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For those of you who have assembled a new PRT Alpha - how many total hours from start to finish? I mean from opening the box, to cutting your first test?
Any helpful tools, techniques?
Advice you would give someone after you have been through it once?
Assembling the shotbot table only took one evening (two people lifting and bolting and a third helping out occasionally).
Maybe I was lucky, but aligning the rails took about 30 minutes. I used a laser level, checked the edge of the laser spot near the level with a ruler, and then checked the same edge of the laser spot at several points along each rail with the same ruler, both horizontally and vertically. I used most of the shims to get the vertical alignment that I wanted, and long clamps placed across the rails to get the horizontal alignment that I wanted. Turning some of the clamps inside out, so that they spread the rails apart rather than squeezing them together made the job easier than expected.
Wiring took an entire day. I always go slowly when I'm wiring any new machine to verify that everything is exact. Probably about 1/2 of that time was spent checking the existing shop wiring, breakers, plugs etc.
Since this is my first Shopbot, I spent the better part of a day playing with bits, materials, speeds, etc. before even trying to run parts.
My greatest mistake was trying to get a perfect cut (both precision and finish) with one pass. After running test after test after test, I realized that the Shopbot was subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece of equipment. (I gave up trying to get a perfect edge on my Unisaw years ago. Most cuts were/are great, but I found it more efficient to saw a little large and then run the edge to exact size with a joiner or shaper.) On the Shopbot I run a rough pass to get the material almost to dimension, and then run a quick final pass removing about 0.030 inch. The resulting edge requires almost no sanding (baltic birch plywood) except to remove the chatter marks that are created when the machine ramps to speed after each change of direction.
The learning curve to find efficient procedures took (and is still taking) a lot of time. I've spent hours reading and re-reading posts from many others. I found it very helpful to study the advice Eric gives about cutters, router/spindle speed, move speed, and vacuum hold down. His advice, once I understood the concepts and terminology, have proven to be invaluable. I've also studied carefully Gerald's advice on using clamps and the proper sequencing of cuts - good advice that is well worth studying. There are many, many others that consistantly give good, usable advice. I would recommend that you set aside significant time to *study* the forum. Don't just read the posts, study them, think about them, analyze them, mull them over in your mind until you fully understand them. Chances are that you'll face the same problem, at some point, that has already been discussed on the forum.
I would suggest that you keep a log. Write down each test that you run, the reason for the test, and the results of the test. I'm still running tests on new cutters, different feeds and speeds, different settings, etc. Not writing things down means that the test will have to be redone at some future point.
Best of luck. The machine is great, but it will always need your brain to control it.
Mike
Justin,
You might want to check out the following thread..
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/mes...tml?1091715683
I started this thread the night I received my shopbot. Go through this one well... There is quite a bit of info from others, as well as info I learned along the way.
If you need any help, email your phone # and I can give you a call to help out.
Scott...