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To Joebolt, How do Hobbiests justify funds? "I want one." Part of the definition of "Hobbiest."

I use my ShopBot in my business of making hand weaving looms. Some weavers view their looms as tools and others as fine furniture. It is all in the customers viewpoint.

I do not make all the parts for the looms on the 'bot, only the ones, and only those steps on that part, for which it makes sense to use the 'bots capabilities.

To MLZettl, he's absolutely correct, CNC is a tool...no better than the workman using it.

My ShopBot does only what I tell it (program it) to do. However right, wrong, brilliant or stupid the instructions may be, the 'bot brainlessly follows those instructions.

My Delta table saw cuts only what I push across the blade; right, on the line, wrong, not on the line, brilliant, exactly the right angle and length, stupid, thumb.
My chisel cuts only where I place it; see table saw above.

To tkarlmann, is not the hand wood carver just "cutting out a part from a block of wood?" What does he do with the "huge part left over?" I submit, just like the CNC craftsman, he cuts another part out of it. Do any of us just cut a small part out of a big board and throw the rest away? NO, we all have scrap bins that we constantly pull from. As to "those finishing coats of spar varnish," I submit you have a car in your driveway or garage that had the "finishing coats" of paint and clear coat applied by a CNC machine. It's all in how you, the craftsman, use your tools and what tools you choose to use to do the job at hand.

To Fine Woodworking; the first poster, epirnik, summed up all the later posts most clearly, Is FINE WOODWORKING ready for CNC machines?

Off to the shop...