Hear that! A quick google shows companies still making track burners. They do have a place.I sure as hell couldn't doo any better by hand....
Down the street from the first machine shop I worked at was a fab shop. They had several track burners and used them on anything that had longish straight cuts. The. They would hand cut using templates connecting arcs. Then they got an “electric eye” tracer setup. At the time it seemed like magic to me how that could follow the line on a scaled print profile.