We didn't begin to use CNC until summer, 1996. The idea has always been to take the quintessential guitar, model it in digital form and just keep making it over and over.
The inlay change was done decades before CNC, as a way to stiffen/strengthen the neck. It had nothing to do with any kind of automation.
Our oldest machine is still the most technically advanced and there's really nothing that new machines have that would be of much value to us.
Measure Your Girth Again
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Yep, and in that timeframe we were integrating DEC PDP 8A systems (and later 11), using lowly 8-bit punchtape (Hollerith card readers in the pricier stuff) in manufacturing control systems too.
But the issue was that the wide use of CNC had not yet descended into the small factory scenarios until much later than the 1950s and the early 1960s. It was used in the more-heavily capitalized industries like aerospace, defense shipbuilding, appliance manufacture, automotive, and other heavy-volume blue-chip industries who could afford the extremely high IBM prices at that time. After all, a full-up 360/370 system with appropriate batch IO was over $3M USD in 1970. Today, my laptop has 100 times the power, or more. Only after the very late 60s and the early 70s, when the next and much-broader layer of the pyramid down was exploited, did integrated process-control descend to small boutique manufactories like RIC in an affordable format, and with the advent of the Intel 4-bit microcontroller and its 8008-bred descendants, did the price point become affordable for operations like RIC. Now, that does not mean that RIC bought any even then. Most likely they did not, and instead continued manual operation for many years. But only at some much later point, long after the price point for CNC had come down significantly, like in the 1980s or even 1990s, would a boutique manufactory like RIC adopt CNC in its full programmable form, IMHO.
But the issue was that the wide use of CNC had not yet descended into the small factory scenarios until much later than the 1950s and the early 1960s. It was used in the more-heavily capitalized industries like aerospace, defense shipbuilding, appliance manufacture, automotive, and other heavy-volume blue-chip industries who could afford the extremely high IBM prices at that time. After all, a full-up 360/370 system with appropriate batch IO was over $3M USD in 1970. Today, my laptop has 100 times the power, or more. Only after the very late 60s and the early 70s, when the next and much-broader layer of the pyramid down was exploited, did integrated process-control descend to small boutique manufactories like RIC in an affordable format, and with the advent of the Intel 4-bit microcontroller and its 8008-bred descendants, did the price point become affordable for operations like RIC. Now, that does not mean that RIC bought any even then. Most likely they did not, and instead continued manual operation for many years. But only at some much later point, long after the price point for CNC had come down significantly, like in the 1980s or even 1990s, would a boutique manufactory like RIC adopt CNC in its full programmable form, IMHO.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and sit in with the band whenever you can, to keep your chops up!
I learned to code on PDP 8's, 10's and 11's and Sigma 7's, but the first machine we bought was a DG Nova which began operation on 11/11/73. We had a TTY with paper tape as system console, and about a dozen VDT's around the company. I also had a ASR33 at home with a 110 baud modem.
This was the first in a long series of machines we used for accounting, sales, warehousing, and rudimentary (by today's standards) engineering projects.
We were probably the first in our industry to adopt real-time interactive computing but consciously chose to be one of the last to introduce it into manufacturing.
This was the first in a long series of machines we used for accounting, sales, warehousing, and rudimentary (by today's standards) engineering projects.
We were probably the first in our industry to adopt real-time interactive computing but consciously chose to be one of the last to introduce it into manufacturing.
I started in computers by programming an NCR 390 (I think!) ledger machine in the early to mid 70s. Punch sheets 3' wide and about 6' long. If you wanted to go from debtors to creditors you could take lunch, have a chat with your co-workers for 15 minutes and still still wait another half an hour!
The general ledger was another story!!
Then I went to Fortran, Cobol and 68000 Assembler. Thankfully these days it's a high level compiled basic - easy as pie in comparison.
The general ledger was another story!!
Then I went to Fortran, Cobol and 68000 Assembler. Thankfully these days it's a high level compiled basic - easy as pie in comparison.
"Never eat more than you can lift." - Mr. Moon
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bob_atherton
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bob_atherton
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Jim, these are the shots from the ebay auction. It looks as good in the flesh as well.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=014&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=330074498906&rd=1&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=014&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=330074498906&rd=1&rd=1
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sloop_john_b
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sloop_john_b
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rickaddict
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