Is CNC cheating

Don't worry. If you're banished to the outer darkness over this I shall start a "Free the Fizzy One" campaign!

Best Wishes,

Dave

Sorry Fizzy if my posting made it appear a bit of a personal issue. I do think that some people do feel threatened by CNC and would feel happier if it was somehow banned from the hobby.

But folks can think what they want, and I'm more concerned that some people don't post their CNC work because they feel it is perceived negatively. I know your approach to welded boilers has generated similar reactions from people who like to see them silver soldered...

As for Curly, he never entered a competition in his life claiming his machines were meant for working not judging although it may have had something to do with his difficulty to accept criticism!.

Neil

Thats where you're wrong duncan, alot of machine shops allow unskilled operators to mind the machines...so what i said still stands, you don't need to understand it. No more than the operators at key cutting services need to understand the cnc, i asked one guy and he said he had no idea, he just puts it in the machine and it does the rest for him. 

With a turn handle you need to count the turns in your own head, you need to know what a decent cut looks and feels like. You don't necessarily need to do any of that with CNC. You can have one skilled guy setting it up and 3 guys minding a fleet of machines. Whats more, it saves you on the wage bill because you can treat the minders like dirt knowing you could replace them in a heart beat. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 02/09/2016 11:14:55

You can't please everyone in life Neil, even if it sells you less magazines. People respect someone who stands by what they say rather than appealing to everyone. It shows a fear of commitment, if people suspect things are just said to appeal and canvass a particular group. 

Edited By Michael Walters on 02/09/2016 11:18:33

I tend to think that if there was a zombie apocalypse... then could you use your particular skills to help rebuild civilisation again

So it depends on whether you could get a CNC machine going after the Zombie Apocalypse, and then keep it tooled up and running

So there.

Where did that come from?

Could it be the case that old farts (include me) that cannot afford/ understand CNC pronounce it 'the work of the devil' ?

Are some of us the Luddites of the 21st century?

**LINK**

* Danny M *

Rather than cheating, I would count CNC as an achievement, another skill mastered. I suppose it might be like comparing forge welding the TIG, or cutting with a cold chisel, or water jet(not quite model engineer yet).

Ian S C

I applaud you put a link in to a historical account of the luddites, as the term has come to describe a bunch of backward caveman destroying technology because they don't like it? Sounds crazy when you say that back to yourself and realize, thats because it is crazy, it's not the truth. 

Michael W

Edited By Michael Walters on 02/09/2016 11:30:13

So, when 3D metal printing becomes affordable for MEs, where would we draw the line on "The builder made it all himself in a small shed during the evenings". I have been given a laser cut metal plate model to build, and I will "Build it all myself" - Doesn't quite match up to what we call a ME's masterpiece though!

But isn't the point that in the home workshop YOU have to be the 'one skilled guy'?

Neil

To quote Joad "It all depends what you mean by cheating"

If you are trying to pass off work as non cnc when it is then Yes.

If you are attempting to build something originally made 150 years ago using the original techniques then Yes.

If you are wanting to build something using all the available means at hand then NO.

If you like learning new skills then No.

If you have built the CNC machine then used it then Really NO.

Engineers have always jumped at every new development, you really would not see George Stevenson using a hand cranked lathe if he lived now or even back then if something better was available. The trouble is there is something of the historian/antiquarian in most of us which is generally why we make steam engines and not space ships. It's a vague non specific question really. (Much like 'should we leave the EU' when no-one really has any idea what that looks like and is about as practical as asking someone if they would like to go back to 1973)

Nope - I for one am glad when people post differing views, thank you for yours.

Imagine a life where everyone thought exactly the same thoughts??

Fizzy - we are all probably 98% in agreement with each other (after all, we are Model Engineers, right??) it's the final 2% that makes the conversations really interesting.

John.

I have mentioned this on other threads; but I think it's worth another look, in the context of this discussion:

The horological firm 'Charles Frodsham' showed prototypes of a new watch.

**LINK**

http://www.frodsham.com/docs/InBreguetsFootsteps.pdf

One very interesting feature being the little three-legged bridge, shown at Fig. 11

They purchased a rather special [pre-loved] Swiss machine, and developed their own CNC system to drive it: The rough machining, and the precisely positioned holes are all done with the CNC, but the final shaping and polishing of the arms is done by hand.

No; this doesn't answer fizzy's question, but it does show appropriate division of labour.

MichaelG.

Theres no use throwing the goal post around, i said, as an actual fact, that plenty of unskilled operators mind cnc machines, that is definitively true.

Michael W

Even the mighty Patek Philippe is at it.

Martin.

Edited By NJH on 02/09/2016 14:00:32

Only if that had been the initial point of the thread, but it wasn't.

Neil

Neil, you have based the poll on cheating in MODEL ENGINEERING but Fizzy did not mention ME which is why I asked earlier if his comment was about home shop machining in general or Model Engineering