Why CNC?

[CraftyGeek]

I've recently finished my MDF machine - I enjoy designing things on a computer...I have done so even before the cnc machine. I also enjoy making things - now I have the cnc machine it allows me to design more complicated things & then make them with an accuracy that I could never have done before with hand/machine tools....at the end of the day its another workshop tool - but a very versatile one that does also speed up the building process.

Mine is purely for hooby use & my own enjoyment - if at some later stage I find that I make something that I want to sell, then I have the capability to make more of them easily.

[saxonhawthorn]

Thank you. I'm beginning to get the drift. I have used CAD for designing PCBs for about twenty years and I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the early days of PCBs when I had to draw tracks by hand on to the board using a paintbrush. So I can understand the improvements which come from using CAD for machined parts.

I probably approached this subject from the wrong end. The right place to start thinking about it would seem to be the CAD, and THEN the CNC follows naturally from that.

(Which probably means I should find and migrate over to a CAD/CAM thread.)

Regards,
Ian