Interesting comments Norm, I bought my first CNC in 1988.I could turn a bowl faster than any CNC programmer when all is said and done. Always loved that term "one of kind" and craftsmanship gentlemen. AI will put the CNC guys out of work soon by the way.
Faster, I don't know. But speed isn't the only issue. We both load the blank pretty much the same way. Standing in front of the machine I call up one of my my macro language bowl programs I wrote. it prompts me for bowl diameter, down feed rate (doing it on a vertical spindle machine), cutter nose diameter and a few other pieces of needed info. Set my cutter to top of part and press start. Then I go work on something else or go have a snack.
After that first bowl I might decide the next one will be oval, that'll take a couple keystrokes. While you're setting up your Vicmarc oval turning attachment I'll do 4 or 5 more bowls all with different appearance by changing scaling factors.
I forgot to mention while you're sanding your first bowl my oval bowl is almost done. Given razor sharp carbide tooling and fine feeds my sanding might only be fine grit off the machine after a spray of sanding sealer.
How exactly will AI put the CNC guys out of work?
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