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jeffffff | 1 year ago

we're not really close, for two reasons:

1) programming takes a long time, and it only makes sense to take the time to do it if you're making a bunch of copies of something. this is something that could be improved with better software and ux - if cad programs made it easy to just drag and drop joints from a joint library into your model then this would be a different story. a hardware+software solution could also work here, something like a cnc version of https://www.woodpeck.com/multi-router-group.html where the software makes it easy to scale the templates to your work piece.

2) setup takes a long time on the affordable machines. every time you change bits you have to recalibrate. positioning the work piece on the table and clamping/taping it down takes a lot of time. if you have to flip the work piece over then that takes even longer and positioning is even more critical, and programming is more complicated as well. regardless of whether your designs require cutting on one or both sides, you have to program tabs into your design so the router doesn't cut all the way through (or else the piece will move and the router will screw it up), and then you have to go back and cut the pieces out the rest of the way manually and trim off the tabs with a flush trim router bit. the high end production quality machines mitigate a lot of these issues, but now you are talking about a machine that costs at least $100,000 and takes up a whole room.

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