Designing our way through the clutter

CNC Milling

Designing our way through the clutter

Precision CNC cutting

Uni-Cam was founded in late 2015 by renown CNC guru, Alan Welsford, and is based in Cape Town’s Montague Gardens in South Africa.
Uni-Cam is a technology-focused CNC producer committed to providing solid, reliable and cutting edge CNC equipment for the South African industry, using innovative technology backed by decades of industrial automation and world-class technical support. When Alan Welsford of Acepak fame, (co-founder and technical director for over 30 years) – sold his yacht and came out of retirement due to boredom; he decided he wanted another boardroom.

He is a through-and-through CAD and software developer, with a passion for automation and designing CNC machines from the bottom up. He has created over 4500 CNC machines, tailor-made for you the client. Welsford recently teamed up with one of his old schoolmates, the irascible and well-known marketing man, Jean-Marc Duquenoy, a paradigm-challenging person with a clear vision about serious and tangible customer satisfaction.
The company is now geared up more than ever for innovation and strives to break the mold of conformity that sometimes plagues this industry – one look at our reception room confirms this. We don’t like mainstream or what some call ‘normal’. Their specialty is custom-designed software for easy g-code generation to avoid the complications of CAD / CAM.

THE TEAMGlen St. Joseph, originally a CNC operator, worked his way up over the past 15 years and is now a director of Uni-Cam. He prefers working with hardwoods, aluminum and carbon-fibre and continues to push the envelope when it comes to manufacturing items – from rifle stocks, molds for electric cars (South Africa’s first electric car molds was one of his pet projects), right down to guitar bodies and cladding for buildings. ‘Bring it on,’ is his mantra. Terry Wilke, our shop-floor enterprise man, and ex-cop is one of the last, die-hard supporters of a vehicle that goes by the name Land Rover. Not surprisingly, he is often late for work and covered in oil. Wilke has been in the game for more than 20 years and handles anything from hazardous waste removal (hence, our workshop safety standards) to overseeing and creating one of our magical, fully automated, production-specific CNC cable-drum router machines. Terry’s hobbies vary from spearfishing to the constant maintenance of his Land Rover.

WORK ETHOS
Our staff are encouraged to be themselves, are treated as individuals and this shows in the vigor and fun we have in the office and on the floor – yes, fun, which we exude and is visible with all our products.
Innovation really is key at Uni-Cam and we invite you to visit our offices and experience the atmosphere and exuberance anytime during the day – let us know when you are coming so we can show you around.

CHALLENGES MAKE US TICK, FULL STOP
“How do we get people to the moon and back but can’t build this item?” – Duquenoy challenges us all on the workshop floor. We enjoy and thrive on this declaration and the challenge it creates. We can do normal, but we really prefer cutting-edge stuff. All safety standards are in place, and we often play music on our speakers during breaks and always when ‘brainstorming’ late at night.

THE MACHINES ARE OUT TO GET YOU
Welsford and his team specialise in designing and manufacturing high-end, hardworking, hi-tech CNC machines, right down to ‘DIY’ units – designed specifically for the hobbyist or the entrepreneur with specific focus on retired folk (like us) who cannot afford the cost of larger machines.

THE SPECSWe use and are the local distributors of the well-known CS-Labs CNC controller that was developed for use with Mach3. It uses reliable Ethernet communication to its miniature industrial PC, comes with the ability to connect wirelessly to your network for file sharing and has good fault-finding systems which can be interrogated by our team over the internet should it be necessary.
All our dual driven gantries have automatic geometry correction. The frames are solid steel welded with a variety of tops (vacuum bed, T-slots, MDF or custom-made). All components that we use on our machine scan be bought locally, which we keep stock of, except for the imported Spindles range.
All our units are created in Montague Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa and are supervised by our qualified staff, from the wiring at the base to the last bolt on top. We will upgrade or retrofit your CNC machine with pleasure. As to the equipment we build, all our machines use closed loop stepper or servo motors depending on the speed or torque requirements. Our CNC systems are all based on Mach3, Mach4 with touch screens, and all our routers can do handle 3D machining.

WHICH CUT DO YOU PREFER?
We cut wood, plywood with a penchant for Russian birchwood, perspex, carbon fibre, aluminum, brass, plastic, titanium (never fingers!) sometimes on our laser unit, but we enjoy using our own CNC machines quite a bit more. From customised kitchen units and counters, cupboards, yacht decking to lampshades, vehicle dashboards and even cell phone holders.

ONSRUD CUTTERS (AND WE MEAN CUTTERS!)We are more than a little proud to say that we are the largest Distributors of LMT Onsrud (USA) cutting bits in southern Africa. LMT Onsrud produces first class cutters, from engineered panel applications, carbon fibre, plastic and composite machining right up to marine and aerospace designs. Our latest end-mills are used to mill aluminum and exotic metals within today’s aerospace, defence, and medical industries as well as a myriad of other technical applications. Our woodworking range of high-end cutters is designed to reduce the finishing time required while it rips its way through hardwoods and plywoods with the bonus of cutting down the time to meet your production deadlines by far. For example, the latest gasometer readings are more than 25m per minute for plywood applications!
Not only does LMT Onsrud offer cutters, but it also provides serious technical assistance to cutting different materials with its specialised cutters, helping you to optimise the life of the cutter and the cutting speeds that can be achieved. If you are having a problem with one of their cutters, you can either speak to us or directly to their application engineers (in the USA) who will give you up-to-date, speedy, relevant information regarding chip loads, speeds, or reasons for failures. This is a huge added-value benefit to your production and costs.

OUR ‘HIGH 5’ SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA)
Our recently fully revised SLA is a pleasure to behold and more than likely a first in South Africa for its open-ended, easy to understand and friendly offering of back-up services rendered by us including supplier guarantees. It’s all about partnering with the right people.

THERE’S MORE…
Made for Life Products (www.cnccuttingroom.co.za) is the retail arm of the company that we recently signed a joint venture with. Made for Life sells premium quality aluminum, perspex, bamboo and birch plywood products.