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Alll that would accomplish is making them FASTER !

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A cynical, highly generalized comment.

I enjoyed your comments up to that point. A more accurate observation might include an acknowledgment that it is the desire of the consumer to ALWAYS to have a product they can depend on. There might be an industry in which this axiom can be ignored...but I can't think of one. Most manufacturers understand this as they automate their processes to that end. People aren't expendable but they certainly are the least predictable aspect of manufacturing. Make no mistake, people are the hardest aspect of manufacturing to manage. Personally, I never much liked having to "manage" people. That rubbed against my ideas about initiative and independence. I tended to project all that onto them. But that's beside the point.

Put yourself into the position of HAVING to produce a volume of guitars with a world class finish. Then note most of the comments in this thread. People generally don't like the hyper-tedious aspects of finishing. Hence, the development of tools to speed the process along.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Having reasonable amounts of cash automatically deposited into my bank account for every instrument I don't keep for myself.

What have my comments got to do with finishing? My comments of people being expendable referred to the fact that a machine can replace the work of a number of people. That's all I wrote. Nothing more, nothing less. If you think I implied something else then it's probably time you took a look at your own cynical mind.

You definitely need a CNC machine - with mine, I just press the cycle start button and the machine proceeds to make all my mistakes for me while I'm programming new mistakes up in my office.

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check out using a pottery wheel -lotsa low speed torque. build a corral to contain your body mold. it works wonderful.

for validation look at bashkin and somogyi.

i wouldn't mind something to automate scraping though, it's hard on the hands.

[/begin rant] as a working mfg engineer part of my job is to make people "expendable" so to speak, under the mandate of efficiency. business owners and mfg engineers are on the front lines here. but, people can be retrained and re-directed towards different tasks more often then not -sometimes with surprising success. it's amazing to see employees empowered with new confidence in their fresh skill sets and loyalty rises as well. every employee has value, unless a really poor hiring choice was made in the first place... unfortunately it's an ignorant organization that sees it's workforce as "expendable". these limited thinking companies wind up out of business or being acquired sooner or later impacting everybody with their incompetent business practices... [end rant/]

Slotting and profiling fret boards is the only thing that comes to my mind. Since I started French Polishing I actually like finishing now, not so much the pore filling though.

Ok one more thing, I'd like joining plates to be automated. I still waste a lot of time doing that.

Securing the commission.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

After hearing this from multiple builders, I'm thinking there's work for a good thumb breaker that understands a little about luthiery. That might help fund my own building. The problem is that I'd have to hire another thumb breaker to get the luthiers to pay ME!

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David Morris

For a low cost option, here's our copy of Lance's sanding setup (the side mold is pin located to the base, the center axle screws into the base). It's manual, but fast and easy since the cranking is all in 1 direction. Or route a groove in the rim and add a belt drive.

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David Malicky

You beat me to it. This is, by far, the biggest challenge. I wouldn't really want to automate it, but something better than what it is.

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If You Could Automate...

Automation eh...

just send the drawing to China...cheap like borscht, $50 and up in lots of 100 ~ with case. No fuss, no sawdust. Simple eh! (Plus shipping and customs)

Then of course you could just buy the suckers on ebay ready made.


Actually the truth be known, me gotts virtually every wood workers power tool or machine going...well not quite true...me don't got no bus to drive...but if me did, then me wood have to find a place to park the sucker.

Right!
Padma

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