Takeing the shopbot link plunge

[kevin]

My question is for cuttibg and dadoos can you use 3/8 bit and if so where is a good source.
I have a drill attached to my shopbot will the ecabinet link be hard to figure out or is it a head ache.
I have 2 kitchen that will be ready to start in 2 weeks reading your posts on the speed is encouaring .
Doing the tetorials
Thanks for all help in advance

[thewoodcrafter]

Welcome Kevin,

I use a 1/4" bit for cutting and a 5mm bit on a second Z for drilling.

The only reason I use a 1/4" bit for cutting is because I use 1/4" backs and I don't want to change bits.
I cut at 6IPS. A 3/8" bit should be able to cut at about 8IPS.

The Link may take a little bit to set up but is well worth it once done.
Gary Cambell is the expert on the air drills.
He will come along here.

[Gary Campbell]

Kevin...
I use a 3/8 bit most of the time, and occasionally a 1/4. Speeds are as Roger says above. You will need to make sure your dado settings will allow a 3/8" bit.

I use a Mortise Compression grind as it cuts the dados much cleaner than the standard compression. I have been having very good results and good bit life with tools from Centurion.

Many of us that are using the Link have multiple heads, additional spindles routers and drills. There is a learning curve, they take some adjustments, but once set up, are fairly easy to use. ShopBot has included the files for this with the software, but I dont know where the documentation is. You might call them to get set up. I also have some available, but ShopBot is able to give support for their products, where mine are best suited for somewhat advanced users.

It might be a tough go to cut inside of 2 weeks if you dont have eCabs or ShopBot experience, but there are many here that will help.

Welcome Aboard!
Gary

[dlcw]

Welcome Kevin!

I am a new eCabinets and SB Link user. I just finished my first large SB Link project (100 sheets) and there were a few things to learn that are not spelled out in any documentation. These are the little tidbits that people like Gary, Roger and JC have learned through trial and terror. I've done some learning through trial and terror as well with many broken drill bits from my air drill and a few broken bits from my spindle.

I have a PRS Alpha 96x60 with a 2.2hp spindle and ShopBot air drill.

One of the pieces of invaluable wisdom that Gary passed along to me, after my first batch of cuts turned out rough and needed a lot of sanding to fix, has to do with what I call my FlexBot (ShopBot CNC). When cutting sheets, do your first pass in a climb cut and leave a 1/64" skin on your parts. Then do a final pass all the way through the sheet in reverse direction. Since the Shopbot is a flexible machine (not the 3/8" bit) the climb cut will push the cutter away from the final cutline. When cutting the final pass in the reverse direction, there will be little or no flex in the machine because you are only cutting 1/64" material. The cut is really clean and darn near perfectly on the intended line. You won't find this documented anywhere :-(

Another thing I learned was that while your job is going through a drilling cycle DON'T hit the 'S' key or space bar to pause. I had to do this because my little compressor couldn't keep up with the air requirements of the ShopBot air drill. When you resume drilling after a pause, hole alignment and drill depth gets all screwed up. Turns out it is a bug that ShopBot is trying to fix.

As Gary points out, cutting in 2 weeks is a pretty aggressive schedule that will probably result in frustration because of the lack of information available regarding functionality of SB Link and idiosyncrasies of ShopBot machines and ShopBot supplied custom files for things like tool changing with SB Link. I started out with a very small project (some nightstands)

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/17997/45008.html?1250549268

I learned a lot about eCabs and SB Link doing this simple project. I also found out how much I still had to learn from this project.

When cutting 1/2" plywood or 5/8" Baltic Birch I use a 1/4" mortise compression bit at 4ips at 16K rpm. I learned to adjust joinery during eCab design to accommodate the 1/4" bit (mortise and tenon joints, etc.)

When cutting 3/4" plywood I use a 3/8" mortise compression at 6ips at 16K rpm and have had good luck with these settings on my machine. Again, in eCabs I try to design joinery around this bit so I can avoid tool changes. Sometimes tool changes just can't be avoided.

Through the learning experience I've gone through to this point, I would say start with something small (do you have some shop cabinets that need to be built). This way you can start to see how your machine is going to work with all the different parameters that go into this whole thing. PRACTICE FIRST!!!!

After you get some experience then move on to the kitchens you have. My kitchen project is finally cut and assembled and I'm starting finishing work now. It was a long struggle and I learned a lot about proper eCabs design and SB Link operations and how my machines behaves during cutting, carving and drilling operations.

Just remember that your machine is going to behave differently then everyone else's machine. That's just the way things are in the ShopBot world. The settinga above are for my machine that I learned through trial and terror. You will need to do the same thing.

Hope this rambling helps a little.

Don
www.diamondlakewoodworks.com (http://www.diamondlakewoodworks.com)

[kevin]

Wow!!
Thanks for the response . I do have a small cabinets I can try on .
A good source for bits ?

Kevin

[dlcw]

Kevin,

Like Gary said, Centurion Tools http://www.centuriontools.com is a good place. You can also try R&B Tool Supply, Inc. www.rbtoolsupply.com (http://www.rbtoolsupply.com). They sent me a sample 3/8" mortise compression to try out and it cut really nicely.

Do some practice stuff and I think you will be good to go.

Don