Interesting looking Ward lathe

[TomG]

(08-27-2012, 07:10 PM)stevec Wrote: Oh the work of a turret lathe! I have had,used, and appreciated the slick semi automation. However, the repetative operation is TOTALLY unattractive to me, hence my disinterest in CNC. Just me, and my "old guy" opinions.
Thanks just the same, I still like the "looky, looky" factor.

Steve,

I spent 23 years at my last job as a research machinist and used CNC for about 20 of them. Yes CNC can be used for production, but it can also do everything a manual mill or lathe can and more (much much more) at five to ten times as fast. Our mill had conversational programming so we could program it at the machine for simple parts very quickly. By the time I left we had it living on the network and could upload the tool path of a complex part directly to the mill from the design department. A paper drawing was made available just so we could set up the machine and check tolerances. I miss it a lot and can't wait to get one at my home shop. Once you've had a taste of CNC, it's hard to go back to a manual machine.

Tom