Dear John, Engine turning is an art in its own. It was not until
the 1990’s that they were able to take a century old mechanical
technology and somewhat computerize it. However I would have to
say in all reality that sometimes it is very hard to replace the
original deal. For example, the computerized swiss screw machines
are only able to keep up with the shear speed of an automatic cam
machine by applying multiple spindles to the machine. If the end
result is the complex decorative accents you are after, then I
would say put your time and effort into the manual or automatic
engine turning machines. This allows greater flexibility than the
cad cam side of it especially with extreme shapes. Now, the
engine turning whilst great for the decoration side of things,
are limited in other areas. The cad cam is an extremely effective
tool for the manufacture of the items to be decorated. For
example, to press or stamp out the box shape, the best way to
make the tooling would be by cad cam. It would be capable of
machining extreme 3 Dimensional images onto the tooling to
produce items with decorations already in place. With thought,
utilizing cad cam and traditional methods in most cases
quadruples our power which in turn increases our potential
ability to produce higher quality items at a cost effective
price.
Hope I was of help. Look at my site and imagine with what you see there how
you might enhance your own skills if at all.
Best Regards.
Neil George
Http://www.cymro-jewelworks.com