New ideas

[wiese]

School is about to resume (to the relief of many parents) and I was wondering if anybody has any interesting plans for their ShopBot this school year. I am curious if anybody is working with any of the following: 1) ongoing projects that students add to each year, 2) projects that are created for the school building such as furniture, artwork, etc. that increase the visibility of the Tech Department 3) fundraising ideas. I know there are a few more of you guys out there than there was a year or two ago. Let's make some noise!

[wiese]

Oops, I forgot to mention that it would be nice to hear ideas from anybody, not just teachers. It is always good to hear suggestions from the "real world."

[Mike Annetts]

Hey Jay

We are supposed to be making up a bunch of plaques this year for the division. Also we are palnning on cutting some signs for the community as a fundraiser. Most of my students would rather make their own projects with the bot.

Mike

[kerrazy]

Jay,
I work in a school environment, with young adults with developmental disabilities. We produce, residential signs, clocks, and also do some custom work. Our latest custom piece is a 55 foot by 44 foot stencil that will placed on a football field.
You want to see an easy buy in when they are doing work for our local CFL team. They all have huge swollen heads. But good for them they deserve it.

We also produce Harley Davidson signs for the local Harley dealers in the area.

It is a good means of raising funds to keep things moving and allow us to buy material for personal projects, as well as offset overhead costs.

The Dodge logo is any easy one to reproduce and we have done well with this as well.

The trick is to sell it to the dealerships, not the public, as the dealers have the licence to market the logo however they wish.
Good luck,
Dale

[gerald_d]

Dale, out of curiousity, what material are those huge field stencils made of?

[bruce_clark]

Jay,

One thing our high school use to make was boats in the wood working class. They use to make a 16foot skiff and that would take just about all semester. The skiffs were sold to the public to cover the cost of materials and the wood working program. Now, this was before they had ANY automation. With a Shopbot cutting out the parts, you could easily do two or three a semester.

Of course, this assumes you live near water. If you do, you might look into that. There are a few good books that are aimed at beginner boat builders with plans that can be drawn up in CAD and cut on the Shopbot.

Hope this helps,

Bruce

[kerrazy]

Hey Gerald,
I am using exterior grade 1/2 plywood. As it is only a stencil and will only be used for one season.

We just picked up four more today, for ice surfaces. Holly **** it is catching on in our area.

BTW cost of goods, is about 19.00 per sheet and I charge out at $80.00 a sheet. on occassion we can cut some sheets in any where from 5 to 20 minutes depending on the detail.

[phil]

We just got a benchtop shopbot. I just finished setting it up and cut out a few sample parts. I'm having a ball working with it and I'm anxious to get my students on it.
I teach woodworking gr. 7-12. I'd like suggestions on getting started and just as important what not to do? What did you try with your students that should be avoided?

[valleymastercraft@att.net]

Phil, It is good to see the schools teaching cnc!
Im not a teacher, just a machinest turned woodwooker . The way I teach my workers how to use the shopbot tool is as if it were a full machining center.(1st)instuctions with the interface software (2nd) how to INDICATE part origin(xy0)Indicol makes a indicator holder called (mindical)it is a spindle mount and will fit in the 1/4 collet. (3rd) setting tools, (z0)
I set a 1/2 jo block on the z0 surface and zero to that, then move my z axis -.5 to the part z0 "mz -.5". This keeps from gouging the part with the tool and I know that the tool is set at z0. (4th) how to load, convert, edit, and preview the program. This will cover basic set up of the shopbot and cnc machining centers. (5th) cadcam programming (2d and 3d) a good 3d person is hard to come by! Mastercam has package deals for schools. Post in g code and use the converter. Using this setup process and g code works great with the shopbot and will make it easy to move up to a machining center. If you have any questions you can e-mail me (valleymastercraft@att.net (mailto:valleymastercraft@att.net))
(http://valleymastercraft.home.att.net)
Dusty

[wiese]

Phil,

If you can give your students some CAD background, you will be miles ahead of the game. The ShopBot is basically just a 3d plotter that holds a router instead of a plotter pen. My high school students use AutoCAD then import their work into Vector.