Robots in Woodworking

[Jesse Busenitz]

Kinda cool, but kinda scary.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb4j51Mor20

[Martin Wasner]

Fanuc and Siemens, the real world Skynet.

[Wayne Lomman]

I have two early generation examples of these in the corner of my shop in Adelaide. They are supposed to be a project to get them going again. They are ancient - about 10 years old... I may be getting a bit worn out but I have lasted more than 10 years.

Now if you just turn off the electricity, let's see how well they can work. Cheers

[Walter Plummer]

I think the one with the bare saw blade was on battlebots. He is obviously "the boss".

[John Lankers]

Interesting, I just came across this video series a few days ago. Looks like a viable option for small production shops in high priced labor markets to stay in business, too bad actually if it ever has to come to this.
Btw., this is exactly how the japanese car manufacturers beat the established domestics to pulp in the 70s.

[Chris Parks]

Look at any car production YouTube video and the lack of line workers is remarkable, all replaced by robots which do way better job, don't get bored, need lunch etc.

[Jerry Thompson]

Workers may be replaced by robots in some areas but there will be the need to design, fabricate, install and maintain the robots.

[Wayne Lomman]

Yes and you have now removed all the jobs for the lower socio-economic groups. Let's not kid ourselves. If there was no profit and power from robots, no-one would bother with them. Robot technology is not driven by some higher benevolent philosophy, just plain old greed. Cheers

[Chris Parks]

Yes and you have now removed all the jobs for the lower socio-economic groups. Let's not kid ourselves. If there was no profit and power from robots, no-one would bother with them. Robot technology is not driven by some higher benevolent philosophy, just plain old greed. Cheers

The consumers drive the market price so it is going down in real terms for mass produced products such as cars. Robots meet the need for manufacturers to maintain their margins and we the people who demand the lower price suffer the consequences of it all.

[Wayne Lomman]

I'll leave it there I think. To go further with the conversation for me brings in politics and religion (same thing, different branding) as well as economics. Cheers

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Looks like a viable option for small production shops in high priced labor markets to stay in business,

Way too expensive for small shops, and really only an option for very high production.

Quite a few years ago, a friend who works for Fanuc said they were working with Kraftmaid cabinets to automate there face frame production.

[Jesse Busenitz]

Can you imagine one of these machines building a Studley tool chest? Part of the value in something is knowing how much sweat equity went into it.