Sharing Pictures and Types of work

[jay_mack1@hotmail.com]

Any of you have sites that display work you've done with a shopbot. Video files of shopbot working? What's the strangest material you've cut with a Shopbot? Anything anyone likes in particular to cut?

[gerald_d]

http://www.shopbottools.com/users.htm

[jay_mack1@hotmail.com]

Anybody take pictures of thier shopbot setups?

[jaum@adelphia.net]

Hi Stickman, No longer have a picture of my set up but it's pretty standard. For some of the things we've done, look at www.woodohio.com Almost everything was done on the shopbot.

[kerrazy]

Jim,
Nice work
Dale

[edwardmc]

Well I tryed to cut a Bmp. with Deskart, the program was quck but the cut took 168 min. 28 sec. to do a 4x5 area, with a 1/8 ball bit.
I'm not real happy with this one, but I think I well try again with some diferant settings. Take a look.

2271

[kerrazy]

Well here is one that Bill palumbo helped immmensley with. He created the background chain in ArtCam Pro for me to carve.
Hope you enjoy. All was done on the ShopBot.

2272
Thanks,
Dale

[kerrazy]

a little bigger

2273

[billp]

Dale,
What kind of finish did you wind up using on the letters and chain?, they look great! Bill

[kerrazy]

Bill,
I epoxied the Styrofoam and then primed it with Zinser Bulls eye primer then we applied Rust-Oleum Accents Antique Gold finishing system. Then 3 coats of Laquer.

For those who don't remeber my earlier banter this sign is appro. 10 foot long and 20"'s tall and 4 inches thick.

Dale

[gerald_d]

Dale, are the letters applied on top of the chain afterwards, or are they cut as one integral unit together with the chain?

Could you run us through the times, speeds, bits used? Also the times on hand-finishing? You have to make us stop drooling and wondering!

[kerrazy]

Hey Gerald,
Good questions.
First I Sent the initial chain file to Bill Palumbo for set up, and we cut it in four sections, as the chain is just about four inches thick we had to slice it in half top to bottom and then break those slices in half left to right as my table is only 8'.
From there Bill created the tooling based on a 1/8th inch tapered ball mill and 1/2 " roughing mill.
It took somewhere in the neighbourhood of 26 hours to cut the four sections of chain out, due to the size of the 1/8 th inch cutter. I have since purchased a 1/2" ball mill to speed that process up.
The letters were cut seperate.
We then glued the top surfaces of the chain to the bottoms, and cut recess into the chain to accept the letters. We kept working with the piece as to pieces a left and right while doing the epoxying and finishing just so it was easier to handle. from there we epoxied those to pieces and primer and then applied the finish.

From there we took the chain and letter components back to the ShopBot and carved out recesses in the backs of the chain so we could epoxy in wood pieces so we could mount the sign onto the aluminum check plate. Once thet cured we mounted both pieces together and cleaned up the middle seem.

This piece is made entirley of pink stryrofoam which helped immensly reduce cost. It machines well and with patience can be finished easily.

Total hours are about 40.

The next challenge is the pierced tongues this fellow wants to mount on eithr side of the sign. Arrggghhhh!
The sign was for a tattoo and piercing parlour here in town. Oh well as long as they pay.

Here is a question for you folks?
Nevermind the hours I told you, but what would a sign like that sell for?
Thanks,
Dale

[artisan]

We do work like this....lots of 3D foam signs....and generally charge 80-100.00 per sq. ft. I'm guessing....but your sign should have sold for somewhere in the 2K range. The first few times are hard....but the process smooths out quickly and foam signs are one of the best ways to use the Bot in my opinion. If you work in HDU...the price will be greater....but less profitable. I have one small critique...as a sign man..I would have liked to have seen the letter faces in a different color than the chain....maybe a skin tone. But the overall work is outstanding....keep it up....D

[jeff]

Dale I guess the hard thing will be to make the vacuum jig to hold peoples heads really tight while piercing tonques, but I know you can do it.



Jeff

[paul]

Jeff

Don't be silly, the best use for the Shopbot would be CNC tattoo's (;=0


Paul

[rob williams]

Hey Dale,
With an extensive backround in signage and specialty fabrication, I'm suprised this only took 40 hrs. Especially if it took 26 hrs to cut (bet that was a lot of dust).

In my market (Atl), and at the company I used to do this stuff for (www.raydeo.com), that would've been a good bit more than $2000.00. Of course we would have probably used HDU. We just recently did a 16 foot long sculpture of a twisted fork out of HDU, nowhere near as complex as your sign, for about $10,000. It did need some aluminum structure for mounting, and we did it entirely by hand (used electric chainsaws to carve it).

Looks nice.

R

[kerrazy]

Thanks,
Great feed back. Again I could not have done it with out Bill Palumbo's help.

I was thinking some where in the neighbourhood of $2600.00 But to my suprise as I was the subcontractor and the fellow sold it for about $1200.00 Yikes was I shocked.....Anyhow that is another story on the river bank.....

Thanks,
Dale

[artisan]

As Rob mentioned above, prices can go considerably higher....especially when the work requires structural support. When you start combining foam over aluminum and steel or incorporating more exotic materials into your work, then you are in rarified air where there is little comparison. Much will depend on your reputation also. The really good news is, you've just created a 3D "business card" that will bring you more work in your area.....D

[jay_mack1@hotmail.com]

Dale,

Enjoy the picture nice! Nice work! Hats off to you and Bill!

Jay

[Mayo]

Great looking sign! Regardless of my comments that follow, the end result is what's important, and if you and the customer are satisfied, that's all that counts.

I think it could have been much more profitable for you...

Does everyone really think the time it took to make this sign is OK? There was no need to do a 3D file to make the chain if you cut it from pink foam. You could have cut both halves as a normal 2D cut and while the pieces were still in the Bot, you could have pocketed out the areas where your letters were going to be placed.

I think it could have taken less than 8 hours to get the chain ready for epoxy if you had used some riffler rasps and shaped the curvature by hand. An experienced hand carver could have done the shaping in much less time than 8 hours. This would not have been difficult.

I realize this is a learning process and it's fun stuff to do - I've experimented with lots of stuff myself and afterwards realized it would have been way faster to do certain things by hand.

Sometimes we rely too much on the machine.

On the other hand, during the 26 hours that the machine was cutting your chain, you were most likely doing something else besides standing there watching, so that benefit has to be taken into account also.

Can't wait to see the pictures of how you probe that pierced tongue!

[artisan]

Mayo, I agree with you totally. The sign is beautifully carved and to do it on the Bot is much "sexier" than to carve it by hand....but not as fast. This is only true of soft foam, however. If the sign were done in HDU or wood, the value of the 3D files would be much greater. Also, if the piece were more complicated and non-symmetrical, the accuracy of the Shopbot would be more valuable here. If I had produced this exact sign in foam in my shop....we would have cut it entirely from flat stock in a 2D file and hand formed it. Sandpaper wrapped and glued around various custom wood pieces makes quick work of most foam. Pink Foam can be finger carved. It would take less than a day to carve the entire project this way. Still, the project is very well executed. I think what is really important here, are the acquired 3D skills....and the Foam Finishing skills. The possibilities are endless....D

[kerrazy]

Sob * Sob*.
I have eye for sculpting by hand... It is a curse. So i had to do it with the aid of software. As Mayo indicated, I was working on other pieces as the machine was doing this fancy cutting so in the end it may it much more efficint for me. Otherwise I truly would never have been able to takle this piece.

I guess that is truly a sad statement to make indicating that yet a machine is replacing the valuable years and talent of artisans. Ans I do feel guilty every time I pull a piece off my machine. Hats off to true crafstmen who can use their minds eye and hands to recreate visions.

Humbley,
Dale Kerr

[artisan]

....it's still an AWESOME job and knowing where your strengths lie is as important a talent as learning to hand carve. I'll bet you would be surprised at how quickly you could pick it up....D

[GGressel]

How about this "shopbot" project. The tooling for all of our stained glass panels are done on an old "highly modified" PR32. All the glass is cut on a waterjet.


2274

Stained Glass Elegance (http://sgelegance.com)

[normand blais]

Dale you explored the est side of your brain with that one. You would pick up hand carving just as fast as cnc skill. For that one you can only hope that they open a chain of that chain shop. Dont forget to lock up