On a similar note:
We gave our daughter a Romba - you know - one of those cute little automatic sort of robotic room sweepers that were all over the tv screens several years ago. Anyway, she called to say she loved it, that it did a good job, but that it did not save her any time when cleaning the house. She went on to explain that watching the little rodent clean was entertaining and instead of turning it lose and going on to other pursuits, she turned it on and sat down to watch it. Said she wasted a lot of time like that!
I have had similar experiences when working with my small Taig cnc mill. It is fun to watch and listen to as it goes about its programmed chores. Before I got comfortable with the machine I would watch it for hours. It is, after all, small and slow. But in the Taigs defense, it will cut parts that would be next to if not totally impossible to make manually. The addition of a 4th axis has opened up a new arena of entertainment. There have been times (after much trial and error) recently when I have actually been comfortable enough with its operation to walk away while its running and machine manual parts on the lathe.
Bob@BobsShop - drawing, proramming, whistling, and cutting.