On Friday 07 December 2012 23:12:52 Jon Elson did opine: > Gene Heskett wrote: > > Those too are valid questions, with very iffy answers for the hobbiest > > like me. The improvement probably would be appreciated, but in > > nearly 10 years of having the basic machinery, I have only re-couped > > maybe 10% of their original cost. And those jobs were so simple I > > could have cranked them out with hand cranks. > > Well, there are all classes of users, ask Stuart Stevenson how much > EMC/LinuxCNC > has saved him! I suspect it would be quite a bit. Sure, it has also > cost him a good deal > of his time, and more than a few gray hairs, too. > > I've been using EMC/EMC2/LinuxCNC for 14 years, and can't IMAGINE what > it would be like if I was still struggling with that ghastly > Allen-Bradley control! > The G-code was very limited, some things were just a bit buggy, and it > kept breaking down. I make commercial parts on it, and while most of > it could be done manually, it would be MUCH slower, with more waste. > So, just speaking for me, LinuxCNC+CNC machine has WAY more than paid > for the equipment. > > Jon > I am sure it has paid off a nice long term profit for you folks who have a ton of swarf a month to recycle. I've asked around locally for piece work but every one is so used to doing their own that they don't really understand that I might be able to drill that hole pattern in a mounting plate at about the same rate they can, but 20x more accurately then they can place an automatic center punch. For a bigger job, say more than 20 pieces, I'd make a pallet which would speed me up quite a bit, probably to the point I could do it quicker than they could. But locally, there aren't any operations that would need 1000 or more pieces. Ever. One fellow who makes well service rigs might need 50 of a corner brace bracket, say 6 at a time. For that rig, but the next one will probably be built on a different truck frame, with what ever cable reel he can locate, probably driven by totally custom made parts from the output shaft of the PTO of its transmission. All his stuff is made to fit, a piece at a time. The next rig will need a slightly different bracket to fabricate its boom from.
Besides, at my age, do I really want to contract to make thousands of something? That answer of course has to be no because then it would be just drudgery once the pallets were made unless I undertook to make the pallet loader/unloader robot too, so I could walk away and let it do its thing. I don't have 175,000 people needing things made within 20 miles of me, 5500 maybe. So locally, the market, even for small parts, isn't there. I am the only boss I have to please the last few years & I kind of like it that way. :) > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ------ LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free > Trial Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant > support Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add > services Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers > http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d > _______________________________________________ > Emc-developers mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up! QOTD: "A child of 5 could understand this! Fetch me a child of 5." I was taught to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder to find any... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
