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mccoy178
05-31-2008, 08:35 PM
Hello,
I have purchased a PRTAlpha from Joel Schuman and have put it in our high school for the students. I am in Central Ohio and I am looking for other teachers, or shopbotters alike that would be willing to let me see their setups and get some useful tips and information. Since it is summertime, I am willing to travel and I appreciate anyone's help. Please either reply in this post or shoot me an email.

Thanks,
Ben McCoy

ryan_slaback
05-31-2008, 11:29 PM
Ben,
I teach in Southern WI, South of Madison. I have a 96 PRTAlpha. I would be happy to show you around if you want to drive this far.

hh_woodworking
05-31-2008, 11:57 PM
Ben,
I am in Southwest Missouri and would help if I can
I have a prt 48 not an alpha
Ed Harrall

mccoy178
06-01-2008, 12:33 AM
My brother lives in Kansas City right now and I believe I could justify a road trip! I would like to discuss with you guys your curriculum and how you guys apply the shopbot in your classes. I am the only technology education teacher we have, so I only have two classes of woods to use this. I do plan to use it in other courses and obviously for other projects, but attempting to get the most out of this in two periods is an exciting challenge. In this being my first year, I also have brought ProE engineering software to the school for design. I plan to use the implementation of that program, the vectric software under an educational license, and the shopbot to help our students have a taste of not only traditional woodworking, but also the application of ideas that are at the next level.

andyb
06-01-2008, 10:43 AM
Ben,
There is some info on the Shopbot website for teachers put together by Jay Wiese. http://www.shopbottools.com/forteachers.htm It's not much but it may give you a starting point.

Andy B.

billp
06-01-2008, 04:48 PM
To ALL educators,
For some time we've been toying with the idea of trying to do a compilation of what's going on in school shops around the country, and then making the information available for everyone. It would essentially be a place where you could do more than just "show and tell" others what you are doing, and what is working in your district.
In traveling around the Camp Shopbot circuit I keep meeting more and more teachers who are looking for similar access, and if we get enough interest expressed we'll try to get something started.
Another aspect here is the idea of establishing some sort of standards for "CNC certification" in different states.
Brett Dickinson of Brownsville, Texas has already started to assemble materials, and I know that there are some other teachers who have managed to work the Shopbot into their existing curriculum.
I also know from my own experience in a variety of school systems that it will be almost impossible for US to set up a single program that would be usable in all districts, but if we can compile enough different lesson plans, projects, and case histories we might be able to form a comprehensive enough "pool" of information for everyone to draw from. The potential ability to have hundreds of educators working together on this one makes a lot of sense. We might even be able to turn this into some sort of a national gathering/seminar/workshop, etc.

Let me throw the idea out here, and see what kind of response we get.....

hh_woodworking
06-01-2008, 07:07 PM
Bill,
I will help. I have not written specific lesson plans for shopbot yet but I will be this summer as we are rewriting our curriculum for next year.
Ed

hh_woodworking
06-02-2008, 06:04 PM
Ben,
Let me know when or if you want to meet me at my shop. We are about 2.5 hrs from KC.
Ed

mccoy178
06-03-2008, 11:33 AM
I will. I've been trying to work out the details of a road trip, but I need to get through this week first. Finals both at OSU and at the high school are eating up all my time. I am really excited to meet you guys and I'm looking forward to getting this going.

wendell
06-03-2008, 04:52 PM
I lived in Columbus for several years and have friends who have ShopBots in their labs. (Near Marion Ohio) I haven't talked to them in awhile but I may be able to hook you guys up. I just don't know what their summer plans are. I use a tabletop at school here in Atlanta and have an older PRT at home if you're in the area. There's also a fellow who trained me in Marion. His name is John Forney and has actually used a bot since the late 90s. I have a short unit on how to use PartWizard to make signs, which are very high interest, if you're interested.

chiloquinruss
06-03-2008, 06:26 PM
Ben please take a quick look at your website, looks like you've been hit! Russ

mccoy178
06-03-2008, 07:22 PM
Wendell,
Thanks for the info! I would be very interested in meeting Mr. Forney.

Russ,
Thanks for the heads up. Stinkin' bots get in from time to time.

wendell
06-04-2008, 02:34 PM
Just do a search on the forum and you'll see John Forney's name and probably his email address. He does a camp in the fall which is free. I paid John to train me and it was worth every dime. Maybe you could get a few others together and get him to do a class. I've seen a few cabinets and John's work is the best I've seen. He's always into something new.

Email John Kuzio in Elgin and maybe you can schedule a day in the fall to visit his lab. He's in Elgin outside of Marion. John a good guy! He's busy but maybe you can catch him.
kuzio_j at elgin.k12.oh.us
John is part of an Eng. Tech consortium in Marion.


Wendell

mccoy178
06-04-2008, 08:02 PM
Thank you very much for the info!

mccoy178
07-11-2008, 11:38 AM
Ed,
I sent you an email. I will be heading to KC next week.

matt_bernhardt
08-04-2008, 08:08 AM
Ben, if you're interested in coming to Columbus, we've got a ShopBot at Ohio State's school of architecture. The College of Art recently bought a smaller one as well, I believe. I'd love to show you around our shop.

wendell
08-18-2008, 06:50 PM
Does anyone have any safety curriculum for the ShopBot? (Lessons, handouts, tests....)

hh_woodworking
08-18-2008, 09:09 PM
I treat it as a table router in safety tests

uffabrew
08-18-2008, 10:09 PM
Great site for your safety tests and review sheets.

http://cte.dpsk12.org/indtechsafetytests.html

wendell
08-19-2008, 10:24 PM
Thanks Eddie! Like a lot of us I have tons of safety info but this site seems more comprehensive than any others I've seen!
What do you teach? Do you have a bot in your lab?

uffabrew
08-19-2008, 11:39 PM
I was lucky when I stumbled across that website after endless searches for an updated Jointer safety test. Thought it was worth sharing. I too, treat the Shopbot as an specialized router when it comes to safety.

I teach CADD (Rhino 3D and Chief Architect), Woodworking, and Computer Repair & Networking for high school students. We started in 1994 with one of the original cable driven Shopbot CNC machines. Since then it has gone through many upgrades. Last school year we added a new steel table and 4G upgrade, but still use the original utility struts for the x & y rails and screen door roller bearings. That will be the next upgrade if I can ever figure out the best way to accomplish it.

The great thing about both CADD and Woodworking is that the ShopBot integrates very smoothly into both subjects and the majority of the students love it.

What class do you teach Wendell?

wendell
08-20-2008, 10:00 PM
I taught an Eng Tech class in Ohio forever and recently moved to Atlanta. We were lucky and had start up money to buy a table top Alpha. I sometimes miss my big machine but I have an older PRT in my garage.
Our boss (a marketing teacher) suddenly decided that we all need to compare safety curriculum.
I use a service called Quia to do electonic testing. I costs $50 a year but I don't grade and the service stores the results.
Take a look.
http://www.quia.com/pages/fcsssafety.html

Thanks again.

procarve
09-05-2008, 09:14 AM
I teach at a CTE school in Maine. We have used the shopbot for physics, boatbuilding, carpentry, engineering and robotics.

I created a list that involved machine safety and set up and once students can pass the test they can use the machine for any of thier classes. It works really well.

We did have one problem with students who were traveling through the shop getting close to the machine and not knowing how dangerous it could be so we built a room around it and closed it off - now we can let it run without worrying about a kid walking buy and getting hurt.

Bill
www.RocketfuelSigns.com (http://www.RocketfuelSigns.com)
formerly procarve cnc

mccoy178
09-07-2008, 03:17 PM
Mr. Thomas,
Would you be willing to share your machine safety files? The site is cool by the way.

procarve
09-08-2008, 10:20 AM
Sure Ben - I have a PDF of the test. Basically a student has to pass the software section by designing two files according to specifications and then machine the project according to the checklist. I watch them run the machine and they can't get anything wrong.

Once they do that, they are free to use the machine during the year for thier projects.

Bill
www.RocketfuelSigns.com (http://www.RocketfuelSigns.com)
formerly procarve cnc
MCST Shopbot Certification Test
shopbot certification test.pdf (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/936/shopbot_certification_test-34061.pdf) (21.5 k)

mccoy178
09-08-2008, 05:47 PM
Fantastic! Thanks for posting that.