Fred Smith wrote:
Then we had Fred smith pushing CAD/CAM, and even making a foolish
statement
that anyone making just one or two parts shouldnt be using CNC at
all.
He did get soundly shouted down on that statement!
For example, Drilling and Tapping a single hole. I guarantee that I
can do
this faster on my Bridgeport than on any CNC machine. This is a
quick,
efficient process, all the tools are ALWAYS placed near my work area,
and
just reaching to push a button makes for a less efficient process.
Yes, this is probably true, but then I had a single piece (a fixture
plate) that needed
144 center drilled, through drilled and tapped 10-32 holes. I did the
whole job in about
30 minutes, with beautiful results, with a CNC system and a tapping
head. (First time
I did something real with the tapping head, what a back saver!)
And, I have done a number of one-off parts that couldn't be made with a
manual
machine, or would have taken days of fooling around with rotary tables
and sine
blocks. And, they would have been vastly less accurate due to having to
reposition
the part many times.
Jon
