Machinist School - "X-ist" & "Y-ist" ... Existentialism

Machinists rarely ponder the questions, "Do I really exist? If so, where am I?

Those two questions form the basis of Existentialist Thought.

One of the famous Existential thinkers was Rene Descartes. He does not exist anymore because he died February 11, 1650.

He is famous for a statement, "I think, therefore I am." He figured that since he was thinking, there must be an active part of the cosmos that could (at that time) be described as Rene Descartes.

Rene needed to figure out a way to map the cosmos so that he could find himself so he invented a kind of grid system. Cities are laid out using his system. The streets run north and south while the avenues go east and west (or vice-versa). In mathematics, the X-axis is drawn horizontally on a wall while the Y-axis is drawn vertically. CNC (Computer Numerical Control) folks locate points using Rene Descartes grid system. The grid system is even named after Rene.

The grid system is called "The Cartesian" grid system.

One has to wonder, "If we only used the X-axis, would that be X-istential? Could there be a Y-istential?"

Machinists have a different method of answering the philosophical question, "Where am I?"

Machinists simply hit themselves on the thumb with a hammer. Then the questions of existence and location become moot points. Lawyers then ask, "What are the X & Y coordinates of a moot point?" But machinists always know where they are - "Right Here Sucking My Sore Thumb!"

Machinist School - See the Robotic Snow Plow

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tPg1ZMiC9pA

The link above shows some of the steps in the invention of a robotic snow plow.
.... Finding a Need, Computer Drafting and Simulation, Computer Machining, Product Testing ...
Sometimes people become machinists just so that they can build the things they want to make.

What is CNC?

Sea & Ski is a sun tan lotion.
Sea to shining sea .... that's America the Beautiful.
Scene C, that's like Scene 3, using the alphabet instead of numbers.
At a machinist school or machine shop, CNC means "Computer Numerical Control".
A lot of manufacturing personnel offices are not really aware of what the company does.
You will see employment ads for "C&C" or "C and C" machinists or programmers.
(I have not yet seen an ad for a "C in C" or "C un-C" machinist.)

CNC - Computer Numerical Control - is very much like an Etch-A-Sketch.
A cutting tool is moved along a tool path using left/right and up/down motions.
Instead of calling the directions left/right and up/down .... CNC programmers call the directions "X" and "Y". The cutter moves from one "x" position to another and from one "y" position to another. A given location will have an address (a pair of coordinates ... X,Y).

A computer memorizes all the x and y points, storing the addresses in a file known as a "CNC
Program."

Most people want to know about CNC because they heard you can make a lot of money in the CNC field. For the most part, the ones who make a lot of money in the CNC field .... well .... they are married to the boss's daughter. The boss's son, he makes about the same as everybody else.

Afterall, machinists (for the most part) don't make money. They make doo-dads, widgets, and thing-a-ma-bobs.