Florida Camp Shopbot !

[billp]

We have just added another Camp to our 2006 schedule; Eric Lamoray will host this event on February 4th in Winter Garden, FL. If you have been a reader of the Forum you know that Eric runs a production shop with two 5'by 10'machines, and he pumps out products on a scale most of us can't imagine.
We'll have more information posted in upcoming weeks so keep an eye here for details...
We are STILL hoping to add some more Camps to other parts of the country, and I'll again ask anyone interested in being a host to contact me ASAP so we can include you in the schedule. In particular we'd like to be able to offer a"local" event for those of you in the vicinity of the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Denver, Memphis, and Northern California. In fact we are open to ANY new locations which will allow 'Botters to drive to a Camp, instead of having to cross the country.
As you may have seen from the recent postings here and on the blog page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/campshopbot/57641276/in/set-1237374/)these Camps are a great way to meet other 'Botters, learn new skills, and have a lot of fun in the process. A few local "user groups" have sprung out of the Camp process, and it gives owners a chance to "cross pollinate" with people from other industries.
We have the ONLY ad hoc learning network for CNC users out there, and I hope to see some of you at a Camp in the new year...Thanks.

[elcruisr]

Well, we are locked in now for a Feb. 4th, 2006 Camp Shopbot here in our shop. Thought I'd let everyone interested know where we are and what we are thinking of covering.

So far It looks like we will be covering production cutting, I.E. how to approach cutting large numbers of parts. Vacuum pumps/hold downs from pods to regenerative blowers. Router bits and CNC tooling. Show and tell and we are thinking of a session comparing different CAD/CAM software packages. If you are using something besides Part Wizard and would like to do a little demo and discuss how you use it, strengths, weaknesses, etc. please let us know. If there is a certain program you'd like to see let us know!

We'd also be open to suggestions of anyone planning to attend.

As for location we are at:

Balsys Wood Arts, Inc.
930 Carter Road, #230
Winter Garden, FL 34787

That's on the west side of Orlando, not too awful far from all the attractions. There are several accomodations near by that I will be posting shortly if you need a place to stay. There is also a few RV parks very close by, let me know if you need phone #s.

We are equipped with a 5 x 12 PRT Alpha and a 5 x 10 PRT. Have a good sized shop so there's lots of elbow room, well unless it's full of furniture and parts that weekend...

We have AC but no heat, if you're from north of GA you'll be plenty warm, if your a local we might be a little cool in the AM! I can also assure you that there will be the usual assortment of scraps, off cuts, wood dust, lumber and a unit of plywood or two present. This IS a working woodshop!

If you need to contact me call 407-654-7611 during business hours. If I'm free I can talk, if busy I'll call you back!

Eric Lamoray

[david_morris]

Eric, I’m a garage based ‘Botter in the Apopka, FL area and am looking forward to attending your camp and seeing a large scale operation (compared to mine, 1man + 1’Bot). Thank you for taking time out to sponsor this event.

http://www.MorrisWoodworks.com

[elcruisr]

Look forward to meeting you David!

Eric

[amy_brown]

What time are you guys having the camp? How late? I can't make it until after 12 if I can make it at all. Thanks!

[elcruisr]

We plan on opening the shop up at 8 AM. There'll be coffee and doughnuts untill 9 AM when we hope to start..... Hey stop all that laughing back there!

Rumor has it that most shopbotters will show up at least 90 minutes late, even for free food! We might have to put this to the test!

If you can't show up untill noon we won't bar the doors or anything and I'm sure there will still be a great deal of info flowing all afternoon.

[Ryan Patterson]

Eric,
Looks like I will be free that weekend and will be coming up. Will probably be there around 9:30/10:00. I think it is about a 3 hour drive from Naples. Look forward to meeting.

Ryan

[bleeth]

See you then guys. (Barring emergencies). At this point my truck makes the run from Delray to Orlando on Autopilot.

Dave

[billp]

To All planning to attend the Florida Camp,
Bill Young and I just did a "dry run" over to Eric's shop. Once you get to route 50 you'll see a few landmarks on the corner of Carter Rd. The easiest to see may be "Sobik's subs". Eric's shop is in the first complex on your left as you drive down Carter Rd, and when you pull into the complex drive all the way to the back of the complex and make a left to see his shop,"Balsys Wood Arts". We'll try to get a sign out there in the morning...

[ckurak]

Many thanks to Balsys Wood Arts, BillP, BillY, Ted, Scott, Ryan, Martha, all of the show-and-tell participants, and fellow attendees. I've attended a few Camps around the country before, and this one was well worth the trip. As BillP mentioned at the Camp, everyone is doing something different, so everyone takes away something different from the experience. Listening to and talking with fellow Botters has always been helpful, and this event was no exception.

Again, my thanks for all those who were there, and those behind the scenes, for making this happen.

Charles

[bleeth]

Hi: Thanks To Eric for hosting and all for coming. While there I spoke to a botter from Miami named (I think) Laurence who set up his shop a year ago. I have a job lead for him in Miami and need him to get in touch.

Dave

[billp]

I too would like to thank Eric and Larry Lamoray for their hospitality, and the use of their facilities. We had about 40 Campers there in spite of some REAL rain throughout the day, and a lot of people drove through it for hours to get to the Camp...
We have a number of pictures we'll be posting to the Camp Shopbot blog spot (campshopbot.blogspot.com)in the next day or two. Bill Young has them, and he's still driving home from Florida at the moment.
Scott Fiemster did his usual great job of educating us about cutting tools and their care and feeding.
Ryan Patterson showed how to use his Cabinet parts Pro program.
Eric showed how he uses vacuum for cutting out his production runs.
Bill Young showed off some foam speakers, and gave a rundown of the upcoming "contest" at this year's Jamboree, ( you haven't heard "Louie Louie" until you've heard it through styrofoam speakers...).
Ted Hall did a little historical session to help celebrate Shopbot's 10th birthday (! ! ! )
(last Wednesday, more to follow on that theme...).
And Martha Barbour ran down some of the logisitics of this year's Jamboree, April 27-29th
We've posted some MORE Camps on the Shopbot web page, and we are trying to schedule even more yet.
Next Camp- Austin,TX- Feb. 24-25th....

[Ryan Patterson]

I what to also thank everyone who help put the camp together. It was nice to be able to put a face to those that I have communicated with by email.

Bill P. thank you for showing the vacuum pump and pucks. I tried to order the smaller one you had at the camp but surpluscenter.com was out of stock. Order the larger one should have in a few days.

[billp]

We've posted a few pictures from the Florida Camp on the blog site;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/campshopbot/96878245/in/set-72057594060892262/