Machining Work for an "Artist"...Is It Possible?

Good point. I do want to learn 3D CAD for my own projects, but for this friend, it may be the same story as you say, the only difference, us being in the office vs the shop. I just got an e-mail from him and he said he is working on a sketch for one part. Alleluia!

Phil
 
Good point. I do want to learn 3D CAD for my own projects, but for this friend, it may be the same story as you say, the only difference, us being in the office vs the shop. I just got an e-mail from him and he said he is working on a sketch for one part. Alleluia!

Phil

If you learn cad, you could do the basic work and then show him how to make the modifications to it. Certainly safer than turning him loose on your lathe.
 
As others have said, introduce your artist friend to Fusion 360. He can design to his heart's content and when he is finished hand you the model. I suspect that he will find Fusion intriguing.

In the business world, when a "job shop" is contracted to machine a product, a design is agreed upon and work proceed on that design. Any changes after that are considered engineering changes and there is usually a steep price to pay for those changes. Consequently, in any collaborative effort, all partiers strive to refine the design as much as possible before the first cut is made.
 
one possibility is to not let him into the shop while you are making the parts. This will require he communicate in advance (i.e. sketch, CAD, something). Then you can bring the finished part back and discuss what needs to be changed and update the Sketch/CAD drawing. Rinse and Repeat as needed. You might still have a lot of iterations but you will get to do the actual machining in peace and the Artist will learn how to communicate a 3D vision on paper.
 
Reminds me of some of my jobs in my consulting engineering days, working with industrial designers who had a vision of how the product should look, but were less clear on how it could actually be made to work. But the endless revisions were generally lucrative when I was charging by the hour... :)

OTOH, some of those guys are good. I was working on a marine galley stove project that my customer called in an industrial designer on. I did the original design, worked out how all the parts could work in a very tight space it was kinda a neat design and everybody liked it, but even though he liked it my customer said it looked too "engineered" and I suppose he was right. The ID/artist came in and made a couple of extremely subtle changes (slightly curved a couple of straight lines, etc.) and I have to admit it looked much better, like something you'd expect to find on the high end yachts it was intended for.
 
I can see that. Open up an Apple computer, get past all the stylish plastic and it's just another circuit board
 
It's not uncommon for an artist to make his sculpture out of clay, wax, styofoam, or whatever and then have someone else cast it in bronze.
 
FYI, there's a good tutorial on this forum for using the eMachineshop 2D CAD program: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/cnc-from-sketch-to-part-the-way-i-do-it.19633/
While it's only a 2D program (last I looked), the thread is easy to follow and I caught on fast.
I'm getting the impression your friend is worried about someone stealing his ideal, hence not wanting to give up much info.
If he's thinking about trying to patent it, he might want to research it some.
I had similar thought on a couple project I have in mind. What I found is that patents are RELATIVELY inexpensive to obtain, they are very expensive to enforce. Plan on hiring a patent lawyer just for the application.
IMHO, open sourcing it is a much better option and applying for a copyright, much cheaper way to go.
While a copyright won't prevent other businesses from producing and selling his idea, they can't call it the copyright name.
If it's something a business wouldn't be interested in producing, anyone with the capability to reproduce it for themselves can and probably will depending on price and ease of construction.
 
I had a guy (who was unable to see the difficulty for me to make it for him) pestering me for a part, I suggested some free CAD packages for him to download and learn with the promise I'd make the part if he provided a good solid model to work from.
I believe that particular project isn't coming back any time soon ;-)
 
I don't know, his philosophy works for me. If your not comfortable doing what he wants, teach him to do it himself.
 
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