My father's friend is a carpenter, and he told him about saws that connected to computer.
He is a 60 year old and have no experience with computers, and his children neither.
So he knows that I have an experience with that and asked my father to ask me about it.
The saws which connect to a computer include CNC beam saws and CNC panel saws.
CNC beam saws (not panel saws which are a different thing altogther) are used to make break down sheet materials, such as MDF and plywood, and are generally used to cut multiples of sheets (up to 10 sheets at a time). They aren't worth looking at unless you are breaking down at least 2 tonnes of materials a day (or, say, 40 sheets of 8 x 4ft 18mm MDF). They typically require something in the order of 800 to 1000 square feet of floor space to accommodate them as well as a large compressor and a lage vacuum pump. They can all be programmed manually through the front panel. Even for a secondhand machine you are talking well into 5 figures (for a decent one), although they don't come up that often. New price, expect to pay the thick side of £40k for a lower spec model. Manufacturers include companies such as Schelling, Holzma, Biesse, etc
CNC panel saws require much more manual input and are designed for smaller firms processing up to about 20 sheets a day. The fences and crosscut stops are CNC controlled and they can generally download cutting programs from an office computer. Typical costs (new) are in the £25k plus range with secondhand (good condition machines) sometimes coming up for £10 to £20k depending on spec, condition, etc. Models available include machines such as the Altendorf F45 Elmo 4
CNC machining can also be done on flat bed CNC routers (or flat bed point-to-point machines) using an agggragate head, although they typically favour smaller-scale widely varying production, such as short run batches of flat pack furniture. Throughput can be massively increased by the use of sheet stock loader/feeder units and outfeed units. A typical machine with that sort of spec wouldn't come in for under £100k (less without the feeder options) and secondand machines will be extremely hard to find with the right spec.
Secondhand CNC machines can often be a complete nightmare due to lack of support and spares and it's worth noting that CNC manufacturers frequently charge £50 to £100 per hour (taken as all journeys starting from their office address) to have an engineer turn out and fix or service a machine. You'll need to have a competent engineer to install and configure the machine - anything from one to three days on a large CNC beam saw or auto-feed CNC router
Most beam saw operators have a backup coventional panel saw to cover periods when the beam saw is out of operation (e.g. servicing, breakdowns, etc)
He wants to buy a machine that connected to a computer and to take me as his partner if I learn how to do it and how to handle this machine.
To handle it you need to start by being a competent panel saw operator and being able to do sheet optimisation in your head. In larger operations sheet optimisation is done on a daily or shift session basis (sometimes on a batch basis) using specialist software (bought-in or rented). Please note that this is NOT CADCAM or AutoCAD, although CAD drawings do make it easier to extract the raw data to pass to the panel optimisation application (it isn't strictly necessary, though). TBH knowledge of computers in this field is simply of no use whatsoever. What is needed is an understanding of panel processing and workflow through the business as well as the costing model in order to select, purchase and impliment a solution. The saw and software are often only a part of this. Making the wrong choices could seriously damage or destroy the business
