My personal CNC tale
Saturday, October 4th, 2008One day I knew I had a problem. I just spent 4 hours with my plasma cutter in my right hand. I had been cutting out patterns I had traced onto a sheet of metal.These interesting shapes were going to become my coffee table. Everyone complained to me that I didn’t have a coffee table. I thought, “I’ll show them” and began to build one.
Why make a coffee table out of metal you ask? The quick answer is that I wasn’t much of a woodworker at the time. On the other hand, I used to weld professionally and knew I could make anything out of metal. That is how it all began, making a coffee table out of metal.
Now if you knew me, you know that I can’t just make something normal. My brain is the scheming type that has to do things differently then the norm. I wanted to make a table that would knock people’s socks off. I thought a funky looking table, made out of metal, with casters and lights would do the trick. You know what? It did.
I really had a ball making this table. I mean I had serious fun. So much so that I started to design others. I began showing photos of my work to everyone I knew. On top of that, I was getting good feedback.I just came across a new hobby, it was furniture making. Who would have ever thought I would pick up furniture making as a hobby.
While making this first table a problem arose. It is the one I mentioned above with my right hand.After cutting out all those parts my wrist really began to hurt. While welding professionally there was always the threat of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.Human welders are continually afflicted by this injury and others because of repetitive motion tasks.
If you repeat something over and over and over and over, your body gives out at some point. After cutting up these table parts, I knew I couldn’t go on doing this for a hobby. I knew something would have to change or the new hobby would break my body.
