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Are we drifting off topic?
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& I apologize for that. But if we can not compete globally unless we continue to adapt to, embrace, & drive progression.
Are we drifting off topic?
to jump on target.....
we have this same situation in the jewelery industry as well.
You have on person who is a gold smith and makes everything by hand. Now we have the CNC boom. Where the model is designed on the computer and a wax model is cut on the cnc mill. Or even grown.
I hear from the first guy all the time that it is cheating and not "HAND MADE"
The truth of the matter is that it takes just about the same amount of time to CAD the model. Setup the machine, mill the wax, cast then finish. How can it not be hand made? It was my hands that used the CAD, it was my hands that toolpathed it. Sure I had a machine cut the wax and add features that you CANNOT do by hand.
The OCC part may have been a great idea but implemented in a way that did not suit the final design. We have all done this. Had a great idea but after its done..... ehhh doesnt look right.
I personally like the idea of Paul taking a new approach to his builds. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.
What is bad about loving machines and even for the hobbiest in the machining world, is that we look at things not for WHAT they are, but in a manufacturing stand point. I look at jewelry products in the "How is that made" point of view. Granted Im no jeweler. But I do play with designing and cnc the wax.
OCC's bike are are basically all the same build with very little changed except some minor fancy bits added,take away the fancy bits and you have identicle frames,engines,mudguards,handlebars.
And that Snr blokey is completely off his cake,what sorta bloke goes and trashes his station wagon just because he got the hump.
I'm late to this conversation, but here's my 2 cents: CNC is cheating, and that is precisely why I bought one. Not building it yourself is cheating too, and that is why I bought one already built. But at the auction, I couldn't be sure if the control was working or if it needed retrofitting, so I bid accordingly (and I guess so did everybody else). So because I bid as though the CNC needed to be retrofitted, then it's not cheating because I got myself a deal.
About a month after a successful heart procedure, I was really glad to be alive and have full oxygen to the head and stuff. My way of celebrating this was to swap my manual machine that I wasn't too good at using, for a CNC machine (for a difference in price similar to that of an iPad).
I'm really cheating because I bought the second one I looked at, and it was only about 6 miles or so from my house.
But for all this cheating, yes I envy people who are truly skilled machinists. My guess is that I will never be a truly skilled machinist compared to someone who has done it for a living. But I hope that someday I'll be able to type G-Code as easily as C Code.
One of the recent posts I read here recommended reading the CNC Programming Handbook by Peter Smid, so that's what I'm doing.
I like this post, because I think I get the same feeling when I look at a fancy modern car, they just leave me cold compared to a 68 Dodge Charger or a 65 GTO or a Chevy II with a six popper in it.
Bridgeport Interact 1 Mk2 Heidenhain TNC 155b
It's only real metal working if you use a hammer, chisel and file.
And American Chopper is a soap opera.
Today I asked an expert to get resolution to this question.
She said if you look, that's not cheating.
If you stop and stare,.. that's cheating.
Unless you are wearing sunglasses.
Let me clarify my own response, Cheating is not really the proper phrase here, I am a truck driver by trade, I write some computer programs on the occasion, I build CNC machines in my shop, (don't know why, they are just cool), I love woodworking, etc. When someone calls me a programer, because I wrote software, I don't accept that as accurate either, I don't tell them that. But I have great respect for the minds that create Visual Studio, that allow people like me to "create" my vision. All of this discussion is about tools, and how we use them, just because I have created something on my CNC machine doesn't mean "anybody" could do that, because not just "anybody" can. I also collect old educational material, tools, books, slide rules etc. because it gives me great respect for the "old timers" that did amazing things without all the cool stuff we have today, these were and are some very bright people, and I respect that. Having said all that, I still take my greatest pleasure from something that I created, with my hands, from my "vision". When I design something in Alibre, not just anyone can do that, when I machine it, not just anyone can do that, when it all fits and works and functions together the way it should, not just anyone can do that.....I feel good. And that is all that really matters.
I think there is a misconception that CNC is a magic replicator that turns drawings into parts at the push of a button.
To an extent, I even believed it would be like that until I converted and tried using a mill.
CNC is just as hard as manual machining, just in a different way.
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