Is the same thing that I love about computers in general. I can program a computer to do something that I want, automatically, and to run unattended.
With this CNC mill, too, I do not even care too much how long a job would take. I just program it, double check that all the rapids are in the areas that are milled out, start the job and walk away to do something else. I somewhat watch the progress through a netcam, with one eye.
This is just so awesome, to have a mill do my job, precisely the same way every time.
Ignoramus30447 fired this volley in news:SOOdnb7YSOmFlfXQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
It's also fun to "cross over".
I have a friend with a large-format CNC router. In seven years of producing parts on it, he's never learned to design those parts himself. Instead, he pays a programmer 100 miles away $30.00 per hour to do that.
The other day, I had a large plywood "slot box" project to do. So I designed the parts, CAD'd it out, and took the gcode and plywood over to his shop.
He warned me that they call the machine "Christine", because "it does whatever it wants to do when it feels like doing it. It cuts whatever was designed last first, then works back in reverse order, no matter how you lay out the cuts."
HUH? I asked, "How would it know anything about my CAD files? I'm only supplying the gcode?" He told me to "just watch", and we started the run.
OF COURSE, it cut the sheet just the way I had optimized the toolpaths, and he was pissed. He accused me of delicately designing the whole sheet in that cut order...
I used the same inexpensive CAM software (CAMBAM), that I use for my WAL- E (R2E4). Writing a post-processor for his machine was a lead pipe cinch. (ShopSabre 9648)
One of the guys I got a machine from could sit back in a lazy boy chair with a wireless keyboard and program looking at a projection screen and the machine would start up in the garage.
I wish I had the training, that would be cool. plus with CNC you don't have to locate each cut, that would be perfect for making duplicate parts. Someday I need to pay someone to make me some chess board pieces that are blank and generic so that I can customize them with manual machines. That way all the pawns and other matching pieces would be at least from the same stock size. Probably still cost a mint for the programming, stock, shipping, and a big hour on the CNC lathe.
The technology is great for you and I now, but the problem is that as machines are able to do more tasks efficiently, there are fewer jobs for humans, thus we have a growing population and a shrinking job market. The idea that everyone will just get better "knowledge economy" jobs is simply absurd. What exactly will happen when machines replace low paid maids and housekeeping jobs? When machines replace migrant farm workers? Can you say mobs of pitchfork wielding peasants demanding jobs and food?
This is a huge concern of mine. I do think that the computer revolution is different from the past manufacturing revolutions, in the sense that smart enough computers simply do not leave room for any work for people with IQ below, say, 90. And as the computers get smarter, the cutoff IQ gets higher and higher, displacing more and more people.
Ignoramus30447 fired this volley in news:lpSdnYPAiak3gPXQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
I'm not that concerned. I'm in a highly "manual" business. But besides that, let's take those slot boxes as an example.
It took about 40 minutes per sheet to do the cutting -- more accurately, and better in terms of fit and finish than a human operator could have without spending 10 or 15 hours to do it. So, there's (say) 9 hours of lost labor for one _highly_skilled_ cabinet maker.
BUT... it then takes about four hours of really good quality work to properly assemble one, and I can make more of them. That doesn't cheating the worker, that just increases his productivity. He can make roughly three boxes in the time it took to make one in the past.
Bad? Saying the worker count is now down to one in three? No. I get to sell more. I couldn't afford to make more of them the old way. No budget for space, no budget for additional OSHA crap... I just would employ one worker, and make one every day and a half. If I make three a day, I'm still employing exactly as many people as I would have before.
In the 80's Alvin Toffler made a PBS show (in 3 episodes I think) called The Third Wave. His examples of the premature arrival of the future included a Japanese man who made a living with a CNC machine in his home that made parts for toys while he playd golf. It obviously wasn't his sole income, but now instead of premature it looks like the future is running late.
Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It does decent work.(+) Its base price is fairly low.(+) It looks "shop built".(-) After you add the necessary accessories, like the recommended (no, really necessary) Italian router head, and the 20HP ring compressor vacuum system, you're up around $22K, before you start to acquire things like phase converters, if you don't have 3-phase power.(-)
I am not sure I'd buy one new (guess I would, if I needed it), but I would certainly own one that had been cared for properly at (say) half the new price.
Well, of course when you check, they aren't 'unattended', but unless your kids are ill, they most certainly DO run unattended! Don't you remember YOUR childhood?
We just started running a shop-built computer controlled machine to make wire wheels. It does FIVE times the production of a manual machine (exactly as projected) and we can train operators in less than 10 minutes. (Put part "A" in position "B" and push button "C") The union is upset because running the machine displaces four workers and requires no extraordinary skill or pay level. And, the machine tracks production real-time and is connected to the network so we can see exactly what's going on from the office. (The union hates that too, they say it's an invasion of privacy.)
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