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Interesting perspective on CNC


kmealy

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I went to a small factory in VA with my BIL years ago.   They made mostly fireplace surrounds and other pieces of furniture.   It was only a few thousand sq. ft. and had maybe 5 or so employees.  The owner showed me his CNC that  was probably 6'x10'.  They'd unload a shipment of sheet goods at the dock.  They had a gantry that would lift the sheet and put it on the CNC.   A guy from a local big factory would come in at the end of his shift there and run the CNC thru the evening and just cut parts.  They were put on carts for the next operation. It kept the assembly and packing crew busy the next day.   He said that it came to a decision of buying the CNC or hiring a bunch of new people and getting new equipment in.   I figured for the price of a year's salary on one person, he got the CNC.   It worked great for repetitive work.  It was also around the time of the 2008 recession so he was looking at expanding his offerings and made design and cutting way easier.

 

A few years later, I visited another factory that made cabinets, mostly for schools and country clubs.   They had design software that could customize the sizes and went right to the CNC for cutting.   It was efficient, but sort of sad that the only thing workers did was move materials and parts from one machine to the next.  Even the (dowel) joinery and edge banding was automated. They did apply glue to 1/2 of a doweled joint, then put into a giant press to clamp it down while they put glue on the next piece.   About the only other manual process was two coats of lacquer sprayed on.

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