Q about CNC machines back in the 90s

I bought my CNC machine in the mid 90s it was an 80s model Mill/Lathe combo. My friend sold it to me to make a point. "That you can not simply press a button and parts come out." He also had a large one and was wondering how to put cranks on it. Ironically, I took the mill spindle of and made a permanent loan of it to the local maker space, which had a CNC but no spindle. I then put crank handles on the lathe.

What was litterally the cutting edge tech in the 1990s was EDM. (electronic discharge machining) also known as spark erosion. My freind subscribed to Home/Shop machinist which had plans. I build one of these, but it was scary. Never could find an electolyte that was practical. Choices were, Kerosene(paraffin), DI water (what my friends machine used) and some sort of special impossible to find oil. When we went to the Basel fair as part of the Horological tour, my friend bought a new swiss EDM for his tool and die shop. He gave me the operator manual for the old Japanese one which I think I still have. Not sure what happened to my machine, I took it to the Maker space to set-up, But I think someone tossed it during a junk cleanup day. I was going to use it to replicate some split second chrono and repeater parts.

Derick Pratt was using EDM at the time and wrote articles in the British Horological Journal about it.

The problem with these machines, is that one has to write a program, which in turn has to be debugged. The same issues arise with 3D printing, (why there are so many online 'parts repositories.' It also does not help that the big players like solidworks, do not make the software available to Hobbyist. Some of the software like Ashlar-vellum the Cobalt-Xenon solid modeling is highly specialized. After seeing this used in one of the Swiss factories, I found a copy locally in the silicon valley. In order to use it I have to run it on a 1990s or early 2000 era mac. Last I checked the upgrade cost more than I paid for the program. More that the company wanted to rent the program with a three month or one year license.

I have dozens of project to do with these machines, and have not done so over the last 20 years. I now have access to a laser cutter, but it does not do metal. Metal was done with waterjet, Edm or plasma. In practice, the output is as good as the X/Y lead screws on the machine bed.

Industry has it's own way of doing things. Usually with apprentice/trade programs, and with a brute force approach. Often the parts are drawn on one system. then the operator re enters all the data from the drawings into the G-code. Mostly the work comes down to building jigs and fixtures.

Swiss watchmaking, has been about automation, They tend to stay up on the leading edges of tech. I saw some pretty neat 3d metal printing machines on a tour of spaceX. would not surprise me if they were Swiss.

-j

Addenda: I forgot, For my Electronics engineering certificate in 1982. I re wrote a G-code intepreter to work from one computer time share system (HP200F) to run on a Pr1me system. (That no one remembers) I also did my final paper on restoring a high speed paper tape punch. The tech was old then (late 1970s early 1980s.)

-j

We used to get the chads out of the punch machines and fill some annoying person's desk drawer with them on days when work was boring.