? before purchasing PRT Alpha

[scott_morrison]

Hello everyone. I am considering purchasing a new PRT Alpha (spindle driven), but want to know a little more about capabilities.

Hopefully, I will be cutting out furniture parts with the ShopBot, some of which will be out of thick hardwood. They may be as thick as 1.75" and probably from cherry or walnut.

Is this something the ShopBot is capable of doing? Would multiple cuts be required? Are there any dangers to the machine with this type of operation?

Thanks in advance.

[Ryan Patterson]

Scott,
I just finished a job cutting ipe. If you don't know of ipe its like a brick. The shopbot give me no trouble with cutting. I cut 300' of it 1 3/4" thick. I used a 3 flute chip breaker 1/2" spiral upcut and cut in 3 passes at 18000rpm 3hp Colombo cutting at 6”/sec. I also cut 3/4" cherry and hard maple with no problems. I have made a few 2" thick butcher block tops from walnut and hard maple. I used the Shopbot to surface the top and to cut the sinks. For cherry and maple I use a 2 flute 3/8” sprial up cut. I think I push the Shopbot harder than most users and have not had any problems. The Shopbot is tough. I have made a fare share of mistakes in cutting files that I thought would have caused major damage to the machine it always came out unharmed.

Ryan

[knight_toolworks]

thanks for the info on ipe. I work with it and purpleheart cocobolo padouk and lots of other tropicals.