"I am not interested in this project. Thank you for your consideration."
What is wrong with that? I have had "projects" that I was not in to and pretty much said the same thing....Not being rude not being a jerk just not my thing....
I just spent 2 hours and wasted 2 blanks trying to get a "one off" board cut for a client.
I wish that I would have said"I am not interested in this project. Thank you for your consideration." -
Btw, I own 3 cnc machines run all cad programs and have operated a cutting service since 1996 so I am pretty good at it.
Matt
Yeah, I would be frustrated if I owned a CNC machine and it didn't work like a toaster. When I walk up to a toaster, I pop a piece of bread in, push the button, and out comes toast a minute later. Some engineer put a bunch of hot filaments inside the toaster and it cooks the toast while you read the morning paper.
Some engineer did not give you the correct mechanical devices - cutting heads, belt-driven pulleys that move the carriage, etc., etc.., or perhaps a software glitch, or whatever. The machine should give you an audio command - something like ok, "grab a 7'0HPSB blank with HG8 rockers or whatever and place it in the machine." Robots should be smart at doing little algebraic things like figuring out how to pass the cutting head over a board and acheive a final shape. When I finish building my own CNC, it will do that, I guarantee it. I've built giant laboratories before that are every bit as complex - with sample manipulators, electron beam-heaters, etc... I now have some pieces, a motor, the ends, and I can rewrite the software, so I'll get there. I don't think it's that big a deal to get a CNC machine built and working.
But you, the CNC shaper, should not be in agony. However, it sounds like the CNC operators also know the art of shaping a board so perhaps you all have been accepting this poor state of affairs since you can fix up the boards and use the CNC machine in a more "real-world-knowledge" fashion. But two hours and two blanks is too too much time.
Meanwhile I am half-finished two boards I've hand-shaped and they will turn out fine. And I can get boards cut by various people when I need to. I stopped shaping and designed a vacuum system but while I'm building a gate, I have no room to shape boards right now, that's all. I can't fit my shaping stands anywhere until I finish the gates. So another guy will cut some boards for me and it will cost me some money but no time. I won't be there holding the guy's hand while he wrestles - he will do ALL of the wrestling just as a CNC machine design engineer should put all the stuff in that you the shaper need. If he doesn't do this, he didn't do his job. It's NOT rocket science.
I will also delve into why those cross-sections sometimes get weird. I add them using a function "AddCrossSections". But once I delete those cross-sections, the boards are fine. I'm sure it's some very trivial little problem that will be solved.
I'm not at all worried about these problems.
The industry needs to get out of the cruise-line quality and get up higher in reliability. Perhaps one has to pay more and more money but I think even a cheap system can be tweaked until it gets a pretty decent board.
Where one guy's job ends, another guy's job begins. Someone did not do his job for you - either you or someone else. Or else perhaps the files you got have a problem. So the industry needs to cleanse surfboard files so they don't have junk in them.
Silmarzio, let's pretend a cad file is perfectly designed with no stray points, tangents or.....?? Or any of the things needing fixing before I start.
You tell me that your design fits Into a 69ea. Great let's get to work but half way through the cut we find out that your deck dome doesn't fit the blanks dome. As a good machine operator, I stop and restart the cut deeper into the deck. Easy solution but I lost maybe 10 minutes. What if your design just fits the blank but the blank is twisted? Same trouble except I then miss on the bottom, blank ruined at my expense or tell the customer "not problem"? That never flies. More often or not a one off design is so close to the tolerance of the blank that rejects are common. On those we must run a few test passes to make sure we can get the cut out of the blank. More time and time is money.
I have people giving me files and blanks that are 1" narrower than the file given. That should never happen but it does and I must measure every customer supplied blank that they bring me or else ruin even more blanks.
Most problems start with the designer and falls on the shoulders of the machine operator so most machine owners that I know will not take small orders that do not have enough profit to cover the time and rejects. I guess that we could charge more but how much more is worth it?
Matt
From what you say, there is an art and it takes an experienced/creative CNC operator. I try to get a blank file onto a computer and then I move it around to see if the design board will fit nicely in it, perhaps by shaving the middle of the bottom off or something. But if someone changes the rocker too much - watch out - you've lost the tail thickness of the board. The nose is usually more forgiving. It sounds like you know what you're doing - I didn't realize that the machines were so troublesome for the operator, who is now basically a shaper. Each of my first two boards has a slight problem - the first one, I made the right rail a little too thin so I built it back up with some gorilla glue and redwood strips - now I just need to reshape that - not too bad a job. My other board had slightly too thin a tail so I cabosiled it up a little - now I have a little shaping there. But the left rail of my first board came out really nice - I should probably digitize it.
So I need to clear the wood and junk out of my garage and make room to finish my boards. Meanwhile, another guy will CNC shape some of my other designs and it will cost me some money.
kazuma wrote:
Silmarzio, let's pretend a cad file is perfectly designed with no stray points, tangents or.....?? Or any of the things needing fixing before I start. You tell me that your design fits Into a 69ea. Great let's get to work but half way through the cut we find out that your deck dome doesn't fit the blanks dome. As a good machine operator, I stop and restart the cut deeper into the deck. Easy solution but I lost maybe 10 minutes. What if your design just fits the blank but the blank is twisted? Same trouble except I then miss on the bottom, blank ruined at my expense or tell the customer "not problem"? That never flies. More often or not a one off design is so close to the tolerance of the blank that rejects are common. On those we must run a few test passes to make sure we can get the cut out of the blank. More time and time is money. I have people giving me files and blanks that are 1" narrower than the file given. That should never happen but it does and I must measure every customer supplied blank that they bring me or else ruin even more blanks. Most problems start with the designer and falls on the shoulders of the machine operator so most machine owners that I know will not take small orders that do not have enough profit to cover the time and rejects. I guess that we could charge more but how much more is worth it? Matt
Wow, it's almost like deja vu. I heard an account of this exact situation - right down to the 3 boards - about 4 years ago and involving a first time customer here in this region.
Of course, there is where the similarities end. See, in that situation it was 3 machine operators and the backstory was the first operator supposedly put the word out that the customer was high maintenance and a bit of a drama queen. So they all refused to do business with him on the basis of expediency. As the story goes, they all had a little laugh between each other over it.
Those darn CNC operators must be much harder to do business with than your average custom shaper - now THERE is a group of businessmen who know what a 48-hr deadline means.
Live action. Here is a customer supplied blank, check this cut over 1.5" deep. This doubles my cut time, I wonder if he will be OK with me charging twice as much? I completed the order as promised but set back the delivery of another job and I missed the evening surf session.
It's a matter of supply and demand.
Customer is king when supply is higher than demand.
Supplier is king when demand is higher than supply.
Kings are rude. Don't try to be king when you're not.
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Hans,
Beautiful summation.
First thing you should or rather *should not* do is blast someone's business online.
That's chicken$#it imo.
So the guy doesn't want to cut your boards. Move on.
No law saying he has to. It's fully his decision.
Grow up while you're at it. Posting this garbage on a public forum is, again, chicken$#it.
Also,
"2) Find someone to represent me?"
Like, legally? Seriously?
Yeah, I would be frustrated if I owned a CNC machine and it didn't work like a toaster. When I walk up to a toaster, I pop a piece of bread in, push the button, and out comes toast a minute later. Some engineer put a bunch of hot filaments inside the toaster and it cooks the toast while you read the morning paper.
Some engineer did not give you the correct mechanical devices - cutting heads, belt-driven pulleys that move the carriage, etc., etc.., or perhaps a software glitch, or whatever. The machine should give you an audio command - something like ok, "grab a 7'0HPSB blank with HG8 rockers or whatever and place it in the machine." Robots should be smart at doing little algebraic things like figuring out how to pass the cutting head over a board and acheive a final shape. When I finish building my own CNC, it will do that, I guarantee it. I've built giant laboratories before that are every bit as complex - with sample manipulators, electron beam-heaters, etc... I now have some pieces, a motor, the ends, and I can rewrite the software, so I'll get there. I don't think it's that big a deal to get a CNC machine built and working.
But you, the CNC shaper, should not be in agony. However, it sounds like the CNC operators also know the art of shaping a board so perhaps you all have been accepting this poor state of affairs since you can fix up the boards and use the CNC machine in a more "real-world-knowledge" fashion. But two hours and two blanks is too too much time.
Meanwhile I am half-finished two boards I've hand-shaped and they will turn out fine. And I can get boards cut by various people when I need to. I stopped shaping and designed a vacuum system but while I'm building a gate, I have no room to shape boards right now, that's all. I can't fit my shaping stands anywhere until I finish the gates. So another guy will cut some boards for me and it will cost me some money but no time. I won't be there holding the guy's hand while he wrestles - he will do ALL of the wrestling just as a CNC machine design engineer should put all the stuff in that you the shaper need. If he doesn't do this, he didn't do his job. It's NOT rocket science.
I will also delve into why those cross-sections sometimes get weird. I add them using a function "AddCrossSections". But once I delete those cross-sections, the boards are fine. I'm sure it's some very trivial little problem that will be solved.
I'm not at all worried about these problems.
The industry needs to get out of the cruise-line quality and get up higher in reliability. Perhaps one has to pay more and more money but I think even a cheap system can be tweaked until it gets a pretty decent board.
Where one guy's job ends, another guy's job begins. Someone did not do his job for you - either you or someone else. Or else perhaps the files you got have a problem. So the industry needs to cleanse surfboard files so they don't have junk in them.
From what you say, there is an art and it takes an experienced/creative CNC operator. I try to get a blank file onto a computer and then I move it around to see if the design board will fit nicely in it, perhaps by shaving the middle of the bottom off or something. But if someone changes the rocker too much - watch out - you've lost the tail thickness of the board. The nose is usually more forgiving. It sounds like you know what you're doing - I didn't realize that the machines were so troublesome for the operator, who is now basically a shaper. Each of my first two boards has a slight problem - the first one, I made the right rail a little too thin so I built it back up with some gorilla glue and redwood strips - now I just need to reshape that - not too bad a job. My other board had slightly too thin a tail so I cabosiled it up a little - now I have a little shaping there. But the left rail of my first board came out really nice - I should probably digitize it.
So I need to clear the wood and junk out of my garage and make room to finish my boards. Meanwhile, another guy will CNC shape some of my other designs and it will cost me some money.
Wow, it's almost like deja vu. I heard an account of this exact situation - right down to the 3 boards - about 4 years ago and involving a first time customer here in this region.
Of course, there is where the similarities end. See, in that situation it was 3 machine operators and the backstory was the first operator supposedly put the word out that the customer was high maintenance and a bit of a drama queen. So they all refused to do business with him on the basis of expediency. As the story goes, they all had a little laugh between each other over it.
Those darn CNC operators must be much harder to do business with than your average custom shaper - now THERE is a group of businessmen who know what a 48-hr deadline means.
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