Salem Employee-Owner works CNC Magic for Salem's 90th Anniversary

Scott Poland, HHH Equipment Resources Field Service Technician, recently wowed our N.C. Office with a beautifully handcrafted wooden plaque commemorating Salem's 90 years in business. As it turns out, Scott has become quite familiar with CNC machining not only with wood, but glass as well!

Some of the resulting pieces were created in his downtime, others were created for customer demonstration.  We caught up to Scott to learn more.

Salem: What can you tell us about this artwork?

SP: For the glass, as you can see I do end up making some interesting items when installing the waterjets we sell.  There are 2 reasons I do this.

The first reason is to demonstrate to the customer the capability of the waterjet.

The second reason is if I can successfully cut an art piece out that has multiple close lines, multiple piercing points then when the customer wants to cut out a simple shower door it should be no issue.  Plus the art pieces take a lot longer to cut out, 40 to 50 minutes, so this is a good long run to make sure the machine is operating correctly.

The plaque was created on a CNC Router that I built from the ground up in my garage.  I built it to further my knowledge of equipment and to challenge myself to see if I could do it.

Salem: How long did the plaque take to create?  And what was your inspiration?

SP: Between the design time and the physical time, I spent it took roughly 6 hours.  This was the 2nd time I made it as the first time I made it there ended up being an issue with the sign after it sat for a couple weeks.  I decided to start over, and I believe I made the correct decision.

The inspiration behind was the fact that it is Salem's 90th Anniversary and I thought having a sign for it would be a nice touch.

Salem: What other things have you made with a CNC machine?

SP: The U.S. Navy insignia is something that I had worked on for 6 months for a co-worker, it took a ton of work to try and teach myself everything I needed to know to make this happen.

The Maxwell sign is interesting as this was made from two types of wood.  I carved the pockets out of the base piece of wood and then cut the letters from a piece of pine.  I then inlayed the pine letters into the base wood to make the finished product.  This was made for a friend of mine who got married in 2023.

Salem: Is there anything else about the plaque and the other artwork you would like people to know?

SP: Never be afraid to challenge yourself to learn something new.