They look like a good machine

[cncman2]

how are they anyone using them (shopbot)?

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[E-Stop]

Shopbot was set up at a Sign Making Expo that we attended last year. Their equipment was very simple in design and seemed to work well. My partner was so impressed with them that he made a trip to North Carolina to visit their plant. He was very impressed but we didn't buy a machine. At the time we were considering expanding our shop to include a sign making facility and custom cabinetry. That project has been put on hold, but not completely dropped. We are now in the begining stages of building our own router. What kind of work do plan to do with it?

[cncman2]

I want to cut mostly plywood 3/4" thk.

[outland86]

I have a shopbot router which i purchased a month or two ago
they are great machines,but you must have a good handle on computers,cad,good assembly skills,mechanical knowledge,
these machines come basically unassembled and are tricky to set up..if you are looking for a turnkey system expect to add a couple of thousand to the price to have shopbot come and assemble and set the machine up..also..it will take you several weeks /months to make this machine do what you want as in any CNC router,,,so dont expect to make it rich off one of these for at least a year...do your homework first and learn cad!..

my two cents

[Zephrant]

I went up to see a 6'x12' Shopbot table last weekend. It was a neat setup, and the first full-size CNC router I've gotten a chance to look at. This one was setup on the factory stand, which was a nicely painted (blue) steel stand that looked plenty ridged.

This particular machine had not been fine tuned. The router was not perfectly vertical so one side of the bit dragged more than the other side (not a problem in though cuts) and some of the rollers were not adjusted well. However it seamed to do a nice job on the wood products that they were making.

The design where the gantry rides on "precision ground" angle iron was interesting. The rack and pinion drive was also interesting. It used dual servos on the X axis, and single servos on the Y/Z axis. The Z axis had a coiled spring to counter-balance the weight of the router, so it did not crash when the power was removed.

It looked like a reasonable setup, but I am unsure what kind of tolerance that it can keep. The web site claims 0.015", which is probably achievable with a well tuned machine. The one I was looking at was probably more like 0.025" or more.

I don't think it would do a good job on metals at all (which is not surprising, it is not designed for metal work.) The only thing that keeps the router from lifting is a couple of springs holding the X axis servos to the track, and the dead weight of the gantry. The Z axis also had room for it to lift, as it is not rigidly mounted to the rails, but lets gravity hold it down (with some safety rollers to keep it from being thrown off the track).

So I would not try to do fast precision pocketing in metal, but with good adjustment, I see no reason it can't do about anything in wood.

I also found it interesting that there were no mechanical stops on the Y or Z axis to prevent the machine from running off the ends of the table. I would like to see a bolt or two that stalled the head incase of a bad program (or a bunch of missed steps), rather than having the gantry roll off the end and crash.

The metal plate that is used to set the thickness of the material was neat. Is that a feature easily available for a home-built machine?

Zeph

[gevannos]

Hi all

New here and thought I'd add my 2 cents. I have a shopbot and have had it now for almost 2 years and love it.

Assembly is not all that difficult. I built my own table from the plans they provided (steel) and had that ready for the machine assembly. I allowed 2 days for assembly and tuning. I had a couple of friends over and we took our time and really got to learn the nuts and bolts of it.

We probably could have done it in 1 day then some tuning time, but we were shooting the breaze as well.

It went together exactly as the detailed instructions claimed with no guess work needed. The wiring went well and actually tuning it up only took about an hour.

By Sunday afternoon we were carving our kids names in some plywood.

If you are handy with cad/cam then you should be able to be doing what you are intending to do in less than a month (part time) but the learning never ends.

I use mine to cut boat kits for some boat designers as well as many household items (pantry shelves, etc.) and boat parts for my business.

In almost 2 years I have not had to do a single repair.

Just my 2 cents.

Eric

[DonFrambac]

I've had a ShopBot for 3 years. I also made my own table. It works real well for precision cutting with 1/32" bits.

ShopBot has a great web site:
http://www.shopbottools.com

[gevannos]

Hi Don

What brand bits of you use in your shopbot? I use Belin 1/4 solid carbide for most of my work.

Thanks
Eric

[hardmill]

Welcome to the forum.
Sit back, take your shoes off and enjoy.
Glad to have you here

[jsp]

For the last number of months I have been seriously looking at purchasing a shopbot. I have registered for "Camp Ottawa" in August.

I am a little hesitant as I have not worked with an 3d software before. Any suggestions anyone?
I am considering one for my small sign business. I currently hand carve all my signs and I keep thinking of what a shopbot could do in an hour compared to me by hand.

[gevannos]

Where are you located? I'd be happyt to show youmy machine.
I am in northern NY near Plattsburgh.

Eric

[Carver]

JSP If you want to do carving with a cnc, consider Rhino 3-d for your software. It is the only package I would refer a "new user" to start learning cad with. I allowed a $20,000 investment in another package to expire after using Rhino fort a while.

I have consulted with many wood shops setting them up on cnc. I think shopbot is a really great ( read that as the best ) value for 2-d or 2-1/2 d work, But you might be better of looking at one trying to do it before you jump in. The rigors of constant z-axis ( vertical ) moves required for carving has approximately the same effect os letting an impact hammer run on you gantry all day. The software that will fluidly do carving will be a little more expensive than most "milling" packages. Visual mill is a very good value that will allow you to do some fairly creative toolpaths to accomodate the complexity of cuts going through the grain in two directions at once.

Most of the low end tools that would spend even limited time on 3-d work will start in the mid to upper teens ( thousands)

Just my opinion, Best of luck.

Phill Pittman
digicarve@verizon.net
www.masterwerkes.com

[aterren]

The rigors of constant z-axis ( vertical ) moves required for carving has approximately the same effect os letting an impact hammer run on you gantry all day. The software that will fluidly do carving will be a little more expensive than most "milling" packages. Visual mill is a very good value that will allow you to do some fairly creative toolpaths to accomodate the complexity of cuts going through the grain in two directions at once.

Phill Pittman
digicarve@verizon.net
www.masterwerkes.com

Phil,

Are you stating that Visual Mill does a good job smoothing the z-axis movement, or suggesting that it's an acceptable low cost tool that with a bunch of fiddling will allow you to get by?