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 a 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 technical and product design knowledge and created Azughia Woodworking. About Cristian's great passion for CNC 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 in skill" and a great passion for technology and automation

I met Cristian at the resort and we walked up to the workshop together. The conversation started quickly, especially since we remembered that we had met in 2017 at the fair BIFE SIM, where she had come with Daria to meet us and tell us about the Start-Up Nation project she had submitted two months ago. They were going to make decorative panels made on CNC and using lasers. 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 to his father, from whom he inherited his technical inclination. His high school principal once told him that if a grade were given for "skill" he would definitely get an A.

Also in high school he saw his first CNC in practice at the Fine Mechanics in Sinaia. It was love at first sight, and he immediately became passionate about automation. He attended the Transilvania University of Brasov, where he graduated in 1991. But it was exactly the period after the Revolution when factories were slowly disappearing. In 1989 there were over 9,000 jobs in Azuga in various industries, now there are only 700-800. So he had to "orient himself" and started with an auto workshop, then in 2002 he continued with a construction company, together with a friend, and after that, for a while, he worked in Belgium in construction on the plumbing side.

Scholarship in Spain, the 3D printer and the 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 in Spain where she studied 3D printer design. For this project, Cristian bought a 3D printer kit which he built and tuned himself. As it overlapped perfectly with his passion, this was followed by the purchase of 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.

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

How the idea of applying to the Start-Up Nation programme came about

After returning to the country he built two more CNCs and a laser. All with materials and equipment ordered online from Germany and China. He did all sorts of work on them - odd jobs 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. That's how the idea of a business with Daria was born. She was going to be in charge of the creative side, and he of the production. It was 2017, just as the Start-Up Nation programme was being launched. Daria came up with the idea of CNC-made decorative panels. She was nearing the end of college and in the meantime had finished another 4-month fellowship in Ireland, so her knowledge bag was getting "heavier". In May 2017, Daria set up Azughia Woodworking SRL-D, the company in whose name the Start-Up Nation project was submitted. On this occasion I 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, which 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 to build the website. With salaries, rent and utilities they decided to go it alone, considering the other purchases more important.

Moments of hesitation have lengthened the machinery procurement process a bit

Just when it seemed that everything was going according to plan and the funding contract was to be signed, Daria hesitated. She was responsible for the whole project and it scared her at first. Not wanting to burden her with so much responsibility, Cristian decided to stop. Fortunately, 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 for a few months and the funding contract was signed in March 2018. The money became available in June after approval came from the Guarantee Fund and Counter Guarantee Fund.

But another problem has arisen. The project was submitted with a spending plan based on bids from China. Positive experience with Chinese suppliers when he built the CNCs made him initially choose this direction. But customs and transport costs, as well as a lack of technical assistance, made him change strategy and look for machine suppliers in the country.

He spoke to a few well-known firms at the fair, but they couldn't come up with the amount. He also contacted Dan Pruteanu from Wood IQ, whom she had also met at BIFE SIM in 2017. As they are both passionate about CNCs, 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 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 the opinions are not always good. I know him to be professional, passionate about CNCs and honest and his opinion really mattered to me. He said that Wood IQ does not buy and sell machines from China but makes them together with a Chinese partner in the industrial area. For each model there is a specification with details down to the size, shape and number of screws and number of welding spots. There is a person in the factory, paid by both sides, who checks every stage of production. The machine is tested before it leaves the factory and in Romania it first arrives in Comanești where it is tested again. Only then does it reach the customer.

In June 2018 CNC model 1325 PRO and the Model 1610 CNC Laser were ordered in China. He agreed with Dan Pruteanu that the machines would be paid for on delivery which also saved him 3 months interest. The machines arrived in September and a nervous little tour de force ensued because the reimbursement claim had to be submitted by 29 September. They managed to submit the application 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 wasn't easy and they invested some of their own money. Cristian says personal money was needed to set up the company, pay interest and the guarantee fund fee, and support salaries. There are two employees in the company, him and someone else. He was lucky with the rent because the space is rented from a very good friend, but he still needed about 3000 euros of his own funds.

But now he is satisfied and already has orders for CNC work. And he's happy. Watching him work, you get the feeling he's a child with his favourite toys. He knows a lot about the machines and explains everything about their operation with great pleasure. Now he collaborates with a design company in Brasov for which he makes custom 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 he bought has 150 W. He explained to me the whole operating process with mechanical details, details about the beam formation, about the mirrors that deflect it to the panel ready for engraving and cutting, about the cooling system.

But they haven't ventured too far with advertising in this area because they're still in their infancy and orders for billboards are taking up all their time. But he's very pleased with what he can do with the laser, and he was keen to prove it with a gift he made on the spot: a plywood maquette for Wood Magazine.

"I don't think there's anything technical I can't do, and if I can't, I'll beat my head in 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 as well as themselves. Cristian wants Daria to be the pattern maker and the interface with customers and he wants to work in the workshop. He says he can be there from morning to night and I believe him because the joy that place gives him is obvious.

He admits that he still has a lot to learn about the business itself. He needs to move from hobby to business and to do that he needs to get a bit more organised and rethink his priorities. And above all, learn to say "no". He is so eager to help everyone that he doesn't say no to anyone, forgetting that the day has only 24 hours. But he will learn these things too and here Daria, with the knowledge she gained in college, on scholarships abroad and now on her Master's degree, will definitely help.

But Cristian's greatest strength 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 if he doesn't know, he will learn, search and try until he gets the hang of it. In my opinion this is their most valuable asset: the belief that you can do anything, that nothing can stop you in your tracks.

Good luck Azughia Woodworking!