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Cleaned out my old toolbox and found a logbook from my first shop job
I opened it up and saw I'd logged 10,000 parts run on a Bridgeport Series I back in 2005. That number hit me because I was just a kid then, feeding that machine by hand all day. It made me realize how much of the work now is just watching the cycle and hitting buttons. Anyone else miss the feel of running an old manual machine sometimes?
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cole3569d ago
My buddy Dave ran a manual lathe for years. He could tell you the exact sound a perfect finish made. He got moved to a CNC cell last year and told me, like carter.gavin said, he feels like a button-pusher now. He misses knowing the machine in his bones.
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jamesm389d agoTop Commenter
Dave could really tell a perfect finish just by the sound?
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carter.gavin9d ago
Yeah, and it's not just the feel of the machine. You learned the whole part, every cut. Now you just know the program. You could run that old Bridgeport blindfolded by the end, but I couldn't tell you the feed rates on my current job without looking at the screen. Makes you a different kind of skilled.
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