Slotwall

[jpillow60]

Does anyone use their Shopbot to make slotwall (3" spacing)? I'm researching my shop's possible uses for a CNC Router. Five or six times a year, my retail designer strays from stock colors. To date, I've applied plastic laminate to stock paint grade mdf slotwall and hand routed the grooves with a straight-edge guide. It's time consuming. Buying it from a manufacturer isn't an option due to small orders (2 to 4 sheets), short lead time, and crating/freight charges. I could sell more slotwall displays if I could lower my labor costs.

I'm sold on CNC for melamine parts processing. I don't want to buy small and limit my cutting options. I'm looking at the PRTalpha144 with the 5HP Colombo spindle. Thanks.

[gamisano]

Jim,

I haven't actually cut the t-slots in slotboard, but I have done some custom shapes out of already made slotboard. I did some palm trees out of it for a surf shop. I must say I was skeptical at first, but once it is hung on the wall with apparel hanging from it, it looks bitchen!

As for cutting slats in raw board, I don't see a problem with it. You would just need the proper bit. Heck, you could do custom spacing of the slats. Great idea, and possible niche. Good luck.

Regards,

Guido

[elcruisr]

I have cut up a fair amount of waterproof material into slotwall for a customer who does flower shop display systems. The tooling ain't cheap and we ended up with diamond tooling. You will definetely need a 5hp spindle as these tools need some healthy torque to work. Can really give you a nice niche though!

Eric

[jpillow60]

Eric,

Thanks for the info. I do slotwall panels and display boxes for my mall customers. At present, I have to charge quite a bit additional for the extra labor needed for custom plastic laminate colors. Five colors are available locally in melamine form. I could get more work with better pricing. I don't know anyone in my area set up for slotwall.

I had looked at diamond tooling and hoped the 5hp spindle was powerful enough. With my present operation, I can't think of any routing process needing more horsepower. I want to make an intelligent decision on the cnc router as I'll want the vacuum table, spindle, and drilling head, etc.

Thanks again.

Jim