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Mark J

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Further thought that I hope can draw some closure...the statement was excessively broad or poorly written. We all draw a line somewhere and this is not a great place to determine where that line should be drawn. The crowd is way too big for consensus. That said, we should try to be more careful with blanket statements. I have split a lot of firewood. I would not consider that woodworking either and think this is why B objected. 

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On 08/12/2017 at 3:22 PM, Mick S said:

I would be in.

 

So do I !

Well, this topic is not about "Is CNC woodworking" or "Would I get a CNC", It's just about a dedicated section of this forum which would be a good thing IMHO.
A section on a forum helps a lot members or newcomers to find the required information quickly.
I guess CNC questions should naturally comes more and more frequently anyways.

@wdwerker Except if you're very uncomfortable with software, programming a CNC router is not really difficult as you probably already know about feed and speed, downcut and so on. As you are a regular poster on this forum, I believe you are skilled enough to try a simple CNC soft like Vcarve.

On 08/12/2017 at 3:32 PM, SCPDX said:

What about laser cutting and engraving?  Ran into a guy who has recently aquired a machine - has started doing some 3D stacked paper art but also doing some wood engraving.  I was thinking about that as an addition to either the top of jewelry boxes or some message/saying engraved on the inside of a box lid?  Looks like to you take just about any text, or graphic, or picture and replicate burning into wood (or about any other material)

Anyone have experience with those?

You raise an important question at the same time : CNC stands for any machine controlled by a computer.
Most of you are using CNC instead of CNC router. But there's CNC lasers, plotters, plasma cutters, welders, painters, pick & place... Well it's definitely endless.
We should definitely use "CNC Routers" (or the proper kind) instead of the generic term "CNC" which means not that much.

I own several CNCs : Router, Laser, Plotter, 3D printer, and most of the conventional tools too. So if you've got some questions, I would be honored to answer.
A dedicated section would be a plus to talk about CNC stuff, which is a world apart. At least nowadays.
CNC can potentially change your whole workflow, by the way. I mean with a lot of benefits.

Just a thought about machines. Actually, it don't comes some one's mind that a table saw or a router is not woodworking.
But by the past, some woodworkers considered power tools as unwanted goofy tools.
And reason comes through, and we all use power tools nowadays.
Tomorrow we will probably see topics named "CNC router or Tablesaw : what should I buy first ?"

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2 hours ago, wdwerker said:

I just like to give the CNC crowd a hard time. I wouldn't hesitate to farm out some repetitive work that needed to be accurate to a CNC shop.  I will never own one because programming anything is not in my skill set.

 

Steve, I had a skilled cabinetmaker customer in Greenville, SC, a little older than you are, approach me once at one of our open houses in Atlanta about his interest in getting a CNC router. I asked about his "fluency" in CAD/CAM. Zero. Okay, how about computers in general? None. Never touched a computer keyboard. I sold him a router, software and tooling that afternoon for $86,000 with the promise that I would hold his hand every step of the way.

The lead time was 8 weeks for his machine. One week after he took delivery he called me on a Saturday morning at home at 6:30 and wanted my home address. He sent me a desk name plate made of red oak inlaid with walnut with a perfect friction fit. It's been on my desk for 13 years now.

His ROI on that machine was 6 months.

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I love the idea of a cnc space. It may not have a big participation rate right out of the box, but it has potential to grow. 

I personally never understood the arguing of what is woodworking and what isn't. Reminds me of when I was younger and all my friends would argue about what classification of metal certain bands are. I couldn't care less if I tried. 

I can think of several uses for one right now but I just don't have the space for anything except that handheld router cnc thing that uses the tape strips to figure out where it is. 

 

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16 minutes ago, Mick S said:

Who knows? I'm sure it would more than justify itself compared to the Sketchup forum.

3 months between posts.

Screen Shot 2017-12-10 at 3.43.29 PM.jpg

I don't disagree that other sections of the forums don't see much use but,  adding a new section that doesn't see much use doesn't help that issue.

Please don't misunderstand my question, I'm not opposed to a dedicated section.  I'm just concerned with sections that don't see much activity.

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One of you mods may have more access to traffic than I. The reason I bring up traffic is due to some reading I do on forums that I have never contributed to. I do some heavy vehicle service on my own and know where to find some good info beyond manuals on those forums. Just a thought. Also, CNC automation is on the rise where SU is in decline (or at least stability less than dramatic growth.) this means new conversation will happen less often with SU and more around annual software releases. Just addressing the last few posts. 

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34 minutes ago, TIODS said:

I don't disagree that other sections of the forums don't see much use but,  adding a new section that doesn't see much use doesn't help that issue.

Please don't misunderstand my question, I'm not opposed to a dedicated section.  I'm just concerned with sections that don't see much activity.

I understand that. I didn't assume that you were opposed to it, but I don't know how to gauge the interest other than to try it. If it doesn't pan out, it doesn't pan out. I do know for certain that this is a fast-growing area of woodworking, like it or leave it. Just follow the money. A quick glance through the woodworking supply catalogs from 5 years back vs now proves that. 

I belong to other CNC forums, but none of them is a dedicated CNC woodworking forum. I'm not interested in the chip loads for a 3/8" 3 flute low helix upshear for machining cold rolled steel, but it would be nice to see what others do to get a good edge on 4/4 maple. I have never popped into the Turners Forum, but I appreciate that they have it.

 

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I don't think we should lump SketchUp and CNC together.  If we want to do something with the SketchUp subforum, I would suggest making it part of a Design subforum. (and then add in other CAD topics, drafting topics, design principles,  etc.)

I think there are enough folks using or curious about CNC (and lasers, etc) to warrant a space.  The skill set, technique, troubleshooting, recommendations,  etc are different enough that I think there's value in being able to find stuff more quickly. 

My $0.02

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I think streamlining the forum is a great idea...

Right now we have General, shop, wood, turning, SU, hand tools, power tools, show and tell, etc...

Most of that can go into one category, woodworking... nobody searches anyway. lol How many Which tablesaw thread are there?

 

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6 hours ago, Llama said:

I think streamlining the forum is a great idea...

Right now we have General, shop, wood, turning, SU, hand tools, power tools, show and tell, etc...

Most of that can go into one category, woodworking... nobody searches anyway. lol How many Which tablesaw thread are there?

 

Well if you used the search you would see there are 1537 table saw threads :D

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14 hours ago, TIODS said:

I have no issues with a dedicated space for CNC folks, I've considered one myself.  With that said, my only question would be "is there enough here to maintain any sort of consistent activity in the space?"

To give you a rough estimate, when you google:

inurl:cnc site:woodtalkonline.com

you get more than 30 distinct threads containing CNC in the URL alone (I got 4 pages of results). Those search results do not include other threads which are about CNC but fail to mention it in the description field of the first post.

You can compare results buy repeating that search replacing "cnc" with a different word, e.g.:

inurl:table saw site:wooldtalkonline.com -> more than 20 pages

inurl:jointer site:wooldtalkonline.com -> more than 20 pages

inurl:chisel site:wooldtalkonline.com -> 7 pages

inurl:inlay site:wooldtalkonline.com -> 4 pages

etc.

 

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10 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

So there’s more to it than just typing in cnc? My search skills leave a lot to be desired. 

That will include individual posts, not just threads.

Unfortunately the forum native search engine cannot be used to search for "CNC". Since the word is too short, you get an error message instead of the search results.

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