THIS DIGITAL AGE

Our cover story this issue is about setting up your own CNC router in a home workshop. Who would have thought that such an amazing piece of kit would become available for home workshop use at such an affordable price? It is an incredible asset to a busy home workshop as it can perform many, many tasks that are usually the domain of large carpentry or metalwork businesses. This router works out at about $1400 all up, not bad eh?

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised; we have been enjoying this glorious digital age for some time now — what do you reckon, 30 years? When I started in this magazine publishing lark back in 1989, it was my introduction to a computer: an Apple Macintosh. It was used for page layout and design, and was just like a typewriter except it stored the words inside the box rather than printing them out onto a piece of paper — what magic is this?

At the time, I presumed that a computer would be used only for commercial purposes; who would have known what was to come — some clever folks, that’s for sure.

In those years since then, just look where technology has gone. To me, 30 years seems a short period for such a huge revolution but some may disagree. The tech in the phone in our pockets truly beggars belief, and it’s good just to appreciate what we have now in this age of technology and how much it has aided and improved our lives — and, of course, our shed workshops.

As computers got faster and smarter, their ability to create increased expeditiously at the same rate and that enabled the crazy rate of change, innovation, and growth we have seen in this technology revolution.

What this means in 2022 is demonstrated so well in Nigel Young’s article on the $1400 CNC router set-up. In this strange pandemic world we are living in now, it may be the dawning of yet another new industrial (tech) age. Maybe a time when we return to cottage industries because not only can we now create almost anything at home but it’s also somewhat safer to work alone or in small groups and then promote our skills and wares on the greatest technology creation of them all: the Internet.

What a golden age of change and innovation we are experiencing; aren’t we lucky!