Shopbot rookie starting a cabinet shop

[James Jacobs (Unregistered Guest)]

I am thinking about getting a shop-bot for my cabinet shop that I will be starting this summer. My biggest concern is how clean the cut will be with melomine. 90% of what I will be cutting will be out of melomine for cabinet parts. I am planning on doing 10-15 kitchens per month. will the shop-bot be able to keep up or should I look for a different CNC?

[bleeth]

To utilize your bot for most efficiency in kitchen parts processing you will need an appropriate vacuum system and should add the new drill attachment. This will give you the ability to cut your parts and drill them without bit changing.
I'm sure yoou know that greatest efficiency in panel processing is done with a beam saw and a point-to-point combination, but the costing there can be quite prohibitive.
The definition of a kitchen, since it can run from 10-12 boxes to 30+ boxes is a definite part of the equation.
If you are properly set up a shopbot alpha will have no trouble handleing your load.
Your real challenge may be your cut-listing and optimizing. Make sure you have the right software.

[Ryan Patterson]

I get a good cutting edge on melamine I cut, speed ,rpm and cutter has allot to do with the edge quality. I am cutting 5/8" melamine at 9"/sec at 13,600 rmp with now problem, and have tried cutting at 12"/sec at 15,500 rmp, both speeds give me a clean cut. I go through a unit of melamine and a couple of units of plywood in a week, and will assemble 30 to 40 cabinets in that week. The Shopbot Alpha has always keep up with the amount of sheets I cut.

[sawkerf]

You say you are starting a shop this summer and plan on 10-15 kitchens a month. How many employees do you plan on having? I've been building cabinets for a long time and for 1 1/2 years with my bot. That just seems a bit ambitious to me. More power to you if you can turn it out!

[James Jacobs (Unregistered Guest)]

thanks for all of your imput. right now I am managing a cabinet shop for my boss and I am running an Onsrud cnc router. It is a pretty good machine, but very expensive. If the shopbot can cut out clean cabinet parts out of melomine then I'm all for it especially for the price. I am going to go out on my own and hire 4 or 5 guys to start out with. My uncle owns a developement company and he said that he will have 300 kitchens lined up for me in the next year. I of course don't expect to keep up with that much work right off the bat. A lot of the kitchens are for small 4-plex condo's and with the right organization I should be able to produce those quite rapidly.... nothing too fancy.

[James Jacobs (Unregistered Guest)]

Ryan; what kinds of bits are you using for the melomine, and do you think cutting out of 3/4 inch melomine will make a difference on the cleanliness of the cut?
Dave; I am planning on the vacuum system and the bit changer. what software for cutlisting and optimizing do you suggest?
Again thanks for your help with these questions

[Ryan Patterson]

I cut melamine with a 3/8” spiral up/down (white side 4102). When I cut ¾” I don’t see a difference in cut, although I can not cut it at 12/sec I do cut ¾” at 9”/sec. For the software if you are looking for just cutlists and optimizing take a look at http://www.cabinetpartspro.com/

[bleeth]

For full bore software with lots of graphics, libraries, and costing tools you need to go to a program like kcdw or Cabinet Vision. Each has their own followers and levels of complexity you can buy in at. If you are already cad-adept many people put together their own parametric library in Autocad and nest their own or pick up a stand alone optimizer. You should consider who is going to operate the software and what would work for them. Cabinetpartspro (mentioned above) is a good basic box cutter at an outstanding price with an easy user interface. The more you get, the higher the learning curve.

Dave