• How does using CNC machines differ from doing hand crafted woodworks?
- JasonLoasching
Jason you will find that on this forums there are generally two camps when it comes to CNC Woodworking.
1. Buy a predefined highly detailed graphic file and press the start button an voila'! You are an "artist."
2. A CNC is only useful To make high volumes of the same item over and over and over again.
Thus far, those are the opinions I see above. (Generalizing a bit here, I know)
I consider myself of a third, less popular opinion.
First, I am a highly skilled woodworker with 35 years of professional experience. I only began using a CNC in the last 23 years.
The first CNC machine I bought was for a custom cabinet shop who was trying to increase production.
Although the level of creativity was above average, we didn't really try to step outside the box much.
All programs were use once and throw the code away. Because our design software was highly automated (parametric) nearly all of the mundane operations were removed from the forefront of the work and happened automatically in the background. Joinery and the like largely took care of themselves and the designer is left free to consider the larger view of the project and the more creative aspects rather than the mundane.
I look at CNC as an accelerator of my creative process. I don't use a CNC to do the hand carving of a large piece, but I do use it to remove the bulk of the waste material in the blocking stage.
Blocking a large carving is time consuming and boring work. The CNC relieves me of that tedium and lets me jump over it directly to the fun parts.
Largely, we currently use a CNC to handle copious volumes of case goods, (also tedious and boring work) but every so often we use it to handle very creative projects that would normally be out of reach without a CNC.
Most folks here, (not all), on this hobby forum fail to see a CNC as a way to increase their craftsmanship, but rather choose to be threatened by, or try diminish the value of, a CNC in the process of fine woodworking.
My opinion is that, in the right hands, a CNC will amplify the creative process that is woodworking.