Just curious - who considers this woodworking?

[Patrick Walsh]

Martin in saying what I said I meant no disrespect for anyone whom feels different. We all march to the beat of the drum that suits us best. Well if we are lucky.

I have the utmost respect for the small businesses man and exact.y what it is he does. Having been a tradesman of varying sorts for 25 years now I have had mucho exposure to small business.

I have at time even ventured intomth3 small business realm myself. Most cases it was out of nesesity. On a couple occasions even ending up with 2-3 employees for 1-2myears at a time. It’s hard really really hard and I’m suited to it as I am just putting my head down and getting work done. The kinda work required to run a business is not enjoyable to me and you know I just never succeed at anything I’m not enjoying. I would love to be a good business man as I generally don’t like people enough to want to have to deal with them anymore than I have to. I fake it really well but it’s imenisly painful for me and just not worth it long term, or short for that matter.

My hats off to you as 15 years is a long time to hold it togehter as a small business in the residential market. I have seen so many business come and go over my 25 years. I’m always more than appreciative for a employer that takes being accountable and responsible to his employees serious as so many could give a rats asss.

Anyway I’d be the first one to imcorperate a cnc if my ass was on the line or my livelihood. I just would not considering the same Woodworking as what I do now. I’ll say this though, I don’t consider what I do at work anyway the same level/quality or whatever as the work I do on my own time. I can’t compare building custom cabinets with pocket screws, glue, clamps and mucho machinery in any way or form to whatsay a Brian Halcombe or Derek do. Comparing any of them probably is not fair in all reality.

It’s like I said around the holiday. We all have one very big thing in common, we all enjoy making things, regardless of what those things are or how we make them or with what we all clearly have some kind of passion that drives us and that’s pretty cool. I know sommay people that live with zero passion. That imop is not very cool.

You're right, I should've phrased it differently. I've enjoyed building a business more than any cabinet I've built. Money just happens to be the fuel that feeds that business. You made way more than I did last year. I either reinvested, gave it to the employees, or gave it to the gov't.

See to you the challenge is cutting the wood. None of that is hard, it's just varying levels of pain with no consequences.

To me the challenge is keeping the wheels turning. That equation changes daily. Consequences ranging from oops to saying goodbye to 15 years of effort.

[Chris Fournier]

Yeah, pretty clear that this is woodworking as they are machining wood! Does their vocation relate to your avocation? Well there's the wood...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Lots of excellent answers here....

I'm still not ready to call that woodworking though. .

Personally,,,,,that part being made is something I'd just buy - instead of try to make it myself - with or without the fancy machine.

[Lee Schierer]

Yes it is definitely wood working. The tools are just different than what you are used to. That machine is really no different than some woodworkers thoughts when the the first router was introduced in 1915 or when the table saw replaced the hand saw in many shops. You could still hold the distinction that the part was not hand made, but it is definitely made of wood.

[Randy Heinemann]

It wouldn't be satisfying woodworking to me because the reason I am a woodworker is to work with, touch, mold, and personally create a finished product, but I am not required to make money from my finished products. If I were a woodworking business whose survival meant making a profit I would make furniture using the most efficient method I could find. Having said all of that, I do use tools like the Festool Domino to improve my mortise and tenon joints and to help me be more creative with integrating those joints into my projects. I have no need to mass produce any project I have ever made, so no real need for even a CNC machine; just tools which help me be more accurate, precise, and produce somewhat better quality with my hands, mind, and body.

[Jim Riseborough]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFWX3EwnO14

Impressive - but - -I can bring myself to call this woodworking.

Look at it through machinist eyes, its either manual with tools, or its automated with CNC. Still Machining. Either way this is woodworking, the activity or skill of making things from wood. Its just really automated.

[Pat Barry]

Lots of excellent answers here....

I'm still not ready to call that woodworking though. .

Personally,,,,,that part being made is something I'd just buy - instead of try to make it myself - with or without the fancy machine.

You might be able to buy it from the woodworking shop that produced the video.

[Mark Gibney]

The 30 seconds of music typically played between radio segments nowadays starts out sounding like music, but it quickly annoys me and I often turn the station - it's made by some kid on a computer, using musical snippets and ideas from jazz, folk, classical and so no, but instead of growing and having human variation, the music replicates itself like photocopies scotch taped together.

This leg milling is impressive to watch. The table it becomes part of may be attractive. And the market might require this level of automation. But I won't be inspired and delighted by this the way I can be by someone working more directly with wood, either with hand or electric tools.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Welcome to the digital age. Scroll sawing is fast going the way of the dodo. CNC router carvings are making magnificent works in one hundredth of the time for hand crafted. The time is coming that programmers will be artists. I saw it 30 years ago with computerized post and beam construction. Giant CNC routers cut the tennons and mortises and were accurrate to a hundredth of an inch.

[Mark Maleski]

I call it a poorly designed leg. Notice how the curve flattens into a straight section at the top of the leg...why would they leave it like that? Or the sharp corners; why weren’t those addressed? It’s not due to a limitation of the machine, obviously. I believe it’s because so much of the classical design sensibilities have been lost due to when machine manufacturing (among other factors).

[Paul Bent]

Designing and building the machinery to do that was immensely satisfying to someone, I would bet.

[Marshall Harrison]

I'm not sure what that spinning thing is but it sure ate the wood with a minimum of effort.

It was mass produced furniture in factories that lead to the Craftsman Movement in the late 19th century. But while we may not consider this woodworking, most consumers don't care and have no idea how their furniture is made.

[Brian Holcombe]

Craftsman furniture is pretty mass produced, IMO.

They did a better job at coordinating design and production than Victorian age furniture which looks often enough like a grab-bag of styles.