4 foot by 4 foot ShopBot can it produce longer projects ??

[Ray Hershberger]

Hello ShopBotters, A question; can the Shopbot produce longer projects than its required size cause i was thinking of maybe trying it if necessary like moving the piece forward or back as needed???

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Ray,

The "secret" of doing parts of a project and moving it down; turning it around; building up depth; making matching parts and many other procedures is proper indexing. With proper indexing you can move a part along the axis or reverse the part without visible indication it was not machined at one time.

The accuracy is dependent on your abilities and will change with the accuracy of the machine as a part is moved. It is my opinion indexing should be from the center of the part out if there is to be more than one "move".

The short answer is "yes", it can be done. You will be limited more by your imagination than by the machine's ability.

Ron

[gerald_d]

Ray, hope that you realise you will need more space doing it this way. . . . .

Let's say you want to work on something that is 8' long. First half the job (4') hangs over to the right, second half of the job hangs over to the left. That means you need 4' clear on both sides of your 4' table - total space 12'. Whereas a 8' table could do the whole job in one go and only use 8' of space.

[russb@lominger.com]

Can you use shopbot to carve both sides of a board?

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Only if you are smart enought to flip the board over. AND, have figured out how to get it properly registered.

Ron

[kerrazy]

Yes again I would follow the suggestins above and use indexing pins or something similar,

I carve two sided signs with pretty good success.
Dale