Reply #14: Right, so you also need to buy a bunch of standard mills, lathes, and [View All]

[kcwayne]

boring machines when it will be quicker to do that work out the fixturing on the CNC.

In a backyard shop, you are never going to run volume. Volume means doing hundreds of thousands or millions of parts per year. And you don't use CNC on that type of volume because the cycle time is too slow. You have special machines designed for that.

CNC is great when you can go from digitized design to part with complete automation. On some parts that is simply not possible, and you have to train the machine and work up fixturing.

But the point of the article is that small firms with the ability to use technolgy to do rapid response with high quality production can energize a larger economy. The point is not that hard working guys in small shops that are willing to work hard for less using whatever equipment they can scrounge together on a small budget herald a turning point in the decline of manufacturing.

My point is that neither well capitalized gargage shops nor undercapitalized hard workers will turn around what has already happened, namely, manufactured goods are not going to make a comeback to the US until either China looks more like we do, or we look like them. I am guessing the later is the most probable.