Holy cows!

[Karl Brogger]

I was poking around looking for some info on CNC lathes for wood and found this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnhJAS8g7lM

Beyond cool.

[keith ouellette]

I am always a little in awe of mechanical engineering. In both a good and bad way. wether its making 100 ice cream cones per minute or a metal lathe making parts for a reel its very impressive.

On the other hand these very tasks that people often complained about as being repetitive and boring still made great jobs for many people.

[Bill Huber]

Now thats a nice shop.....:D

It sure would be nice to play in that shop for a week or to just to see what you could make.

[Karl Brogger]

The stuff that really winds my crank is the stuff that looks twisted. I wonder who the manufacturer actually is. Some of it looks rediculously high end. Enkbolle type stuff.

There was another video that I found, the poster stated that his purticular lathe cost $200k. Gotta keep that baby runnin' to make the payments.

[Jack Ellis]

On the other hand these very tasks that people often complained about as being repetitive and boring still made great jobs for many people.

True. On the other hand, mass production makes elaborate woodwork available to many more people who would never be able to afford hand-made pieces.

[Dewey Torres]

Interesting video. I wonder what they can't do that a human can...maybe nothing:(

[Don Bullock]

Interesting video. I wonder what they can't do that a human can...maybe nothing:(

The humans had ti "feed" the machines and the computer design. They still haven't made machines that can do the design work yet.

While it's true that machines like these make beautiful items from wood that can be sold for a reasonable price allowing more people to be able to afford them, it does come at a cost; the loss of a skilled work force. There is not much skill needed after the initial programming.

[Bill Huber]

The humans had ti "feed" the machines and the computer design. They still haven't made machines that can do the design work yet.

While it's true that machines like these make beautiful items from wood that can be sold for a reasonable price allowing more people to be able to afford them, it does come at a cost; the loss of a skilled work force. There is not much skill needed after the initial programming.

Don, the skill is still there, it has just moved from the woodworking to the making of the machine.

[Barry Richardson]

Reminds me of a T-shirt I saw. It said:


MADE IN AMERICA
BY ROBOTS

[Bill White]

Had a chance several years ago to peek thru some windows while picking up an order at Osborne Wood Products (Northern GA). They have the cnc lathes. If I remember correctly they were Italian made. Pretty slick machinery.
Bill ;)

[Kirk Miller]

Thats cheating or something..........lol

[Jeff Nicol]

Karl, I love the automation world and machinery set to do wonderful things has always intrigued me also. I have all the stuff to build a CNC router table and will have 3 axis to start. But I would someday like to add the 4th axis to be able to do things on the round. It wouldnot be a lathe exactly just an engraver for posts or spindles etc. I just have to master the programming and all the CAD stuff too! I just need 2 or three clones of me and I could get it all done!

Great video and thanks for link,

Jeff

[Chris Haas]

i guess i should hang up the chisels, no competing withthat.

[Richard Madison]

Yeah, but can it cut and glue segments without a human to feed it?

[Rasmus Petersen]

Interesting video. I wonder what they can't do that a human can...maybe nothing:(

Easy... it cant make a replica of 1 tabel leg in 20-30 minuts from old scraps.

it cant make sharp corners and deep shadow lines in difficult timber..

i always use a danish design pepper grinder as example when asked.. they are EXPENSIVE. But i you look at them the have round edges and no deep details everything is sanded to a blur the look like beginner work..

i then ask people to compare to some of the handmade stuff i try to sell them and they tend to agree with me.. (and sometimes buy something)

cnc machines are great for many things, and not great for many other things..

[Philip Duffy]

Hey, we can all do that stuff, it just takes us a bit longer and when it is done, it was made by me/us, not some machine. Phil

[Darius Ferlas]

I think I'll wait until those go on sale.

[Karl Brogger]

To the puritans of turning: With out advances in technology we would still be a hunter gather society. Living to the ripe old age of 40 and going crazy from tooth decay.


Sure it isn't an example of artistry at work, but for me I do this for the pay check. I don't sell many turnings with my cabinets as my cost per unit is typically too high for most people's budgets. When I see some thing like that first thing I think about is whether or not I can cash flow it. Unfortunetly the answer is no at this point.

[Andrew Derhammer]

Production turners, such as what Escoulan was at one point, could easily beat a machine in both time and quality (as mentioned before the depth of the lines) and they are accurate enough that you can't tell a difference.

[Rasmus Petersen]

andrew : you are right at that.... but i requiers just a littel bit of traning..

[John Sheets]

I need one of these setups. Then I could sit in the LaZBoy and watch TV while I turn. A machine couldn't do that. Well, it _could_ watch, but it wouldn't understand what it was watching (unless it was primetime network TV)

[Paul Engle]

It is funny how machines can only do what they are " told " , Humans on the other hand are wonderfully adapted to doing anything with out being told, hmmmm It is like an ornamental attachment / index work , the human gets to figure and operate , the machine only gets to cut where it is told.On a Rose Engine lathe the same holds true, and what is cool is that the machines give us the ability to express our artistic nature. Guys and Gals , those machines help us to express oursleves and our view of life. I get just a much satisfaction out of a hand turned wood widget as well as a barleycorn cut ,aluminum knob for a Koa wood box, o which I have several knobs waiting for me to quite fiddling around with metal on my wood lathe and git back to wood turning... shame on me......:D but I do so enjoy it, and if I dont miss my guess .... dats what its alll about eh?