[RedRiver]

Personally, being a Journeyman Tool & Die Maker for over a decade now and a CNC prgrammer/setup man, I know first hand that the parts produced on a CNC machine, be it a lathe or milling center can most certainly be duplicated on conventional machines. Both types of machinery have their pros and cons.

The biggest advantage that CNC equipment has over the conventional "old school" machinery is speed. If you have 100 pieces to manufacture, taking into consideration the setup and programming time required for CNC equipment, chances are you are still going to produce you 100 parts much faster than on a conventional machine. Isn't this what CNC was designed for in the first place...Production? The other biggest advantage to CNC equipment is repeatablility. Assuming your tooling holds true from start to finish and with a little operator supervision, the first part produced will essentialy be identical to the last part produced. The biggest disadvantage to CNC equipement is obviously the price tag.

Not just anybody can program or setup a CNC lathe or mill, however, a monkey could run one (maybe 2 at a time). As long as the zoo had one CNC programmer/setup man, the monkey cage at the local zoo could produce shuttle parts for NASA. This is where my love for conventional machinery stems from...A monkey couldn't walk up to any conventional lathe and cut a 2mm pitched thread inside a 4" diameter tube end without a few "F-sharps" or some in depth trainning. Monkeys hit the green "Cycle Start" button on CNC equipment everyday...All day. I guess its just my pride and love for the true "art" of conventional machining talking...Don't mind me!