CNC = Woodworking?

yes cnc is woodworking. power tools are woodworking. hand tools are woodworking.

You still need to have the vision and design to create something special. It is a different skill set, but an important one. I imagine a future where small and mid-sized shops produce top quality pieces with tools of all types. The quality is what separates those pieces from the rest, not the manner in which they were made.

I don’t currently use CNC, but how cool would it be to finish an arts and crafts piece, and send it into the CNC for a carved logo in the vein of the old Roycroft community. Maybe furniture isn’t made that way anymore because it was too time consuming to make. Maybe CNC and other semi-automated tools can bring it back.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

It’s just a power tool. Regardless of the tool, the craftsman still determines the outcome.

-- Nature created it, I just assemble it.

I have no issues with CNC being woodworking however, when I see something (although beautiful), I get less of a feeling of how great the pc is.

-- -

I keep telling myself that since I can’t use power tools any longer ( osteoarthritis) that I will buy myself a CNC for christmass. It will allow me to still enjoy creating. I can not hold surgical insatruments any longer but I refuse to go quietly into the night. I will attempt to stay active until I draw my final breath. And if CNC is the only way in which I can do so, so be it. If they finaly put me in a casket, let it by made of wood. “Hopefully Knotty Pine.” but if nothing else just put me in the sawdust pile.

-- Still trying to master kindling making

You can do some very creative things with CNC machines and these machines will probably become more and more common and probably less expensive and they are not going away. Eventually there will even be 3d printers in woodworking shops. However, hand tools, portable power tools, and stationary woodworking machines will still be used along with the new machines. I don’t really see anything wrong with the mix. I think that it is rather exciting. I believe that it will be very good for woodworking in the long run. Just because a CNC router can do a woodcarving it doesn’t mean that a hand carved piece won’t be done in the same shop.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

-- helluvawreck aka Charles, http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

Me personally I would say yes.

Back in the days of 1400 to 1800 they used hand saws then in the last 1800s they did pedal power, then steam power then to electoral power. The guys that used broad axes for wood working thought using saws were not a good form of wood working.

Now it is CNC machines. I do think a person should know how to use hand tools and power tools to be a well rounded wood worker. If a person did not have to worry about production and could do all with hand tools then more power to him and I really respect him or her for it. Now adays it is just not practical if you are in business. I really, really wish I had a CNC machine to do things I can not do nor have enough time on earth to learn how and that is why I so strongly wish I had one but not just for me but for the others I teach which have physical limitations too.
I really wish I had a saw mill also but if someone was a purist then I would have to do it by hand with maul and wedges.

-- It is always the right time, to do the right thing.

Like ball players on steroids – there should always be an asterisk next to the “craftsman’s” name. But sure, it’s still woodworking.

-- Sam Hamory - The project is never finished until its "Finished"!

Like ball players on steroids – there should always be an asterisk next to the “craftsman s” name.

So I can’t really be a “craftsman” if I use a computer? I’m a cheater, like someone using steroids to play ball? IT’s against the “rules”?

Well if you wanna be a purist, then make nothing you can’t make without the exclusive use of your hands, or teeth. No tools at all….

-- Jim, Georgia, USA

To answer the question. Yes. It’s woodworking. I imagine the old “craftsmen” would embrace it wholeheartedly. They were working to make a living, and anything they could use to make their life better, they’d embrace it.

-- Jim, Georgia, USA

Underdog

Do not be hostile of someone’s thinking or reasoning. Not everyone knows everything or educated and anyone can have their own opinion just like you so there is no reason to get mad.

-- It is always the right time, to do the right thing.

Yes it’s woodworking. And, yes, you can still be a craftsman. I own and use a carvewright but I still have to choose wood, prepare it, come up with design, assemble, finish or paint it. CNC is only one of my many power and hand tools.

Underdog

Do not be hostile of someone s thinking or reasoning. Not everyone knows everything or educated and anyone can have their own opinion just like you so there is no reason to get mad.

- Arlin Eastman

Not mad, just making a point. Taking the assertion to it’s logical conclusion.

-- Jim, Georgia, USA

Same thing comes up in my other hobby (computer case modding/scratch building).

I hear the argument “but they still have to be able to design it which takes a lot of time and work”, like it’s supposed to make it the same thing as actually making with your hands? I get it, it’s a lot of work. So is hand planing rough stock to usable boards. However, just because someone is a designer at a car company doesn’t mean they actually make the car; they’re designing it and handing it off to the manufacturing plant because that’s what the manufacturing plant specializes in.

I’m not saying it’s “easier” or “not actually work”, as I’ve done 3D design work in the past for parts, but rather it’s different work. Designing something and hitting “go” to watch it be made isn’t much different than an architect drafting a building, and having someone else build it.

In short, yes it’s working with wood, but I wouldn’t consider them a craftsman to my personal definition, but rather a designer or engineer. The real art is designing something intricate, inspiring, and unique…

It’s all just an addition to the ever increasingly fuzzy line of “hand made” vs “production”, in my opinion.

-- Mos - Twin Cities, MN - http://www.youtube.com/MosquitoMods - http://www.TheModsquito.com

Why do we need labels? It is what it is. Why reduce life and people to equations?

-- I intended to be a woodworker, but turned into a tool and lumber collector.