I have lots of friends who are true artists. They are old school, and have worked for many, many years with old fashioned tools creating three dimensional art and signs. As you can imagine we often have spirited discussions about modern technology and it's place in our workshops. It seems that I have embraced 'the dark side' and gone with a CNC router while they have remained with their 'old fashioned' tools, still doing everything the old way. I still love working with my hands, and still have all my 'old' tools. I still use them regularly too. And that isn't about to change. But I'm more than happy to use my MultiCam to help me out too. It takes the sweat and drudgery out of many of the tasks I need to do.
I find it funny that they can use some modern tools while shunning others. They have the latest bandsaws, lathes, planers and sanders. Some use Dremmels or air powered die grinders. I see chainsaws and plenty of other twentieth century tools in their workshops. Some happily use well paid assistants to do a good portion of the labor. But they stop short of a CNC router. Somehow using this tool is cheating. I don't understand the logic.
I believe a dimensional sign or piece of art is worth the same no matter how efficiently it is made. Whether it takes days or hours is of no consequence. So why labor over something endlessly if I can use my MultiCam to speed things up. I can effectively use it to take the grunt out of my tasks and save my hands for the important bits and the finishing touches. I often will machine a part of a project and then purposely finish it by hand, purposely leaving hand tool marks in my wake.
A couple of years ago I attended a workshop given by a friend of mine - a very talented hand carver who demanded and got top dollar for his work. In the course of the lessons he showed us examples of his awesome work. I remember asking him how long it had taken him to produce a domed oval which was but one small part of a larger piece. He told me it had taken him a day and a half to accomplish. There was another identical oval on the back side of the sign. I was dumbfounded. On my MultiCam I could have done the same task in about an hour. He vigorously defended doing it by hand although I still don't see the reasoning. He could have at the very least roughed it out with a slight offset using a CNC router and then finished it by hand and saved many hours. His hard labor hadn't changed the price or quality of the work in the least... and neither would have it changed if he had done it with the help of a machine. I asked him if he had enjoyed working on that part of the sign to which he said no, it was kind of boring. The truth is he could have selectively chosen which parts to use a CNC router for and which to do the old fashioned ways.
I want the best of both worlds in our shop. I happily embrace technology and modern tools like the MultiCam and use them to help me do the things we do. I still save a good portion (the fun parts) of most jobs to do by hand. I believe there are some things I can do better that way. Faster too.
In choosing the machine I purposely selected a top end CNC router with all the bells and whistles. I chose MultiCam because it would allow me to think about the work I do and not about the machine I was using to help me do it. It's worked out pretty well so far. I know I would never want to go back to doing everything by hand. Sadly, my awesomely talented friend has recently packed up his hand tools and moved on to a whole different way of making his living. He says he simply couldn't make it working with his hands.
-dan
