The Absurd Economics of Home CNC

[chilllucky]

I cannot believe how low the cost of entry level desktop CNC machines has become.

Let's say -hypothetically- that I've had an idea brewing in my head for a complex pipe shape. It's beyond my artistic abilities to draw by hand, so I put time into a 3D model. Now, here's where I have an advantage that skews the calculus - I work in advanced manufacturing, so I have access to licensed software and more importantly training for it which takes hundreds (or thousands) of dollars and dozens of hours out of the cost/benefit figure vs starting from zero.

With the model, I could 3D print as many iterations/versions/refinements as I wanted for pennies each. A printer would be less than $600. But the real thing I didn't know until today is that I could buy a desktop CNC router with 4th Rotary Axis for less than a grand, which I imagine is the minimum I would pay for the pipe to be made by an artisan carver one time who may or may not understand my vision and who may or may not have the ideal piece of briar to try it in.

It's not that I don't want to support a carver. It's between the fact that 1. I don't trust my communication skills to hand them a 3D print and say "this, but better. You know?" I am just not sensitive to the details that I've overheard high end carvers and collectors discuss at pipe shows. 2. For the same price as one attempt at the project, I could own the means to try again and again until it felt perfect in my own hand.

Crazy.

 

[BingBong]

I cannot believe how low the cost of entry level desktop CNC machines has become.

Let's say -hypothetically- that I've had an idea brewing in my head for a complex pipe shape. It's beyond my artistic abilities to draw by hand, so I put time into a 3D model. Now, here's where I have an advantage that skews the calculus - I work in advanced manufacturing, so I have access to licensed software and more importantly training for it which takes hundreds (or thousands) of dollars and dozens of hours out of the cost/benefit figure vs starting from zero.

With the model, I could 3D print as many iterations/versions/refinements as I wanted for pennies each. A printer would be less than $600. But the real thing I didn't know until today is that I could buy a desktop CNC router with 4th Rotary Axis for less than a grand, which I imagine is the minimum I would pay for the pipe to be made by an artisan carver one time who may or may not understand my vision and who may or may not have the ideal piece of briar to try it in.

It's not that I don't want to support a carver. It's between the fact that 1. I don't trust my communication skills to hand them a 3D print and say "this, but better. You know?" I am just not sensitive to the details that I've overheard high end carvers and collectors discuss at pipe shows. 2. For the same price as one attempt at the project, I could own the means to try again and again until it felt perfect in my own hand.

Crazy.

You could fake Brylons!

 

[Briar Lee]

Every lawyer should know about the Rule in Shelly’s Case.

This little iPhone I have is so smart, all I do is type or speak What is the Rule in Shelly’s Case and —-

Xxx

The Rule in Shelley's Case is a former common law rule of property law. It states that if a grantor conveys a freehold estate (like a life estate) to someone and, in the same instrument, provides a remainder to that person's heirs or heirs of their body, the remainder is converted into a fee simple (full ownership) for the initial grantee, effectively merging the life estate and remainder. In simpler terms, the grantor can't give someone a life estate and then have it automatically pass to their heirs; instead, the initial grantee gets full ownership.

Here's a more detailed explanation:

• Freehold Estate:
  This is an estate in land that is of uncertain duration. A life estate, where someone owns the land for the duration of their life, is a common example.
  
  
• Remainder:
  A remainder is a future interest in property that becomes possessory upon the termination of a prior estate (like a life estate).
  
  
• Heirs or Heirs of the Body:
  These are the legal successors to a person's property when they die without a will (intestate).
  
  
• Merger:
  The Rule in Shelley's Case causes the life estate and the remainder to merge, creating a fee simple in the original grantee.

Example:
If a will states, "To A for life, then to A's heirs," the Rule in Shelley's Case would apply. Instead of A having a life estate and then A's heirs inheriting, A would receive the entire property in fee simple, meaning A would have full ownership.

Xxxx

I see on television advertisements for a $199 estate planning package.

In theory you could have an AI program that would keep all the hillbillies like me scooping manure back in Humansville instead of earning a good living as a lawyer.

There’s going to be vested interests against cheap AI milling machines and estate planning programs and other such, you know?

There are learned and published distinguished professors who have Castello Sea Rock pipes.

If I had me one of them there cheap AI CNC machines with a 3-D printer, I’d just say —-

Make me a Castello Sea Rock.

Maybe I could recycle some of my Pre 54 Algerian briar clunkers.

 

[chilllucky]

Objection, your honor. Relevance?

 

[khiddy]

Some people just like to talk?

 

[Briar Lee]

Objection, your honor. Relevance?

All of the worlds problems got solved in the lobby of the UMKC Dormitory almost fifty years ago now.

The computer nerds then, predicted everything today except text messaging instead of Zoom.

From the first day I entered law school in 1980 there were several computers in the law library that had access to Westlaw and Lexis.

Westlaw - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

LexisNexis - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This little phone in my hand has incredibly more power than all the computers NASA used to send a dozen men to the moon.

Even a pizza delivery man’s job is threatened by drones.

Little thousand dollar CNC machines can be programmed to build $500 CNC machines, etc, etc.

I just gave my son our twenty year old Suburban and the lad will likely put a cam and lifters in the engine, and turn $500 worth of scrap into a $5,000 used car.

But General Motors can take $500 worth of scrap and make a $85,000 new Subruban.

But eventually, won’t the world run out of jobs that create this prosperity?

 

[chilllucky]

My central observation is that it's remarkable to me that the cost of the means to produce a theoretically infinite number of (probably not very good) pipes at home has equalled the cost to purchase one pipe from a reputable artisan.

There are still real, econometric reasons to chose the artisan carver. A cheap machine surely can't run fast or precisely enough to do anything more than rough out the shape. A more expensive version of the same tool still could only get to a semi-finished state as there's no way to sand, finish, and buff wood by CNC. And such a machine could cost as much as 10 finished pipes. You'd have to have the space to use it, the time to invest in learning it and it's attendant software(s). Etc etc.

I don't think the cost of mass produced items coming down is a harbinger of the end of meaningful work for humans, no matter which -ville they hail from.

 

[Briarcutter]

Blood,sweat&tears= handmade pipe. BST not CNC

 

[chilllucky]

I put great value on the experience, finesse, and ability to put one design into the larger context of "smoking pipes" that an artisan uses. None of which can be accomplished with a CNC no matter how expertly piloted.

But blood, sweat, and tears? At least a robot can be counted on to make a thing without spreading biohazards...

 

[quantumboy]

I cannot believe how low the cost of entry level desktop CNC machines has become.

Let's say -hypothetically- that I've had an idea brewing in my head for a complex pipe shape. It's beyond my artistic abilities to draw by hand, so I put time into a 3D model. Now, here's where I have an advantage that skews the calculus - I work in advanced manufacturing, so I have access to licensed software and more importantly training for it which takes hundreds (or thousands) of dollars and dozens of hours out of the cost/benefit figure vs starting from zero.

With the model, I could 3D print as many iterations/versions/refinements as I wanted for pennies each. A printer would be less than $600. But the real thing I didn't know until today is that I could buy a desktop CNC router with 4th Rotary Axis for less than a grand, which I imagine is the minimum I would pay for the pipe to be made by an artisan carver one time who may or may not understand my vision and who may or may not have the ideal piece of briar to try it in.

It's not that I don't want to support a carver. It's between the fact that 1. I don't trust my communication skills to hand them a 3D print and say "this, but better. You know?" I am just not sensitive to the details that I've overheard high end carvers and collectors discuss at pipe shows. 2. For the same price as one attempt at the project, I could own the means to try again and again until it felt perfect in my own hand.

Crazy.

I think that's a great idea! My career is in industrial robots, so I understand exactly where you're coming from. In my opinion (and this might get me a few frowns here), what makes a pipe a great smoker is pure engineering. Air pathways, shape and contour, etc. What an experienced carver who charges four figures brings to the table is their own access to superior briar, and beautiful, unique designs (while maintaining excellent performance). If the artistic aspect is not as important to you, then you ought to be able to make excellent smokers on your 3D machining center. Of course, you could do your prototyping on the 3D printer to get the aesthetics you're looking for, then make the real thing out of briar. Win Win.

 

[VDL_Piper]

What isn’t accounted for is the artisans ability to read the briar. A CNC machine looks at it a a block of wood, one that doesn’t have grain, plateaus, sand pits, non visible fault, all of which an artisan carver either removes or accents and then defines how a pipe shape will flow. All this and then you get perfection in fit, finish and artistic flair plus the knowledge that an artisans hands shaped a piece of wood that may still be smoked in 100 years time. IMHO no CNC machined pipe will ever convey all these characteristics, it’s just a factory pipe.

 

[huntertrw]

The Absurd Economics of Home CNC​

First, you machine the printing plates:





Next, you purchase a printing press...a really big, really good printing press:



And after lots and lots of work and a huge capital outlay, you find yourself in Federal prison:



Absurd, eh?

 

[warren]

it’s just a factory pipe.

Even "factory" pipes are "read" at various stages by trained, human eyes for defects and such and either trashed or, refined to fit the briar.

 

[mingc]

What isn’t accounted for is the artisans ability to read the briar. A CNC machine looks at it a a block of wood, one that doesn’t have grain, plateaus, sand pits, non visible fault, all of which an artisan carver either removes or accents and then defines how a pipe shape will flow. All this and then you get perfection in fit, finish and artistic flair plus the knowledge that an artisans hands shaped a piece of wood that may still be smoked in 100 years time. IMHO no CNC machined pipe will ever convey all these characteristics, it’s just a factory pipe.

So you're saying that a CNC machine can put The White Spot out of business?

 

[Briarcutter]

IMHO no CNC machined pipe will ever convey all these characteristics, it’s just a factory pipe.

Couldn't agree more. For me the thrill of art is knowing two hands and a mind made it.