I'd say that depends on what kind of machine shop.HTRN wrote:The problem with focusing on benchwork, is that it's not the majority of the job in the machine shop these days.
I do two things - very, very small scale manufacture and ( not so much nowadays ) prototyping and R and D
I really firmly believe that 85% of the machining process for people in my narrow line of work isn't about the metal cutting itself but figuring out a way to hold the workpiece while it's sitting on the mill table being machined.
On a mass production run in a large scale operation the cost of a specialist workpiece holding jig will amortise, it'll never amortise for me when the part is a one off, or an experiment. Best I can hope for would be to recycle the jig into something else later on down the line.
When it's that kind of situation it's good to be able to do accurate benchwork.
Plus it's about all the other things that Blackeagle and Chris point out. And I actually LIKE doing it
