A bit of a conundrum.......

Been getting a bit of a stirring in the nether regions this week regarding the potential offered by laser cutting. Basically the plot is, if it can be imagined and drawn in two dimensions on CAD then it can be turned into metal. For all intents and purposes, a laser cutter is a plotter with a cutting tip instead of a pen.


(Scanned picture, please excuse the wobbly appearance.)

This is the foundations of the back number plate bracket that was knocked up in about 20 minutes at lunchtime. There's still aways to go yet, but matey 'round the corner could and would cut it out of mild or stainless in no time flat.
So I showed a bloke at work who's got a Harley where I am going with the bracket, and he says "Yeah it's alright, but it ain't engineering is it ?. It's a machine doing the work"
That kinda threw me for a while, is he right? Then I started to think, if I'd have sketched the piece up, marked out a piece of plate and chain drilled it, then finished it of with a file I would have been made up to end up with the same piece. But then chain drill with an electric dill or with one of those hand drills with the handle on the side. Or one of them bow type devices that David Attenborough waxes lyrically about when native type blokes in the jungle make things? Just how far back do you go for authenticity?
So I decided, if the technology is available, have some of it! I went back round and told him Bollocks