Square Corners + Rant

Dont forget my friends, the standard Bridgeport and all it's knock
offs are 6 AXIS machines. If you look around long enough you will find
some outrageous, amazing work being done without CNC.
A good friend of mine (when I was a fledgeling engineer) was shop
steward of a machine shop at a plant that employed 10,000 people. It
was his firm belief that CNC should NEVER be used by inexperienced
machinists as it is the quickest way to dull their skills.
Many of the local shops in my town are complaining about the
vocational schools turning out "Machine Operators", not Machinists. In
fact one of my good aquaintances was "asked to leave" a school planning
session because he refused to endorse the purchase of new CNC equipment
(200K).
I am not knocking the new stuff, I love Mechatronics - it is the New
Fronteer.
My point? Don't sluff off learning the basics. The building is
only as strong as the foundation.
Peace

P.S. Lindsay is an indispensible resource even though it has been
mentioned a couple of times. www.lindsaybks.com