Chazz
10-16-2013, 09:53 PM
I have finally received my Shopbot Desktop and have a few things to point out.
First of all, the vacuum hose clamp and vacuum connection don't line up. I didn't try to tighten the clamp; but the Z travel was straining the vacuum hose. I wound up just removing the clamp.
Next, it seems that the way the router was put in makes some things hard. There seem to be three things that we need access to: The power switch, the speed control and the spindle locking pin for changing the bits. On mine, the power switch was the only one that was easy to access. While important, the power switch extends from the top when in the on position. Even if it were in the back, you could quickly slap downward and turn it off. The speed control is not really viewable from the front at all. I missed the locking pin on the first few attempt to figure out how to change the bit (further confused as the guide showed that I should have had two wrenches of which I could only find one). In future, consider possibly turning perhaps 90 degrees clockwise as looking down. I have not investigated turning my router around yet as it is too new for me to consider such a move yet.
I didn't know that the software was going to turn the router on (apply power to it) so I chased a phantom power issue (router wouldn't turn on when I switched it on at the router) for a while.
Once cutting (I did this while doing an air cut) I paused the run. The software turned the router off and paused the run -- worked fine. I decided to try to resume the run -- and it did -- but it did not turn the router back on. It left it off. Had this not been an air cut, that might have damaged something.
I am mostly impressed with the construction of the shopbot. The software is pretty good. But the documentation -- for a beginner -- is lacking.
First of all, the vacuum hose clamp and vacuum connection don't line up. I didn't try to tighten the clamp; but the Z travel was straining the vacuum hose. I wound up just removing the clamp.
Next, it seems that the way the router was put in makes some things hard. There seem to be three things that we need access to: The power switch, the speed control and the spindle locking pin for changing the bits. On mine, the power switch was the only one that was easy to access. While important, the power switch extends from the top when in the on position. Even if it were in the back, you could quickly slap downward and turn it off. The speed control is not really viewable from the front at all. I missed the locking pin on the first few attempt to figure out how to change the bit (further confused as the guide showed that I should have had two wrenches of which I could only find one). In future, consider possibly turning perhaps 90 degrees clockwise as looking down. I have not investigated turning my router around yet as it is too new for me to consider such a move yet.
I didn't know that the software was going to turn the router on (apply power to it) so I chased a phantom power issue (router wouldn't turn on when I switched it on at the router) for a while.
Once cutting (I did this while doing an air cut) I paused the run. The software turned the router off and paused the run -- worked fine. I decided to try to resume the run -- and it did -- but it did not turn the router back on. It left it off. Had this not been an air cut, that might have damaged something.
I am mostly impressed with the construction of the shopbot. The software is pretty good. But the documentation -- for a beginner -- is lacking.