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CNC WEST August/September 2018 www.CNC-West.com 57 different 5 axis machines. Why did you end up getting the Matsuura MX-330? Carl: Probably like a lot of other people. Recommendations from friends. I knew the software I’m using supports it. And, it was the local dealer where I knew I could get good service and support. I heard some horror stories of what people would probably consider higher end machines. I think we together had a bad experience with a higher end but unsupported machine at the Pier and I realized that a super high-end machine that goes unsupported or poorly supported is barely worth a nickel. And, really this machine was what we needed. Tim: Let’s talk about the latest news blurbs of Carl Bass teaming up with former interim Co-CEO of Autodesk Amar Hanspal to start an Autonomous Manufacturing start up called AutoLab AI. What can you share about that? Carl: I’ll share at least my role on it. People have it misun- derstood. A lot of people think I’ve gone and taken another job. Well let me tell you. This is a typical day for me. I’m here in my shorts working on my 5-axis machine. Tomorrow I’ll be over working on my canoe. That’s what I’m doing. I am on the board. Amar got appointed the CEO of a new company. They are interested in using software to do flexible manufacturing. They are using software to program robotic work cells. businesses where they work on their own things and then we work on projects together. Tim: So, you mentioned the robot sanding and polishing project. When I first saw that months ago I saw some peo- ple around here that I didn’t know. Is that something we can talk about? Carl: Sure. What I can say is that I’ve been involved in a lot of projects involving machines like CNC Machines and ro- bots. And what I’ve been doing is teaming up with the folks at Google to apply machine learning to a number of things. So, instead of teaching a computer to recognize a cat on the internet, wouldn’t it be interesting to teach a machine how to polish something just the way that we would using modern computer vision and machine learning techniques. That’s why we get them involved. Tim: I thought it would be fun to ask what your two favorite tools are? Carl: I have a couple of favorite tools. I have some Japa- nese wood working tools and one that I love is a rasp. It’s like a file made of a bunch of old hack saw blades. It is the best cutting thing. If I were to go to the store and buy one, it would be a cheap piece of crap that wouldn’t work very well. The other thing I like is when a tool does something clever. For example, I have a little German tool for finding the center of round things. On the expensive tool side, I think the thing that I’m most delighted by these days is the Waterjet. We all appreciate what a nice CNC machine does, but the fact that a Waterjet can offload a lot of really mundane jobs like cutting something with a plasma and then grinding on it or roughing a lot of parts that would nor- mally be mostly turned into chips. It’s just a nice work flow for what we do. Tim: I watched you take about two years of looking at Tim: Manufacturing is very broad. What will AutoLab be doing? Carl: This company is a spinoff of Flextronics. And, if you think of the kind of things that Flextronics build they will be doing that kind of thing. So, they will be building a software and services company to support that. Amar and a good friend of mine Mike McNamara (CEO-Flex Ltd.) started this together and asked me to be on the board. So, I am a board member just like I am with many other companies. Tim: I think a lot of people would like to know what your thoughts are on the direction Autodesk is heading since you have been gone. Any thoughts on that? Carl: I think about it the same way you think about a house that you sell. When you drive by you are interested to see what they have changed. But, you don’t get upset if they’ve painted it green or moved things around. You just look with curiosity. I’m just having fun with my projects now. M y full conversation with Carl was longer than this article allows. It’s always a treat to chat with Carl about what he is working on, with all the tangentially related conver- sations that come. I was hoping to break some news on Au- toLab AI. But it looks like Carl just holds yet another board seat. I think it’s safe to say that Carl is enjoying his retire- ment from Autodesk with his constant steam of projects. If the saying, “he who dies with the most tools wins” has any merit, I think Carl is in a good spot.