7/14/07
Paco (Pascal Riendeau) from Québec Canada, a ShopBot forum favorite, was contacted
for help by a
Mini-Baja team that needed molds made for body parts for
their vehicle after their sponsor dropped out at the last
minute.
Paco and the team decided that the best way to make the parts
would be to slice the computer model and mill the individual slices out
of 5 sheets of 1" MDF. Paco used
MOI for slicing
the models and
Vectric's Cut3D for creating the toolpath.
With Paco's help the team placed 13th out of 75
contestants ! You can find out more about this project (and
much, much more if you explore around) in
Paco's Blog.
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7/14/07
Carl Scheffler, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge in the UK, has been working
with the new PRSstandard at the
FabLab in Tromsø, Norway. One of his first projects was this 2-sided weave
pattern. Carl describes the process as...
"To make the weave, I designed a
mathematical formula that would generate the pattern and then
implemented it in Python to generate .sbp code for loading into
the ShopBot software. The Python script is parameterized so that
I can specify the width, length and thickness of the weave
"ribbon", the width and length of the weave itself, and the
diameter and profile (ball or flat) of the end mill bit. The
script then generates the toolpath needed to cut out the shape
and saves it as a .sbp file."
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7/1/07
In an article for FDM Magazine (Woodworking Production)
Joe May, director of manufacturing and engineering for
Wood-Mode, Inc,
described how multiple ShopBots can be put to use in
manufacturing. Wood-Mode (Kreamer, PA) is a large producer of
custom cabinets and Joe has deployed 10 ShopBots at various
steps in the production process. Wood-Mode is able to make use
of the configurability of ShopBots and ShopBot Controls to set
up work stations where the tools are operated through customized
PC interfaces highly adapted to the needs of each process. Joe
and his team created these operator-friendly interfaces using
ShopBot's programming features. At many work stations, the
operator simply inputs information about the item being
processed and the tool then cuts, machines, or drills with the
appropriate pattern. The ShopBots are networked so that rapid
changes to parts or the process can be easily implemented.
"There are a lot of people who want to do what we're doing." Joe
says, "With ShopBots, you can do whatever you want. The only
limitation is your imagination."
Link to Full Article
Link
to PDF Version of Article |
Click on image for larger view. |
3/7/07
From Guy Mathews of
New Wave
Woodworking - "Thought you would like to see one of the
projects we made using your 4th axis setup that we purchased.
The skull is life size. Approximately 6 inches in diameter and 9
inches tall with the base. Made from two pieces of maple glue-up,
I started with 1/2 inch ball mill and progressed down to 1/8
inch. My next step is to put a containment field around the
teeth area and go back in with a 1/16 ball mill for detail.
Total cut time was about 3.5 hours with the 1/8 inch taking the
longest. 15% step-over really gave me a nice finished product
from the machine. Buffer wheel took care of most all tool marks.
Skull was rendered in Rhino and Clay Tools and G-code was
generated using CAM software." |
Click on image for larger view.
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12/06/06
Jeff Arwine of
ITC Millwork, LLC sent in
this picture of a beautiful carving that they are working on
that was modeled from a stone mantle carving from France. Jeff
carefully measured the original carving and created CAD
drawings, then passed them on to James Booth of
Carve3D to
have the 3d file and toolpath created. Jeff says the file took 3 hours to cut on their Unistrut PR tool that they've just upgraded with a 4g Control
Box.
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9/27/06
JD Iles of
Lincoln
Sign Company in Lincoln, NH writes the sign column "Lincoln
Logs" here on the ShopBot website. He also writes a popular
blog about his sign business that this week was featured in
the online edition of USA Today. The article JS's blog
and noted: "The blog lets customers see how signs are made.
Plus, co-owner Iles says writing about his shop caused him to
think more about bolstering customer service. He writes all
entries and takes all the photos, spending an average of 30
minutes a day on it."
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8/28/06
Maxus Portable Poker Tables
in Petersburg, VA has had one of their Poker tables selected to
be in the TV show “Shark”, which will be begin airing this September. They cut parts for their tables on a 5' X 8' PRTAlpha that they've had for less than
6 months.
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8/14/06
Virginia ShopBotter Ed Lang is featured in an article on CNC
for Small Shops in the Sept 2006 issue of Woodshop News
magazine. There's a good picture of Ed (and his PRTAlpha) on page 43
You can read about Ed and see how he got started
with CNC and ShopBot in his Startup CNC
with Ed column.
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8/08/06
Randy Ouelette (sawdust@sover.net),
host of the ShopBot Camp in Vergennes Vt, recently cut these
curved moldings using the tool changer on his PRT Alpha. They were
cut with 2 custom cutters, one from each side, that overlapped in
the center. The blanks were securely held in jigs with registration pins
at the ends and vacuum down the length. T-slots in his ShopBot
table hold the jigs in place.You can
view larger pictures of the finished molding and his setup on
the
CampShopBot Flickr
page.
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7/12/06
Santiago Laverde of Houston Texas (santiagolaverdelon@gmail.com) is a part-time ShopBotter that
works out of his garage. He recently completed cutting a set of clover panels
for paired church doors out of Mahogany on his PRT 96. Santiago modeled the panels in
SolidWorks and toolpathed them with MillWizard.
You can see a picture of Satiago's PRT in the
ShopBot ad in Issue #6 of Make magazine.
For more photos, visit
Santiago's
website..
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6/09/06
Dave Valencic (valencic@mindspring.com)
is a Georgia PRT owner who's had his ShopBot for just a couple
of months. He recently completed his first paying job...a
v-carved sign for "Big Bud's Bar". Dave did the design work in
Part Wizard and cut the blank in 4 passes out of Red Oak. He
also used his ShopBot to cut a decorative edge on the sign with
a beading bit...a nice detail.
Dave is currently doing a lot of experimenting with the BOT and
is not sure what direction he will go with the tool, but is
certainly looking for any type of niche that he can get involved
with.
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6/07/06
Grant Bailey (grant@shopbottools.com)
recently helped a friend with a ’67 Camaro project car. It had a
6 point roll cage which kept the factory armrests from fitting.
The owner wanted new armrests that would be “trick but OEM”
looking. Grant's solution was to mill new ones from a
dense-grained softwood. Fortunately for Grant the car's owner
was proficient in Solidworks and sent over a good model that he
brought into ArtCAM Pro to toolpath. The wood armrest will be
fiberglassed, painted to match the body, and then an upholstered
pad will be made to go on top.
Grant says "It was a real nail
biter with several near-mishaps but after a long evening’s
effort we were both very pleased with the results."
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5/17/06
Seaside Small Craft cut 18 crab cutouts out of
9mm marine plywood for
The Great Machipongo Clam Shack
to mount on their buildings and billboards, ranging in size from
4' to 6'. Stencils were cut from the
same drawing from 1/8" masonite to paint crabs on their parking lot and driveway.
The files were created from a line
drawing created by a local artist which was scanned, traced in TurboCAD, and then toolpathed in Part
Wizard. To keep the crabs looking authentic the paint color for the crabs on the building
was selected by putting a cooked crab on the computerized paint-matching machine at the local Hardware store.
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5/05/06
Robert Bridges Woodwrights (bramps@intercom.net)
is using a PRT 96 to build a horse-shoe shaped tasting bar for
Chartham Winery in Church Neck, Va. The job started by cutting a
full-sized mockup
from the original architects drawings, allowing the owner to
modify the size of the bar to better fit the room. New files
were created and
final parts cut including White Oak plywood bar uprights and
curved shelves, templates for drilling mounting holes in the
concrete floor, and melamine-covered MDF forms for the
concrete bar and counter top.
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3/16/06
Sallye Coyle (Good
Harbor Bay) and Bill Young have been working with
Thinline
Pads on a modified PRTalpha96 with a rotary head to cut
their, thick neoprene-like material for saddle pads. Tool
utilizes a vertically mounted 4th axis in the tool head to
rotate a circular knife that is held at an angle to the cutting
material. Material has open-cell technology that makes for
excellent shock absorption and heat diffusion.
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2/6/06
Though not currently in the "boat" business, ShopBotter
Gary Archibald of Ontario Canada has been working on a couple of
boat projects recently with the idea of doing more in the
future. He's just completed the hull and deck molds for a new
sailboat design for a local Ontario company that was introduced
in this year's Toronto boat show. The project took only 4
weeks to go from designer to showroom floor. Gary's currently working on converting paper plans
for a lapstrake Swampscott Dory into cutting files using the
free Hulls program. Once he's gotten the lines into digital form
he'll work on cutting files including stepped scarves.
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2/6/06
Phillip Fletcher, a cabinetmaker here in Durham, has been test
marketing customer-specified slotted furniture that is based on
Bill Young's flexible new "Egg Crater" utility. The Egg Crater
is a great way to quickly created slatted objects for furniture
or storage. Phillip thinks it can be the core of a line of
consumer-oriented furniture that has a contemporary "attitude".
(Durham Bookcases and Other Cool Wood Stuff; Bill's Egg-Crater
available soon at:
Project Wizard)
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