Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Names

Fred Smith wrote:

> I stand by my statement that the best way to machine a single
> part is OFTEN and USUALLY by turning the cranks. As I pointed out in
> my talk, there are indeed shapes and contours that can more
> efficiently be machined with CNC. There are however those that are
> not best done that way.

As someone that makes his living making parts for others in qty. from 1
to several hundred, I can second this. By the time I've created
geometry, run it through CAM, cleaned up the code, transferred to the
computer running my MAX, proofed the program (visual run-through for
errant moves), and set up the part and tool offset(s), I can often be
done and on to the next part by being clever with manual setups.
Pretty complex work can be done quickly without CNC, but it takes quite
a base of previous experience and some cleverness to do it.
I would lump home brew CNC users into three categories:

#1, small commerical shops like myself, still too small and struggling
to justify a commercial CNC machine,
#2, folks that use CNC to supplement their limited experience with
manual setups,
#3, folks that just have a facination with CNC and don't really care how
inefficient it is to program/setup/run a single part. Sort of the
kit-plane builders of the machining world....

Of course most of us here really fit into more than one. Myself, I'm a
#1 with significant traces of #3.
When time is money, not relaxation, you take the fastest path,
regardless of which "religion" that entials.


Jon