Breaking The Pattern?

February 4, 2003

With all the machinery coming into the trade, maybe it’s time to ask the question: What’s CNC good for, anyway?
No, this isn’t from some Luddite wanting to turn back the clock to the good ol’ chisel days, where what worked for Michelangelo – let alone Luigi the Left-Handed, hammering out some countertops down the block in Firenze – should be good enough for anyone. Computerized fabrication gets the firmest backing here as the wave of today and the future.
Let’s take a look, though, at how we think about computerized-numerical-control machines and stone production. Some see CNC as the ultimate tweaking of the shop workflow to speed up and perfect the fabrication process. But … is that all there is to it?
Stone fabrication’s been on an automation kick for a long time, with programmable bridge saws and edging/polishing machines large enough to seemingly crank out custom granite bowling alleys. The CNC production center, with the capability to start with a raw piece and finish with a ready-to-install kitchen countertop (with literally the kitchen sink milled as well) is the ultimate in making products faster and better.
There’s no argument here that CNC does wonders for fabrication. With the demand for custom residential and commercial finishing work at an all-time high, the all-in-one production centers increase shop output and satisfy the customers. The precise work, meanwhile, ultimately leads to less waste and controls overhead costs – and that’s vital in preserving profit margins as increased competition lowers market prices.
CNC production brings a large touch of the assembly line to stone work, which could bring chills to many of the workers involved in what’s legitimately one of the world’s oldest crafts. Surprisingly, though, the protesting crowd seems to be very, very small, if it’s out there at all; workers often find out that the machines make their jobs easier, instead of taking them away.
And yet there’s that one word that may haunt that old-timer in the shop, or the owner of a long-time family business who once played hide-and-seek around the slabs out in the yard: craft. Oh sure, the countertops almost fly out of the shop, and installers do more-precise fittings with a lot less cuss work, but is something, well, personal lost in the process?
Letting romantic notions get in the way of making a $300,000+ purchase that could improve production isn’t the point here. The problem is that CNC machines can be seen as robotic devices providing factory-like output of finished stone, and buffing up the bottom line – and that’s wrong.
CNC can make your business run better, but just thinking of the process as a faster and neater way of cranking out a countertop sells all of these machines short. These mill-and-drill devices also hold the potential of creating stone work that even master carvers could only dream about, and shape pieces of true art.
In other words, the capabilities of CNC production aren’t bound by programming codes or spindle speeds. With no adaptation – except in your mind – these machines are tools of your imagination.
What’s happening now in stone production relates very, very well to sign making, an industry I also covered for well over a decade. The old ways of hand-painting letters and carving out wood blanks with a chisel gave way to computer-controlled plotters cutting vinyl (which, interestingly, is how some stone fabricators now create templates) and automated table-mounted routers.
The protests over these machines ruining the trade were hot and loud, but most sign makers eventually bought the devices … and, in short order, began reinventing their businesses. They went beyond simple lettering and cutting to producing intricate work that amazed the machine manufacturers and design-software publishers. Instead of just automating their shops, sign makers used their computer-driven production process as a creative tool.
The CNC machines in stone production offer the same opportunity, with the same ability to include custom patterns and inlays – and also break designers and architects of the square-and-rectangular image they’ve often had of stone. The difference between the perfect curve and the perfect angle is only a matter of numbers to the machine, but it opens a whole new world of possibilities to creative minds.
The abilities of CNC devices – along with their computer cousins in laser etching – also open the door to using stone for identification and personalization. Corporate logos, script lettering and photo renderings are just bits of code, but provide value-added features that can pay off handsomely.
Not every stone fabricator will find this kind of work fits in the business line, and there’s not a problem with that, either. If CNC production makes their standard products better and boosts their productivity, it’s a great investment and a valuable addition to the shop workflow.
CNC, however, can be more than an enhancement. It’s also something that can change how you use stone and create products that, frankly, you never considered before. It may not be easy at first – stone can be a fickle material under a whirring tool – but the results of imagination can be wonderful.
In fact, there’s a word for it: craft.