Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Cnc Furniture Machines

1. What are the reasons to choose CNC lathes over conventional lathes?

Computer controlled lathe machines are essentially a modern take on a century-old tool u2014 the manual lathe.

The lathe spins the raw material along one axis (vertical or horizontal), while the cutting tool attached to it gives the material the desired shape.Sizes available u2014Like mills, CNC lathes can be found in a variety of sizes and shapes, ranging from small machines to full-form laths that take up a whole room. Watchmakers and jewellers mostly use small , portable versions, while the bulkier models are a standard in CNC machine shops.

Here below define some Advantages of CNC Lathes vs. Conventional Lathe Machines:1. No need for highly skilled operatorsIn the past, two highly skilled operators were required to work with lathes u2014 one handling the lathe, and the other regulating material.

It's been a hard job. Yet lathe activities are a lot less challenging now, with the introduction of computers and automation.2.

Full automation, allowing for easier, quicker workThanks to modern CNC lathes, it's easier than ever to create hundreds, even millions, of identical dimensions. Machine-controlled systems today allow CNC lathes to produce perfect pieces more easily and faster than ever before. 3.

Highly versatile, allowing for use in the creation of all kinds of products and partsLike manual lathes, CNC lathes are flexible enough to produce almost any product or part u2014 from solid pieces of furniture and parts of automobiles to delicate lamps and crockery. CNC lathes are easy to shape cylinders or spheres and can also be used to produce replacement parts for other machines.4.

99.99% accuracyAs less manual labor is involved, the chances of achieving optimal accuracy are pretty high with CNC lathes. 5.

Cost efficiencyWhile CNC lathes are a lot costlier than manual lathes, CNC models still offer a range of financial benefits, including:Low setup costs - Setup costs are a one-time expenditure when working with CNC lathesMachining costs - With CNC machines, you recoup every investment by being able to produce 20x more parts than manual lathes allow in a given time frame.Labor costs - For CNC lathe work, fewer operators are needed, and they don't have to be bound to the machines 24/7

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2. When you make wood items to sell, do you put your name on the product?

If you work for a company that sells the furniture, they donu2019t let you. Or if they donu2019t notice that you do, itu2019s a bit disingenuous if you ask me. Youu2019re not the one who designed it.

Youu2019re using the shopu2019s materials, equipment, and all the overhead that comes along with owning a shop. Plus, itu2019s doubtful that this is a one-off piece of furniture youu2019re constructing, so thereu2019s already an established technique for assembly. Maybe even a CNC machine or another shop worker has cut, prepared, and labelled the parts out and youu2019re just the monkey who assembles it.

Or there are jigs that youu2019re using that someone else built. And in this shop, once youu2019ve put it together, thereu2019s probably a finishing department that sands, stains, and top coats the project. There may even be a delivery or install crew that puts it in someoneu2019s home.

Youu2019re just a cog in a wheel. But Iu2019ve seen guys hide a label with their name or logo as though theyu2019re a modern-day Hepplewhite. Lame.

And itu2019s a lie they tell themselves. That u201cthey built itu201d. If you are in business for yourself, itu2019s a different story.

Maybe. I donu2019t. I think itu2019s a little tacky and egotistical.

If you built something for someone, theyu2019ll know it was you. Youu2019re assuming that whatever you built will a) be passed on beyond the person you made it for (like family or a customer) and b) that the construction is SO good that it will last long enough to be passed on to a new owner and finally c) youu2019re presuming that your piece is so good, so noteworthy that whomever sees it and isnu2019t told that it was you who built it will want to know your name, either while youu2019re alive or dead. Like in your mind this piece youu2019ve sold is so good, so trendsetting and disruptive to the modern furniture industry that in 300 years collectors and historians will fawn over their pieces.

Youu2019ll have your own Wikipedia entry (if you havenu2019t already written one for your self, you narcissistic piece of garbage). The ONLY instances I would consider labelling your work to be acceptable would be if youu2019re a large company and you mass-produce objects. Then itu2019s part of your branding, marketing or legal reasons like model numbers or warnings (like do not eat, not suitable in bathtub, etc).

The other instance would be if you earned the right to put your mark on your furniture through prestige or market demand to protect your designs and to make the owner feel special about paying $18,000 for an office desk. But presuming that youu2019re on that level prior to it happening? A bit gauche.

Like signing your painting of a landscape that you created while watching a Bob Ross instructional video, no one cares about what you made. Give it to someone you love as a gift. Word of mouth will be your label for now, and if it becomes necessary you can add a label to your u201cearly periodu201d.

IF that happens, then youu2019ve earned the right. Not before.Furniture is not what it used to be.

Most people view furnishings as temporary and disposable. Cabinetmaking is an almost dead artistry. Sure, thereu2019s a niche market, but itu2019s small and crowded.

There are only a handful of modern designers that command enough attention to necessitate a logo or label. And youu2019re probably not one of them

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3. Did any technological/scientific innovation contribute, even indirectly, to the end of the Cold War?

Thereu2019s a body of evidence to support the notion that nuclear power generation may have ended the cold war, but not in the manner you might think.Nuclear power generation had been proceeding in both east and west for several decades rather uncelebrated, with a promise of cheap energy that would propel the countries pioneering it into modernity, and, except for a tiny, impotent species of protest about its risks, was accepted as a fixture of a technological future. In March, 1979, in an event bizarrely coincident with a scary popular movie called the China Syndrome, an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania cast a shadow over this technology.

Nuclear power makes an appearance relative to your question in April, 1986, when the Soviet generation plant at Chernobyl blew up and sent a plume of nuclear fallout north & west over vast swathes of Europe. It was this accident, and the subsequent attempts by soviet authorities to conceal it from the international community, that shattered the already shaky image of the Soviet Union as a practical, competent, & technologically proficient foe of the west, and practically propelled the USSR into a collapse in less than four years.Of course, there is another question here you seem to have neglected: your premise seems to imply that the cold war is actually over, and events of the past three decadesu2014 and especially very recentlyu2014 seem to belie that, so, is it over?

Even as the US fancied itself the victor of this cold war, the absence of a counterbalancing USSR may have disposed the US to stumble into international military adventurism thinking they were unopposed, and both of these elements may have contributed to the USu2019s economic disaster of 2007/08, that almost dragged the entire world back into a global economic depression, and clearly revealed the extent to which the u201cvictoriousu201d economic philosophy of the USu2014 fetishized, unrestrained capitalismu2014 was as broken as Russian communism. Meantime, Russia has begun to reassert itself much more effectively than the US as a furtive player on the international scene, and has operated almost unopposed in its own military adventurism in eastern Europe, even going so far as invading two neighboring countries virtually uncontested. As the US of Trump retreats from its failures and a scary world, Putinu2019s Russia is becoming, with China, the new global super-power.

In mai, 2003, US president George u201cWu201d Bush landed a jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln and optimistically announced, u201cMission accomplished,u201d referring to his blunders into predictable quagmires in both Iraq & Afghanistan. In retrospect, his optimism was grossly misplacedu2014 a fact that wouldnu2019t reveal itself for several years. Declaring the cold war u201coveru201d belongs under the same rubric of failed pronouncements: the war is still on, and only the names of some of the players have changed.

Did any technological/scientific innovation contributed, even indirectly, to the end of the Cold War?.

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4.

How in the world can Ikea sell pretty good chairs for sixty-five dollars apiece and a pretty good dining table for less than two hundred?

Well, I think I am entitled to explain something about this, as I frequently travelled (before COVID) to South East Asia to help the furniture industry manage new projects about developing design and branding. When there, in some occasions I was invited as a Judge in some exhibits like MIFF and EFE (Malaysia) for the best product competition.

Malaysia is one of the top exporters of the world as for wooden furniture, mostly made in rubberwood, which is technically a very good wood essence. The industries in Malaysia are quite advanced vs. others in the area (Indonesia, Myanmaru2026) and the workers are paid good salaries and a pension fund.

They are not u201cslave laboru201d or something like this. The companies are modernly organized, some have automatized processes and use CNC machines, but the majority is still doing things with manual-driven machines. This means that the workforce for each company is higher than what we have in the West.

The typical wage for a factory worker is around 1,500/2,000 MYR, which is perfectly adequate to live, especially outside the main cities. In Western terms, this equates to around 500 USD. Timber is plentiful, so it costs little.

And the quality of craftsmanship, while not exceptional, is routinely good.This means that you can actually buy a solid wood chair for around 20 USD FOB like the one on top in Malaysia without having to be as big as Ikea. Ikea would spend much less than this.

If you switch to less advanced (in technical and social terms) countries like Indonesia and Myanmar, the prices are MUCH LESS than what you see above.So, this is how. You need to source globally to enjoy this kind of prices.

And these prices are the result of particular situations happening in countries. Big groups know this fact well, so they send their buyers worldwide to negotiate the acquisitions. What you buy in big stores around the world and retail chains normally comes from these countries.

When the COVID insanity stops, the world will return free to travel, and the exhibits will become common again. I expect to see prices going down to speed the recovery after the halt of these months. This will mean that furniture will cost less to source, and these savings should be passed to the buyers.

If they arenu2019t, well, you can imagine where the money will stay. If you like my contents, check my activities in the Quora bio.Woodworking Library