projects!”

2. ARTISTIC LICENCE

A regular SEAN&HORN client is a custom picture framer who specialises in making unique frames for his customers. Billy Horn remembers that one of his customers, an artist, wanted a custom frame to complement a particular artwork. “The desired effect resembled corrugated iron or cardboard, with curved sine waves. It was by no means a standard design.”

He mailed the Carbitool catalogue to the framer, who was able to select the perfect ball bits for the job. “Using a couple of them, we were able to use the right tangents and radii to make the required profiles,” Billy says. “The end result was a frame that perfectly complements the artwork.”

3. SOCKS FOR CHRISTMAS

Funky sock manufacturer Happy Socks had worked with Myer and David Jones to make a big splash over the Christmas 2018 shopping season. The company engaged SEAN&HORN to create some spectacular retail displays to showcase their products in both Melbourne and Sydney stores.

One design was a free-standing display shaped like a Christmas tree, with hangers for a wide range of socks. The other was an ‘immersive’ gingerbread house lined with hanging socks, which customers could enter to make their selections.

Sean and Billy are proud of the results. “Creating each display involved a wide range of angles and curves – and we found all the cutters we need in the Carbitool catalogue.”

4. THE ULTIMATE COMPLIMENT

“We find the wooden diagram blocks in the catalogue especially helpful when selecting the right router bits for each of our projects,” Sean adds. “They help us pick the right tool, as they show us a positive of the resultant piece of wood – so we don’t have to imagine it in reverse from the shape of the tool itself.”

SEAN&HORN are now working on a new project dear to their hearts – making a retail and trade show display unit for Carbitool router bits! The design includes recessed lighting and a newly created Carbitool logo created for the company in its new home as part of the Sutton Tools group.

Click here to download a copy of our catalogue. If you’d like a hardcopy please contact us at sales@carbitool.com.au.