The thing that gets me is that the mechanisms are beautiful... but most of the time you don't get to see it.

Ultimately, I fail to believe that a handmade watch is so much better than a machine made watch. 20 years ago, maybe, but we live in an age of 3d printing and CNC machines that can produce exponentially more accurate results than a human ever could.

Don't get me wrong, there's incredible talent and skill gone into making this, but the "handmade" thing is just an excuse to charge more.

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I always had wondered why humanity developed CNC machines and 3D printing. Now I know.

I'm not so sure. Give a kiwi bloke a problem, a shed and some tools and you'd be amazed what they can do. I have two friends who have built their own CNC machines and are using them to manufacture snowboards and ultra light weight bindings.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of a bloke in his shed...

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I work in a CNC machine shop programming lathes. That isn't aluminum they are machining. It's definitely steel, probably 4340.

Carbide inserts are more than capable of cutting metal without coolant. Well formed chips absorb and carry most of the heat away. You start to run into problems with gummy materials (like aluminum) that form a built up edge on the cutter. In this case high pressure coolant can be used to help break the long stringy chips and keep them from sticking to the insert.

One case where using coolant can be detrimental to tool life is when machining a part with an interrupted cut. Think of sliding your finger over a surface with a bunch of holes in it. Your finger switches back and forth between making contact with the surface and gliding over empty space. In the machining world, this motion would cause abrupt transient temperature changes, and coolant can sometimes exacerbate the problem and cause the carbide insert to crack or chip.

(pedantry) I would hesitate to call that machine a mill. You can see the machine switching freely between rotating the part to provide the cutting force (turning) to rotating the tool (milling). It's more akin to a horizontal turning center with a milling spindle built in as well. Pretty awesome stuff! (/pedantry)

I'm surprised there is no cutting fluid being sprayed on it. Most all the multi-axis CNC machines I've seen (not many, admittedly--not my department), required a pretty constant flow of oil. Is this some advancement in cutting tool technology, or is it just that aluminum is soft enough not to need it?

I understand NASA has used 3D printing to create fuel injectors (or something like that) for rocket engines with considerable success. Since it's a solid metal shape with lots of vacant internal channels, there would otherwise have to be a lot of design and construction concessions if it's going to be cut or forged. I suspect that sort of 3D printing will be quite revolutionary for manufacturing once it doesn't cost stupid amounts of money.

Read this story - http://gizmodo.com/6-500-silk-worms-spin-one-heck-of-a-cloud-510908939
Silk Pavilion consists of 26 silk polygons which act as the structure of the piece. Made of silk thread laid by a Computer-Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine, the polygons were a template on which to place 6,500 silkworms which produced natural, unprocessed silk patches. The silkworms worked until the whole structure had been covered.

The CNC used an algorithm that had analyzed the patterns in worm-generated patches of silk, and then produced the first level of structure. The silkworms themselves created the second level, working as a sort of natural 3D printer. This gets to the heart of the piece as an interplay between natural and digital construction. The next trend in interior design should definitely be loosing thousands of silk worms on your house and letting them redecorate.

6 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

>> ^eric3579:

dope


Oh yeah... *dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Bike-Fun-Machine-makes-a-helmet

Wish I had a giant CNC machine :<

so you take a regular CNC machine, replace a chunk of metal w/ a sheep, replace a drillbit w/ a cutter and load up file 'sheep_trim_v3.txt'
it'll follow a pre-programmed contour and motions.
if your sheep is a bit fatter, tough luck

His boss later that day : "Why is there sawdust in the CNC machine?"