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What the heck?! I'm away from the forum for a few months and this is the news I read when I get back?

Glad to hear you're on the mend. Also glad that I've mostly stopped doing stuff at height...

The owner of a local machine shop here in my town (30 yrs in business) told me that about 1 in 15 potential customers that come in off the street turn into actual paying jobs.

If you research...

Sintra and styrene both "snap" if you bend narrow pieces too sharp. I think the styrene would be a fine choice if you're not doing small/narrow parts (< 1/2").

I'd recommend polycarbonate if...

Don't let the small ($1500) price difference fool you into thinking these machines are in the same category. Those of us who know enough to build our own machines from scratch could write you a book...

We've had a lot of requests from ShopBot PRT owners who want to use our CNC Pressure Foot attachment on their older machines. I suspect that these beloved workhorses will be getting the job done for...

I've got two small (1/2" long) scars on the tops of each of my thumbs. One from a hand router, one from a metal lathe. Both were accidents that I should have avoided.

It sounds weird when I talk...

PartWorks includes a bunch of single line / single stroke fonts. They are automatically installed with the software.

After you open up the text tool check the box for single line instead of true...

I have used Alibre Design to create patent drawings. Several ShopBotter's use this software for designing their cut files as well. You can download a free version and their paid version with tech...

I don't want to start a fight with Gary, but my PRS runs on a Dell without any problems.

I bought it new 2 years ago. It was the cheapest Dell desktop offered by Best Buy at the time. My Comm...

I did the same thing that Joe May describes - the computer is 6" away from the control box, with 25' powered USB extension/hub to handle keyboard, mouse, WiFi antenna, software dongle, and 25' video...

There are companies that sell the inner parts. I purchased parts from one of them about 15 years ago - sorry I can't find their info now.

They also sold arcade game and pinball machine parts,...

Brady's vacuum film technique has worked well for us in past applications. I'm sure many folks can benefit from having it in their clamping arsenal.

Ironically, a few weeks before Brady first...

Expand the capability of your CNC machine to cut "impossible" to clamp parts without using tabs or double-sided tape. Our CNC Pressure Foot™ attaches to the Z-axis of your CNC router or CNC milling...

The total cut depth should be .004 or deeper. You can use start depth 0 and flat depth .004

As Steve mentioned, it's going to be hard to get good results with a standard engraving cutter due to...

It's funny how we have our tried and true bits that we automatically goto for all projects of a certain type - and how sometimes things don't workout despite a history of jobs well done.

Like...

You can download a trial version of both partworks and aspire (design software) from Vectric.com for free to test them out - won't make parts on a machine, but will give you experience to know what...

I think of my machine as several cutting areas stacked together. I have the indexer area, the vertical/dovetail area, the 4x8 vacuum table area, and the 1x8 long fixture clamping area.

I setup a...

FYI... 3/4" trupan ULMDF weighs 69 lbs per 4x8 sheet.

Of course, it's not actually 3/4" thick - it's a metric size, and the factory cuts it a little over 4'x8' in size.

Good luck with your...

Mitch, you had me excited there for a minute!

To avoid confusion for others reading this thread, the "thing-o-matic" is NOT offering stereo lithography, but 3D printing of any type is still pretty...

Bill P. sent me pictures of some oval gears about a month ago... It was the first I'd ever heard of such a thing. As soon as I found out about them I had to cut some for myself. I found the...

Shhhhhhh... :)

The big announcement is coming soon and our first production run should be ready to ship late next week.

Test results continue to exceed everyone's expectations. We hit upon an...

ShopBot showed off a new 5-axis head they're working on at IWF.

With your volumes, it might be a great upgrade to your machine.

As mentioned, zeroing to the table will be the easiest if that works for your project.

To program this with variables, you would define your values at the beginning of your file:
...

Hey Joe - Do you have a rule of thumb that you could share for matching V-carve angle to letter size/stroke width?

I've only cut a few V-carve signs, but I've noticed that the angle/depth of cut...

A word of advice on V-carving with paint mask...

Make sure you set you cut depth per pass shallow enough that only the beveled part of the tool cuts material - even if you're cutting foam and the...