Re: Nothing New Under The Sun? NOT!
charlie belden
>>If you can write a program to run umpteen thousand of an
> identical design then why not just buy "manufactured" stuff.
There's no program writing - computer applications for doing
your own artwork are readily available - some free or shareware.
There's even a paint program "Painter" that has "natural medium"
brushes that work like sable, or horsehair etc. - water color
brushes, oil brushes etc. and you can "paint" with simulations
of water colors, chalk pastels, oil pastels, oil paint, acrylic paint,
tempra - OR - combinations that won't work in the real world
like water color oil paint. Add a pressure sensitive "pen" and
a digitizing tablet and it's very much like painting or drawing,
without getting paint on your hands and filling the space with
the smell of paint thinner.
And CAD just does what you'd do with a T-square, some triangles,
compass and maybe french curves - and a pencil or inking pen
- common drafting equiptment and materials. Unlike a hand
drafted drawing, the CAD version can easily be modified - change
dimensions, scale the whole thing up or down, rotate it, ... Rather
than a pencil or pen you use a mouse or a digiting tablet and
"pen" - no need for the Tsquare, triangles,french curves or even
one of those three sides scales.
And just because, once you have the computer drawing, it doesn't
mean you will mass produce the piece it's used for. These programs
and tools just make it easier to get an idea into a 3D wood object
or maybe on one. AND, once you've got the idea "digital" it's
pretty easy to try variations. A prototype of a piece done in say
poplar, or out here, redwood let's you work out unforseen problems
- before committing to mahogany or maple - or rosewood.
> I equate it to flat work.
> How many times have you heard people complain about cheap
> furniture and the lack of craftsmanship.No one does fine joinery
> anymore.
I'm sure there are Chinese craftsman who use triple mitered
joints with integral mortise and tenons and intricate mitered
saddle joints that think Stickley, Greene and Greene stuff or even
Sam Maloof's rocking chair blended joinery are "primitive" - in
part because they're so simple and in part because you can see
them so easily. High end Chinese pieces NEVER have grain
simply meeting at 90 degrees IF a mitered joint can avoid it.
And if it's at all possible to conceal the joinery - you won't
have any idea of how things were put together - even if you
remove drawers and stick your head inside a piece. And that
unseen joinery will hold things together without opening up
or failing - for centuries
Are variable spaced half blind dovetails considered fine joinery?
If you make them with a router, bit and dovetail jig - are they
still fine joinery?
Does it matter if a hidden mortise and tenon joint is cut by hand
or with a machine? Is "loose/floating tenon" mortise and tenon
joinery any less strong/effective than "true" mortise and tenon
joinery?
How about paneled doors? Is a cope and stick framed raised panel
door doenne with a router and set of bits less fine than one that has
the same joinery done by hand - with wooden profile hand planes?
Is a coopered door or box lid - with staves cut on a table saw and
held together with TiteBond II really any different that one made
from split wood that was hand worked to form the staves and held
together with hide glue?
Is a shelf that's joined to the uprights with a stopped dovetail joint
which happens to have been made with a router, bit and edge guide
any less fine than one done with hand tools?
How about an inlayed band in a groove cut with a router and
a precision fence like the Micro-Fence?
> They take up wood working and buy a Kregg jig and duplicate the
> same crap they complained about.
Some do, many don't. I'd venture to guess that some of the finest joinery and the highest quality furniture created in the US are done by amateur woodworkers who will spend the time, effort and money - to make their ideas for a piece of furniture, or a turning - as good as they can imagine - and sometimes even better.
But you don't start out in woodworking, be it furniture making out of solid wood, ply and solid wood, or turning - with all the knowledge, skills and abilities of a traditionally trained wood worker. So if you start with a bathroom vainity cabinet - face framed ply for example - and use pocket screws to hold things together in a way that a) does the job and b) doesn't show - and c) spend the saved time selecting nice wood and ply,pick the best grain for each part and on finishing it - what's the problem?
New woodworking tools come along that reduce the grunt work and lower the learning curve required to do something to within reach of more people. The laser engraver may or may not be such a tool. But it does open up some creative possibilities - if you want to think creatively.
