Thinking of creating a new organization. Junque Makers of America. I may need to work on the name a bit more.
It’s a for “fun” association. Making Junque is not a crime. It just becomes an awareness.
It’s for all the folks making needless piles of junk items with CNC machines just because they can. There may be uses for the Junque but it is very trivial.
It started when CNC controlled 3D printing took hold at the hobbyist price level. There is a desire to make “stuff” but no real purpose for the “stuff”. One manufacturer had to create a web site full of mostly Junque to print, just to sell their machines.
I became aware of Junque as I looked around my workspace at the many copies of 3D printed plastic just being displayed on my shelf space. No real need or purpose for most all of it. I was printing because I could. How many plastic coaster designs does one person really need?
Same idea for all the folk 3D printing skulls, human and otherwise. How many skull models are really needed? Just something that seemed cool to print at the time. I don’t do skulls, but I do have a LOT of plastic owls.
I have noticed a small backlash to 3D additive manufacturing with small, very small, desktop router machines appearing. Subtractive manufacturing it’s called. But the machines are so small and weak, they will only be useful for making more Junque. Machined wax is easy for these small machines to make, but as an end product is not very useful. I do it for use in Lost Wax Casting (LWC) Silver Jewelry.
Junque is like pornography. Hard to define but you know it when you see it.
For some people it may be difficult to admit they are hooked on Junque. Not the kind associated with drug use. Just the making of random items to watch the computer-controlled machine operate.
I propose they are identified as a Jun-que (yun-kew or perhaps yun-key) This is different than a junky (junk-key) of drugs. I.E. a CNC Junque!
CNC machines are a type of non-chemical drug. They can become an addiction. Some people may “do” CNC just for the high from watching them run. Perhaps a type of machine voyeurism. I don’t know. Don’t want to think too much about that.
Anyone willing to admit they are a CNC Jun-que?
Comments welcome.