I have access to a Shop-Bot! What do I do with it?

Joseph Shaul

Member
Messages
206
Location
Madison, WI
Due to a rather amazing stroke of good luck, the community workshop I belong to received the loan of a ShopBot CNC router. For a first project, I'd like to build some simplistic speaker boxes (read: plywood rectangles with many, many, many holes), but would also like to see what could be done in the way of fiddly recessed bits. I don't have any real experience with woodworking beyond basic hand tools and the use of a router, my CAD skills are limited to SketchUp, and I'm not really sure where to start in terms of reading. Any suggestions?
 
I've been very tempted to join my local maker group. They have a nice facility and seem like a great group of people and they have some pretty cool equipment I could borrow. My only problem is the distance to go.

If I had access to a shop bot I would:
  • Make some cool back lit signs.
  • Create some very precise jigs.
  • ...
 
Creating the drawings to import into PartWorks will be your biggest challenge (next to knowing what you want to build). You can use sketchup, but you'll have to convert those files and add tool paths. So depending on your version of sketchup (Pro) you can export .dxf files, otherwise you'll need a plugin to convert to something like an .stl file. I use turboCad from time to time to create simple drawings, which can be exported as .dxf.

Carol posted the best resource (the forum)...

See the last post on this page for a way to export to .stl files:

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14145&page=2
 
One of the most important things I learned with my CNC Shark was about feedrates when creating your toolpaths, slow is a good thing. The first few attempts I did I left the feedrate at 100%, which cause the end mill bit to pull the router down and drilled a hole through my wood and the MDF table top of the Shark, not good. You will need to install a addin to Sketchup to save in DXF or STL format to import it into Parkworks to create the toolpaths. Second important thing I learned was if you are milling a hard wood keep your stepover to 8%, It takes longer but you won't break bits. I'm real new to CNC work, so I'm sure you can get better answers at the Shopbot forum or Vectric forum.
 
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