You can say ‘it’s an operating expense’ but that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the shit breaks when you need it to work, especially if you are welding or sizing or just have machinists or welders being fucking idiots on the floor as they often are (because it is hard to not be a fucking idiot in a place that you spend 40-60 hours a week). Let alone fumes, grease, and dust. It’s an idea that sounds good but just doesn’t work imo. Paper just works better, and I’m not even a geezer.
You can have a computer on the shop floor (I recommend at least three within walking distance for layout design), but having a computer (or even screen) in every booth to run CAD through is dumb as hell. I knew this from working in a shop and I know it from experience when I was overruled by management because they got it into their heads from some networking guru that every booth needed a screen, half of which now no longer work after three months and aren’t going to be replaced. I still haven’t had the balls to say I told you so, but it’s annoying as shit to see stuff coming from a mile away. Maybe it works for the Germans and Finns, but our shops just aren’t nearly as clean as theirs are.
Sometimes it is nice to see the 3-D, but the print should tell you everything you need to know, and if it doesn’t then you have to talk to an engineer about it because someone fucked up. And if they aren’t making prints, it is totally up to the machinist’s discretion. Idk, I can’t even imagine not making a fully speced print for a design, it’s such an anathema to the kinds of products I work with. Even a small run has to have tolerances or the welders will literally have to feel out good parts from bad parts, which they do not appreciate.
You can say ‘it’s an operating expense’ but that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the shit breaks when you need it to work, especially if you are welding or sizing or just have machinists or welders being fucking idiots on the floor as they often are (because it is hard to not be a fucking idiot in a place that you spend 40-60 hours a week). Let alone fumes, grease, and dust. It’s an idea that sounds good but just doesn’t work imo. Paper just works better, and I’m not even a geezer.
You can have a computer on the shop floor (I recommend at least three within walking distance for layout design), but having a computer (or even screen) in every booth to run CAD through is dumb as hell. I knew this from working in a shop and I know it from experience when I was overruled by management because they got it into their heads from some networking guru that every booth needed a screen, half of which now no longer work after three months and aren’t going to be replaced. I still haven’t had the balls to say I told you so, but it’s annoying as shit to see stuff coming from a mile away. Maybe it works for the Germans and Finns, but our shops just aren’t nearly as clean as theirs are.
Sometimes it is nice to see the 3-D, but the print should tell you everything you need to know, and if it doesn’t then you have to talk to an engineer about it because someone fucked up. And if they aren’t making prints, it is totally up to the machinist’s discretion. Idk, I can’t even imagine not making a fully speced print for a design, it’s such an anathema to the kinds of products I work with. Even a small run has to have tolerances or the welders will literally have to feel out good parts from bad parts, which they do not appreciate.