CNC and laser through Start-Up Nation - the basis of a business born of passion

A Start-Up Nation, which involved the purchase of a CNC Router and CNC Laser, took me to Azuga the other day. I met people who are passionate and eager to change their lives and the community they are part of for the better. Cristian Condoroțeanu together with his daughter, Daria, put together their technical and product design knowledge and created Azughia Woodworking. About Cristian's great passion for numerical control and laser machines, a passion that can be felt in every sentence and is evident in every explanation, we learned from Dan Pruteanu, the machines being purchased from Wood IQ through Start-Up Nation. He brokered this meeting and I'm glad he did.

"A grade 10 for skill" and a passion for technology and automation

I met Cristian at the resort and we walked up to the workshop together. The conversation started quickly, especially as we remembered that we had met in 2017 at the fair BIFE SIM, where he had come with Daria to meet us and to tell us about the Start-Up Nation project submitted two months ago. They were going to make decorative panels realized on CNC and laser. But if we were to go back in time, we could say that Cristian's passion is linked to his grandfather - a respected carpenter in the area with his own workshop - or his father, from whom he inherited his technical inclination. His high school headmaster once told him that if they gave him a mark for "skill" he would definitely get an A.

Also in high school, he saw his first CNC practicing at Mecanica Fină, in Sinaia. It was love at first sight and he immediately became passionate about automation. He went to Transilvania University in Brasov and graduated in 1991. But it was the period after the Revolution when factories were slowly disappearing. In Azuga in '89 there were over 9000 jobs in various industries, now there are only 700-800. So he had to "find his bearings" and started with a car workshop, then in 2002 he went on with a construction company, together with a friend, and after that, for a while, he worked in Belgium in the plumbing construction industry.

Spanish scholarship, 3D printer and a passion for CNCs and lasers

Meanwhile Daria's daughter - ambitious and eager for knowledge - studied product design at Transylvania University, in English. In her third year, she won a 6-month Erasmus scholarship to Spain to design a 3D printer. For this project, Cristian bought a 3D printer kit which he built and adjusted himself. As it overlapped perfectly with his passion, he then bought a kit for a 0.5 W power laser engraver, for which he made some components to the 3D printer he made before. Thus was born the idea of a machine that would "work" for him, i.e. a CNC. So he started studying CNCs and various programs for working with vectors and reliefs.

The first two CNCs he built in Belgium before returning to Romania. The first was built with profiles ordered from Germany and the electronics and mechanics with components from China. But he discovered it was too big and he couldn't take it out of the house for outside work. So he built another small one he could take with him.

How the idea for the Start-Up Nation program came about

After returning home he built two more CNCs and a laser. Again with materials and equipment ordered online from Germany and China. He was doing all sorts of work on them - "little things" as he calls them - from gifts for friends to signposts to the ski slopes in Azuga. The girl's creativity helped him find the best solution for the works. And so the idea of a business with Daria was born. She would handle the creative side and he the production side. It was 2017 just as the Start-Up Nation program was launching. Daria came up with the idea of decorative panels made on CNC. She was nearing the end of her university degree and in the meantime she had finished another 4-month scholarship in Ireland, so her knowledge baggage was getting "heavier". In May 2017, Daria set up Azughia Woodworking SRL-D, the company in the name of which the Start-Up Nation project was submitted, and it was on this occasion that we learned that Azughia is the old name of the resort of Azuga.

With the help of a consultancy firm from Brasov they finalized the project they submitted in June 2017, and in October the amount of 193,000 lei was approved. The money was to be spent to purchase a CNC and a laser, software for the CNC, consultancy, office furniture, a laptop and for the realization of the website. With salaries, rent and utilities, they decided to manage on their own, considering the other purchases more important.

Moments of hesitation have slightly lengthened the machinery procurement process

Just when it seemed that everything was going according to plan and the grant contract was to be signed, Daria hesitated. She was responsible for the whole project and it scared her at first. As he didn't want to burden her with so much responsibility, Cristian decided to stop. Luckily, however, there were only a few months of hesitation, after which her confidence in the project and in her own strengths returned. Only this hesitation delayed him a few months, and the funding contract was signed in March 2018. The money was available in June after approval came from the Guarantee Fund and Counter Guarantee Fund.

But there was another problem. The project was submitted with a cost plan based on bids from China. His positive experience with Chinese suppliers when he built the CNCs led him to choose this direction initially. But the costs of customs and transportation, as well as the lack of technical support, made him change strategy and look for machine suppliers in the country.

He talked to a couple of well-known firms at the fair, but they couldn't come up with the amount. He also contacted Dan Pruteanu from Wood IQwhom he had also met at BIFE SIM in 2017. As they are both passionate about CNC, machines and automation, it was easy for them to get along. And the solution wasn't hard to find because they both had confidence, based on history and experience, in the machines coming from China.

Speaking of China! I spoke to Dan Pruteanu and asked him about this collaboration with China. There is a lot of talk about products from there and opinions are not always good. I know him professional, passionate about CNCs and honest and his opinion really mattered to me. He said that Wood IQ doesn't buy and sell machines from China but makes them together with a Chinese industrial partner. For each model there is a specification with details down to size, shape and number of screws and number of welding spots. There is a person in the factory, paid by both sides, who checks each stage of production. The machine is tested before leaving the factory and in Romania it arrives first in Comănești where it is tested again. Only then does it reach the customer.

In June 2018 CNC model 1325 PRO and CNC Laser Model 1610 were ordered from China. It was agreed with Dan Pruteanu that the machines would be paid on delivery which also saved him 3 months of interest. The machines arrived in September and a small tour de force ensued, with some nervousness because the reimbursement claim had to be submitted by September 29. They managed to file on time, and in December, after a visit from the bank (CEC in this case), the loan was closed and the last interest was paid.

Like a child with his toys

It was not easy and they invested some of their own money. Cristian says that personal money was needed to set up the company, pay the interest and the guarantee fund fee, and support the salaries. The firm employs two people, him and one other. With the rent he was lucky because the space is rented from a very good friend, but he still needed about 3000 euro of his own funds.

But now he is happy and already has orders for CNC work. And he's happy. If you watch him working you get the feeling he's a child with his favorite toys. He knows a lot about the machines and explains everything about their operation with great pleasure. He now works with a design company in Brasov for which he makes customized masks for radiators and decorative wall panels, and the largest such panel he made was 4/2.2 m.

The laser is still being tested for future orders. Unlike the laser he made himself, with a power of 0.5 W, the one I bought is 150 W. He explained the whole process of operation with mechanical details, details about the beam formation, the mirrors that deflect it to the panel ready for engraving and cutting, the cooling system.

But they haven't done too much advertising in this area because they're still in the early days and the orders for the billboards are taking up all his time. But he's very happy with what he can do with the laser, and he was keen to prove it with a gift on the spot: a plywood map for Wood Magazine.

"I don't think there's anything technically I can't do, and if I can't, I'll just keep trying until I can"

Azughia Woodworking is in its infancy, but they are confident that they will develop a business that will benefit the Azuga community and not just themselves. Cristian wants Daria to be the creator of the patterns and the interface with the customers, while he works in the workshop. He says that he can stay there from morning till night and I believe him because the joy the place gives him is obvious.

He recognizes that he still has a lot to learn about the business itself. She needs to move from hobby to business and to do that she needs to get a bit organized and rethink priorities. And especially learn to say no. He's so eager to help everyone that he won't say no to anyone, forgetting that the day only has 24 hours. But he will learn these things too and here Daria, with the knowledge she has gained in college, on scholarships abroad and now on her Master's degree, will certainly be of help.

But Cristian's greatest asset is his belief that he can solve any problem and do any project on CNC or laser. He knows very well what he knows and especially that, if he doesn't know, he will learn, search and try until he gets it. In my opinion this is their most precious asset: the belief that you can do anything, that nothing can stop you.

Good luck Azughia Woodworking!