It's World Water Day, some current Covid news, and an apt point...
Reading my new copy of Professional BoatBuilder I see there's a great review of a small portable CNC robot/machine that's pretty affordable as such things go (a kiss less than $4k).
It's really pretty cool.
The thing is, I've been thinking quite a lot about CNC use in boat building these days. It has a whole lot of advantages but I've yet to find it applicable to building dinghies or the sort of boat building that I do where it makes economic sense. That said, CNC would make a lot of sense for someone selling lots of kits or a production yard where they make a lot of boats.
It's really just all about scale.
l do have one issue where boat designs is concerned. I've noticed that some designers are moving towards designing for CNC. Recently I found an instance where someone selling a boat plan for CNC only which I find just a little bit worrisome.
As cool as CNC is, unless done on a large scale, it adds cost I'd rather not pay. Add in the fact that I've never found lofting and cutting out various boat parts difficult or problematic. Considering the speeds attained by most all of the CNC cutters for small shops that I've seen, a guy lofting and then cutting with a router or jig saw can kick some CNC ass in the speed department.
Not that I'm a Luddite or anything close but I worry that far too often we tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater when new tech gets brought into the mix. Then again, I'd be lying if I said I was not going to keep an eye on future developments of the Goliath system.
Listening to some covers of note
So it goes...
