Bridge saw, waterjet, CNC and sawjet: the machines of a US countertop shop

How to move a granite slab (and why it stays on edge)

Slabs travel and live on their edge, almost never flat. And the first thing you learn is that stone is strong in compression and weak in bending, so you keep it standing and supported until the machine takes it.

• A big slab laid flat and unsupported can crack under its own weight
• They ride in on A-frame trailers and get stored on A-frame racks that lean the stone slightly back so gravity holds it
• Bundles come off the truck strapped to their shipping A-frame; a forklift or side-loader pulls the whole rack off, or lifts slabs down one at a time

The lifting gear

• Forklifts do the heavy yard and truck work; side-loaders (Combilift style, forks off the side) carry a wide bundle down a narrow aisle without swinging it around
• Standard counterbalance forklifts (Toyota) show up too, usually fitted with a boom or a slab rack attachment
• Overhead gantry and jib cranes lift slabs off storage onto the bridge saw, running on a trolley so one person can walk a slab across the shop
• Hanging off the crane are the gripping tools: vacuum lifters and mechanical clamps

Vacuum vs clamp

• A vacuum lifter, such as Wood's Powr-Grip, uses a powered pump and rubber pads to grip the polished face. Before every lift, check the seal, battery charge and gauge, and listen for the slip alarm.
• Mechanical clamps and grabs (Abaco, Aardwolf, Groves) are a scissor-style jaw that bites harder the more weight hangs from it; they need no vacuum or battery and tolerate a rough or dusty surface, which makes them the reliable backup and the go-to for rougher stock
• Those same brands make the A-frames, dollies, and carts the whole system rides on

Who runs it: and how you move up

Slab handling is a common starting point for helpers. A year of careful handling can teach you how stone behaves and where it is vulnerable. That experience supports a move into sawing, fabrication or installation.

• Day one: spot a slab that isn't seated right, keep your hands and feet out of the pinch line, and never stand where a slab would fall
• Next: sling and balance a slab so it hangs level on the crane, and read a vacuum gauge and trust it
• Then: walk a big piece through a tight shop without clipping a corner
• Eventually: run the forklift and load a truck so the delivery crew can strap and go

How it works

The templater carries it into the kitchen once the cabinets are set and leveled, and captures the exact shape of every countertop surface as a digital file. It replaces the old physical pattern with a coordinate file that lands on the programmer's screen the same day.

• The old way: strips of luan, hardboard, or corrugated plastic cut to fit and hot-glued into a full-size skeleton, then hauled back to trace onto the slab
• That pattern could rack out of shape in the truck, ate an hour of gluing per job, and only captured what you thought to build
• The digital file carries the outline plus wall angles, backsplash heights, appliance openings, and how far out of level the cabinets sit

Laser vs stylus

There are two dominant approaches, and most shops commit to one.

• Laser (Laser Products Industries LT-2D3D, or the older LT-55): a tripod unit aims a laser at each point, using reflective targets where needed, and stitches them into the template; the 2D3D name is its trick of capturing both the flat top and the vertical world around it
• Stylus digitizer (Prodim Proliner): you touch a tethered pen to each point corner by corner, and the unit records the 3D coordinate of every touch
• Laser is fast in open, line-of-sight rooms; the stylus shines where you must reach into tight spots, around a finished island, or trace an odd radius the laser can't see cleanly

In the shop flow

On site the operator translates a real, imperfect room into a clean file the shop can trust.

• Capture the perimeter, mark the sink and faucet holes, note the cooktop cutout, set the overhang past the cabinet face, and flag anything the drawings missed
• The file exports to programming and nesting, where a programmer lays the pieces on the actual slab to fit the veining and place the seams, then sends the cuts to the bridge saw and CNC router
• The templater decides, right there in the kitchen, where a seam falls, whether one piece can make the turn, and how a 2cm or 3cm top changes edge buildup and overhang
• A template error carries through to the cut file. Check the dimensions before cutting because removed stone cannot be replaced.

Who runs it and how you move up

Shop veterans say the device takes about a week to operate and the room takes years to read.

• The device controls can be learned within days, while assessing site conditions takes more experience.
• Walls are never truly square and floors never truly flat, so you learn to feel where a top will bind, where a corner needs relief, and how much reveal to leave around an undermount sink
• Learn how lighting affects seam visibility and which measurements need particular care to ensure the finished pieces fit.
• The operator still needs to assess the room, which is why templating stays a skilled hands-on role even as the file goes fully digital

How it works

The workflow runs on screen, and the layout it produces drives the machines downstream:

• A slab goes in front of the imaging station's camera; the software stitches and calibrates a flat, measured photo you can trust for dimensions, not just look
• That image lives in a digital library, so a programmer can lay out a job against slabs still racked in the yard, or even at another location
• On screen you drag part shapes onto the photo, rotate and nudge them to catch the best of the pattern, and line the vein up across a seam
• You steer flaws or resin spots into a sink cutout or a drop where nobody will see them
• Once it's dialed in, that layout drives the saw and CNC. Pieces come off already vein-matched, and you cut once instead of guessing

The problem it solves

Natural stone and many patterned quartz designs aren't uniform. The movement, veins and color run across the slab and change from one end to the other. When you build a kitchen out of several pieces, you want the vein to flow from the countertop up the backsplash and across a seam so the eye reads two pieces as one. The old way is to walk the slab, chalk your parts on by hand, and check the layout visually. This works, but it's slow, it ties up floor space, and a mistake doesn't show up until the saw has already cut it. Slab imaging lets the team review the layout on screen.

The system to know

• Slabsmith is one of the established digital slab-imaging and layout systems in US shops; we name it because the trade uses it as shorthand for this station, not as an endorsement. It was developed by Northwood Designs, so you'll often see it sold and supported alongside their saws and CNC routers
• A full setup is usually a fixed imaging station with controlled lighting and a mounted camera, feeding a software workstation at the programmer's desk
• Some shops also use it as a live inventory system, tracking which slabs are on hand and how much usable area is left after a job
• Treat any specific package or bundle names as things to confirm with the vendor rather than assume

Who runs it: and how you move up

Digital vein matching makes layouts easier to repeat and can reduce remakes and material waste. Programmers benefit from learning these systems. Fabricators and installers also need to understand the approved layout because it determines how the pieces will join on site.

How a bridge saw works

• A circular diamond blade, commonly about 14 to 24 inches across, spins on a motorized head that hangs from a bridge, or gantry, running the length of the machine.
• The head travels side to side and front to back over the slab and lowers the blade to cut, while the slab sits on a steel table.
• On most saws the table tilts up toward vertical so you can load a heavy slab with a vacuum lifter, and the head rotates 90 degrees to make both long rip cuts and cross cuts without moving the stone.
• Water runs on the blade the whole time to cool it and knock down the slurry, so it is a wet, loud machine, and keeping the water and extraction running is part of ordinary cutting.
• Unlike the old hand-guided rail saws still found in some shops, a modern bridge saw is programmable: you tell it where the cuts go and it drives itself.

In the shop flow

The saw sits right after templating and programming. The field crew brings back the template, someone nests the parts, laying the pieces out on a digital picture of the actual slab to dodge cracks, pits, and bad color and to line the veining up the way the customer will see it, and then that layout goes to the saw.

• Its job is the rough work: cutting the outside perimeter, ripping the slab into manageable blanks, squaring things up.
• It can plunge-cut straight-sided openings like a cooktop or a drop-in sink.
• Finished profiled work: a polished undermount edge, curves, tight inside corners: goes to the CNC router, or the waterjet, followed by edge polishing, QC and dry-fit, and install.
• On straightforward square work a good sawyer can take a piece nearly to finished size on the saw alone, keeping the CNC free for the fussier cutouts and profiling.

3-axis vs 5-axis

• A 3-axis saw moves the blade left-right, front-back, and up-down; the blade stays vertical, so every cut is a straight, square-through cut, the large majority of countertop work.
• A 5-axis bridge saw, or tilting-head saw, adds the ability to swing and tilt the blade, which lets it cut a 45-degree miter directly on the machine.
• Miters build a waterfall end, where the grain appears to pour off the edge of an island and continue down the leg, and a mitered built-up edge that reads as a thick 4cm or 6cm slab from two folded pieces of 2cm or 3cm.
• On a 3-axis saw those miters get cut by hand or on the CNC; on a 5-axis saw the sawyer programs them into the same run.
• Some shops go further with a sawjet, which pairs the saw blade with a waterjet head so it can also cut curves and inside corners; Park Industries builds one, and it lives in the same corner of the shop even though it is a different tool.

Who runs it, and moving up

Bridge saw responsibilities vary. Some operators load slabs, run prepared cut files and unload parts. Others also plan and program the cuts. Check which responsibilities a role includes.

• Read the slab: shift and rotate every part so the vein carries across a seam and the busy blotch lands under the sink instead of dead center on the island.
• Squeeze an extra top out of the square footage before you cut anything.
• Learn how blade speed and feed change with a soft marble versus a hard quartzite, when to slow down to keep from chipping a brittle edge, and how to leave the right amount of material for the polisher.
• Learning to run the saw takes weeks; learning to program it so you waste less stone and fight fewer problems at install takes years, and it is one of the clearest ways to move up on the shop floor.

How the jet cuts

A pump pressurizes water to an extreme level and forces it through a tiny orifice; garnet abrasive is pulled into the stream inside the cutting head. What comes out is a fast, focused jet that erodes through stone.

• Cuts granite, quartz, quartzite, marble, or porcelain
• The narrow kerf holds much tighter internal radii than a saw, with no overcut at an inside corner
• Reach for it on a tight inside corner, a sweeping curve, a keyhole, or a decorative inlay of one stone set into another
• A bridge saw cuts fast in straight lines; a waterjet cuts almost any 2D shape, just more slowly

Where it sits in the flow

Field measurements come off a template job, the program gets drawn and nested on the slab (often over a photo of the actual slab so the operator can dodge cracks and place the veining where the customer will see it), and then the cutting happens.

• In many modern shops the waterjet does the rough cut-out and the CNC router follows behind to profile and polish the edge
• The waterjet's advantage is the cutout and the shape; the router's is the edge profile and the polish
• Knowing which machine should do which part of a piece is part of the operator's skill

The sawjet hybrid

The very common hybrid worth knowing is the sawjet: a single bridge machine that carries both a saw blade and a waterjet head.

• The blade rips the long straight cuts fast; the jet handles corners, curves, and cutouts without moving the slab to a second table
• Often the answer for a shop that wants waterjet capability without giving up saw speed
• Park Industries and BACA Systems build sawjets aimed at the countertop trade; Flow, OMAX, WARDJet, and Techni Waterjet come from the broader industrial waterjet world

Who runs it: and how you move up

Dedicated waterjets are less common than bridge saws, so experienced operators can be harder to find. Reliable operation still depends on the person’s setup, programming and maintenance skills.

• Manages the garnet feed and keeps the orifice and mixing tube in spec. Those are wear parts that drift as they wear
• Sets the right cut speed for the material and thickness; slabs run 2cm and 3cm and the jet behaves differently through each
• Knows when to slow the jet for a clean edge versus push it to save time
• It runs wet, so water handling and keeping the tank and abrasive system healthy is part of the daily routine

How it cuts

The sawjet puts both heads on the same bridge, and each does what it's best at.

• The blade does long straight rips at speed.
• A blade can plunge into a slab, but its diameter leaves an overcut at inside corners and can't follow a curve or tight radius.
• The waterjet plunges straight down through the stone and follows any curve the program draws, so enclosed cutouts and curved edges come out clean.

Where it sits

Cutting comes after the field templater brings back the digital template and someone programs and nests the parts on the slab; the material gets cut before it goes to the CNC router for edge profiling and final cutouts. The combined machine earns its keep mainly on handling and floor space.

• The slab is set once and both operations run off the same program and the same zero point.
• Parts come off cut to the programmed geometry, ready for the CNC router or straight to edge polish.
• It avoids the two setups, two chances to crack a piece in the move, and two machines eating floor.
• Suits a shop that values one setup and a smaller footprint; larger operations sometimes still run saw and waterjet separate so each stays busy on its own queue.

Saw vs jet

• The waterjet drives a very high-pressure stream of water mixed with garnet abrasive through a small nozzle; the abrasive slurry erodes the stone.
• It cuts granite, quartzite, porcelain, and quartz surfacing cleanly, without the chipping a blade can give on a brittle edge.
• Narrow and cutting cold, it holds a tight inside radius and nests parts close together to save material on an expensive slab.
• The tradeoff is speed: the jet is slower than the blade on a long straight line and burns garnet, a consumable.
• A good operator plays to each head, blade for the perimeter rips, jet for the cutouts and curves.

Who runs it, and how you move up

These run under CAD/CAM software, so the operator's day is part programming and part material handling: lay out the parts on a photo or scan of the actual slab to dodge fissures and place the veining, set the blade cuts and jet paths, load the slab, and let the bridge run. Most cutting is done wet.

• Start on the saw side and on loading and unloading slabs.
• Learn to read a slab and nest parts without wasting material.
• Grow into running the waterjet programs and tuning cut speeds.
• A strong rung toward full CNC work, because the programming habits carry straight over to the router.

What it does

It does nearly everything that turns a rough blank into a finished-looking countertop, then polishes it. It's a wet machine. Water feeds the tools to keep them cool and knock down dust, usually paired with extraction, and that spray-and-slurry is just ordinary shop practice.

• Runs the edge profile: eased, bullnose, ogee, mitered edges
• Bores the holes for the faucet and soap dispenser
• Plunges and cuts the sink and cooktop openings
• Machines radius corners; on farmhouse or drainboard jobs, cuts the flutes and reveals
• Runs polishing passes with progressively finer wheels until the edge shines

Where it sits

A crew templates the job in the field, someone back at the shop turns that template into a program and nests the parts on the slab, and the bridge saw rips the blanks to rough size. Those blanks land on the CNC. On most floors it is often the busiest machine in the building.

3-axis vs 5-axis

The stone is held on vacuum pods or a vacuum bed with rubber-topped cups you position under the part so the machine can lift at the far end without the piece shifting. Setting those pods so they clear the toolpath and never sit where a cutout drops out is a task requiring care. Incorrect positioning can crack the piece or cause a tool collision. Most shops running 2cm and 3cm quartz and natural stone use the machine extensively, because the repeatability beats hand-routing every edge.

• 3-axis moves the spindle in X, Y, and Z and covers most flat-top work
• 5-axis tilts and swivels the head for mitered edges, angled undermount reveals, and any profile that isn't straight up and down; it does in one setup what a 3-axis would need multiple flips and hand-finishing to complete

Who runs it: and how you move up

A CNC operator’s responsibilities depend on the shop. Some read the template, build and nest programs, and choose tooling, feed rates and speeds. Others load parts, set the vacuum pods and run programs prepared in the office. Ask who handles programming and setup so you understand the role. Learning to program expands the work you can take on.

• Start: loading, setting pods, changing worn tooling, watching cycles for a dragging tool or a chattering part
• Next: editing a program at the machine: nudge an offset, tweak a dull polish pass, reorder cuts so a fragile corner is supported until last
• Above that: nesting whole jobs to save material and dodge fissures, dialing feeds and speeds per material, and building the mitered and drainboard programs a loader never touches

How it works

Picture a conveyor with a gang of tooling heads mounted over it. The slab piece rides a belt or driven pads, clamped square against a fence, and moves through at a set feed rate. Water floods every head to cool the diamond and carry the slurry away.

• A series of overhead diamond wheels step from coarse to fine
• First heads hog off material and establish the edge shape
• Middle heads refine it
• Last heads bring up the gloss with resin-bond polishing wheels
• The shaped wheels and their dressing determine the profile, such as pencil-round, half-bullnose, eased square or bevel.

Where it sits in the flow

The line polisher finishes straight outside edges after the bridge saw has cut the piece to size and the CNC has handled cutouts and inside corners. Automating long, straight runs leaves the crew more time for details that need hand finishing.

• Can't reach into an inside corner
• Can't follow an edge that curves in plan
• Can't profile around a cutout
• Those still get finished by hand or on a CNC edge-profiling head
• Big win on an island with four long straight sides; less so on a fussy piece with curves and returns

Basic vs programmable

Machine configurations vary. Thickness is part of setup, too: a shop running 2cm and 3cm material sets the heads for the stock being processed.

• A basic straight-line polisher does one flat edge and leaves the operator an unfinished top and bottom arris to knock off
• A fuller machine adds chamfering heads that ease the top and bottom edges in the same pass
• Higher-end lines are effectively programmable: select a profile, dial in the thickness, and the heads position themselves
• Quartz is engineered and behaves predictably; quartzite is natural stone with harder, variable grain
• A good operator adjusts feed speed and reads the polish off the last head rather than trusting one setting

Who runs it: and how you move up

Machine polishing and hand polishing require different experience. A highly automated shop may give workers fewer opportunities to develop hand-finishing skills. Matching a hand-polished return to a machine-polished run, or repairing a damaged edge, takes practice. Machine operation can be learned relatively quickly; consistent hand finishing develops over years.

How the line works

A slab travels on a conveyor under a row of gang heads or spindles, each carrying an abrasive or diamond tooling segment that takes down the high spots until the whole face sits at one thickness.

• First heads are aggressive calibrating segments that hog off material
• Later heads step down through finer grits, leaving a raw flat surface ready for further work or a honed/polished finish depending on setup
• The slab is referenced off the bed and pulled through at a set feed rate, so output is flat and dimensionally consistent within tolerance
• Many lines run wet with water over the heads, ordinary practice for this grinding

Why slabs get calibrated

Raw material is not perfectly uniform, so the line brings every slab in a lot to the same nominal thickness and a flat plane before anyone polishes or fabricates it.

• A block sawn on a gangsaw or wire yields raw slabs that vary in thickness and can have saw marks or a slightly cupped face
• A bridge saw and a CNC both assume a known, even thickness, and edge polishing looks even only if the referenced face is flat
• In quartz and engineered-surface production it is even more central: the slab comes out of the press slightly oversize, and the line establishes the finished thickness and gauged surface

Where it sits in the flow

• Upstream prep, not part of the day-to-day shop cycle of template, program, cut, profile, polish, install
• Most shops buy slabs already calibrated and polished by the quarry, engineered-stone plant, or distributor, and never touch a line
• The machines are big, occupy a long run of floor, and are fed by overhead cranes and slab handling, so they live in slab plants, large importers, and bigger vertically-integrated fabricators
• The takeaway is to recognize the term: it describes how a slab got flat and gauged before it reached your saw

Who runs it: and how you move up

Running a line is a slab-plant or production operator job that leans toward heavy-machine and production discipline rather than the layout, math, and finish judgment a shop builds. It is worth knowing the role exists, but it is not the path most people take into countertop fabrication.

• Loading and unloading with cranes and clamps
• Watching head wear and swapping abrasive segments
• Dialing in feed rate and head pressure for the material
• Checking thickness with calipers or gauges as slabs come off

How to polish granite edges by hand

The workhorse is the variable-speed wet polisher, a right-angle, grinder-style tool with water fed through the center to a hook-and-loop backing pad. You run a progression of diamond pads to bring the stone back to the same sheen as the factory-finished face of the slab.

• Start coarse and step up through the grits until it matches the factory-finished face
• A common wet-polishing set has seven grits: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500 and 3000, often followed by a buff.
• On granite or quartzite the goal is a high polish; on a honed or leathered finish you match a softer, low-gloss surface
• Variable speed matters: slow down for fine pads and delicate edges, speed up for stock removal

The grinder and holes

Alongside the polisher sits the angle grinder, run dry or wet with a turbo or segmented diamond blade for fast, material removal, such as trimming an overhang, knocking down a high spot, cutting a relief before you clean it up wet. It takes a steady hand, so new workers need practice before working on a finished edge.

• Faucet and soap-dispenser holes are cut with diamond core bits or hole saws in a wet-capable drill
• Drill wet, often at a slight angle to start so the bit doesn't wander, then bring it vertical
• To avoid blowouts on the underside, ease off as the bit breaks through, or back-drill from beneath

Edges by hand

Hand routers and profile wheels shape and touch up an edge. A profile, such as an eased edge, bevel, bullnose or ogee, might be cut on the CNC for a long straight run, but the router and shaped diamond wheel carry that same profile around a radius, into a corner, or across a seam so the edge reads as one continuous line. This takes practice: matching a machine-cut profile by feel so a customer can run a finger along the joint and not catch it. The same tools handle repairs and touch-ups when a chip shows up during install.

Dust, water, and moving up

Dust extraction ties the kit together. Most of this work is done wet because water cools the diamonds, extending tool life and improving cut quality, and keeps dust down, whether in the shop or standing in someone's kitchen on install day.

• Shop: water lines run to the tools and slurry drains to a settling system
• Field: a wet setup, or a grinder paired with a shrouded guard and a vacuum
• Skill ladder runs from grinder and blockout work, up to drilling holes and running a polisher on flat faces, and finally to the finish work on seams, inside corners and finished edges that a lead fabricator owns, because a mistake there shows on the customer's counter

Pull and level

A seam setter pulls the pieces together and levels their surfaces. Both adjustments matter.

• The threaded rod or ratchet pulls the pieces together, closes the gap and squeezes adhesive out so the joint reads as a hairline.
• Level is the harder half: lippage, one side sitting proud of the other. Even 2cm or 3cm slabs off the same saw can sit at different heights on cabinets that aren't level, and a seam you can catch with a fingernail is a callback waiting to happen.
• Better setters have independent up-and-down leveling at each pad, so you can nudge one piece into the same plane as its neighbor before the glue sets.
• On stone with a lot of movement or a busy pattern, you're also lining up veins and color across the joint. The goal is a tight, flush, well-matched joint.

On install day

By the time a seam setter comes out, the field template has been shot, the pieces cut on the bridge saw and profiled on the CNC, the edges polished, and the crew is dry-fitting two sections that meet at a seam. It's an install-day tool, not a shop machine. The run of the job goes:

• Clean and dry both edges, then lay your color-matched seam adhesive.
• Set the vacuum pads on each piece and pump them to grip.
• Work the draw mechanism to close the gap and the leveling screws to bring both surfaces into one plane.
• Hold it, tool the squeeze-out, let it kick, pop the pads, and move on.
• A good crew makes it look quick because they've done it a thousand times.

Flavors of setter

Setters come in a few flavors, and shops pair them with the rest of the install kit.

• The simplest are two vacuum cups with a screw that pulls them together: light, cheap, fine for a short seam.
• The workhorses add leveling and a longer reach so you can span a wide miter or an island seam.
• Vacuum can be hand-pump or, on some rigs, powered; the pads are a wear item you keep clean and check for a good bite before you trust them on an overhang.
• Pair it with leveling shims under the cabinets, a straightedge across the joint, and a color-matched two-part adhesive mixed and tinted to the stone. The setter holds the geometry; the adhesive holds the bond.

Who runs it: and how you move up

The skill ladder here is short but real.

• On your first installs you run the setter under supervision, learning how hard to pump the vacuum, how much to close before you crush the adhesive, and how to read the joint with your fingers and a raking light instead of just your eyes.
• Within a season most installers own the seam completely: choosing where it falls back during templating so it lands somewhere forgiving, prepping edges so they mate clean, and leveling by feel.
• A well-finished seam is tight, level and consistent in color. Check all three before completing the installation.

How the loop works

Cutting and grinding stone wet produces a steady stream of gray, gritty water, a mixture of water and a fine suspension of powdered stone the trade calls slurry. That slurry can't just go down a drain: it settles into a rock-hard sludge that blocks pipes, and most sewer authorities won't accept it. So a wet shop either hauls water in and out constantly, or it closes the loop with a reclaim system:

• The machines drain into a channel or pit in the floor
• The water is pumped through the reclaim gear
• The solids are separated out
• The cleaned water goes back to a holding tank the machines pull from again

Settling vs filter press

There are two common approaches, and shops often combine them:

• Settling system (the simple version): pits or tanks where the water slows enough for heavy stone fines to sink, usually helped by a flocculant, a treatment chemical dosed in to clump the finest particles so they settle too. Clarified water off the top gets recycled; sludge at the bottom gets dug or pumped out periodically.
• Filter press (the automated version): squeezes the collected slurry between plates until it comes out as dry, stackable cake you can throw in a dumpster, and returns even cleaner water to the loop.
• Bigger shops run a full clarifier-and-press setup; smaller shops run settling tanks and shovel the pit.

Where it sits

Water reclaim supports wet cutting and polishing throughout the shop. If the system clogs or too many fine particles remain in the recycled water, cooling and finish quality can suffer. Regular maintenance keeps settling and filtration working and helps protect tooling across the shop.

What a learner carries

• Slurry is not just dirty water but a disposal responsibility
• The fines have to come out or they wreck your finish
• Maintain the reclaim system by cleaning pits, dosing flocculant and emptying the press. This supports clean cutting across the shop.
• Water cools diamond tooling and controls dust. The reclaim system makes it practical to keep water flowing through the shop throughout the day.