Imagine this: You’re lying in bed, thinking about a beautiful new end table you would like to build, with maple for the casework and walnut for the framing. You mentally run through a list of furniture styles and settle on Krenov. You know this is a complex style, but you are sure you have the skill and ability to create a professional piece. You connect to your neural link, mentally call up the appropriate file, and think: EXECUTE.
You hear the machinery in your shop begin the process of wood selection as you drift off to sleep. The next morning you walk out to the finishing enclosure. It has automatically vented, and the UV finish that was applied is hard as a rock. The end table is perfect, of course. You admire the flush joinery and the flawless finish. You congratulate yourself on your woodworking skills and the amazing furniture you build.
Given the rapid pace of technological progress, this future is not far off. Woodworkers already use CNC (computer numerical control) machines to cut their wood into perfect pieces ready for assembly. Already we have cabinets cut by computers that require nothing more than simple assembly. We have other technology that could be easily adapted to woodworking. With computer programming, we could automate the process from CNC to assembly mechanisms and finishing spray rooms.
Is this really woodworking? If the use of CNC is considered woodworking, why wouldn’t this fully automated future also meet that test? Progress has always challenged us to rethink what our life and efforts mean. Power tools changed woodworking throughout the 20th century. Some craftspeople consider hand tools to be the only implements that “real” woodworkers can use, rejecting power tools as cheating.
To me, the answer is that using CNC still requires considerable handling of the wood before it can become furniture. Rather than opening a box, woodworkers must first program the machine to cut the specific parts needed for the project, then choose their wood and load it onto the bed of the CNC. The woodworker also has to take the CNC-cut wood and prepare the parts for either prefinishing or assembly.
While I suspect that there will always be some semblance of what we now consider “woodworking,” I can see a time when computers have become the dominant and, eventually, only tool used by most people to create furniture and other wood objects. I hope that one of the various woodworking conventions considers it worthwhile to present a roundtable discussion on the future of woodworking before we surrender the beauty, originality, and authenticity of the craft to artificial intelligence.
—Tom Waltman, Elk Grove, Calif.
Editor’s reply: Thanks for the note, Tom! Because woodworking always involves some sort of tool between us and the wood, the form that tool takes will always be up for debate. For me, and likely many readers, a big deciding factor is in the nature of the experience that a tool offers. Some of us are happiest at the workbench putting a hand tool to work, while others (myself included) find joy in engineering an effective machine setup. Still others like to embrace the latest technologies. I look forward to hearing from other readers regarding the work they find most rewarding in the shop.
—Mike Pekovich
Fine Woodworking Editor and Creative Director
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