Behind the main factory building is the wood barn. Here, stocks of raw lumber from forests around Europe are stored outdoors for several years to properly season.If the wood is not seasoned like this, it will be unstable and will warp, crack and otherwise do undesirable things when used to make the various parts of an instrument.Here, you can see where cracks in the ends of the boards have been arrested while the lumber continues to season. Of course these metal clips and the cracked ends are not used in the finished product.When stocks run low inside the factory, lumber is brought out of the barn and loaded into the heated factory.Here, wood is further seasoned in an indoor environment.Lumber spends another year or so indoors before being used. Here you can also see one of the large band saws and a traveling crane.Part of the wood shop. In the foreground is a large planer for smoothing the rough lumber. At the right is a long, automatic saw which is very handy for starting a smooth edge on rough lumber. Overhead, you can see the sawdust collection pipes leading to a large vacuum.The control panel of the automatic saw. A laser beam is projected on the lumber to show precisely where the saw will cut.Workers feeding a board through the planer. The surface comes out so smooth that is scarcely requires sanding!An industrial, production drill press makes cutting the thousands of holes precise and expedient.Some of the finished product, some interior brackets.
