Hello all,
I've been a long-time lurker around the forum, and have gathered so much information, I hardly know what to do with it all. ;)
Anyway, I'm considering getting a PRS Standard soon for my cabinet shop. I was fortunate enough to get a good deal on a Colombo 3hp spindle, so I figure that the newer PRS standard should be good enough coupled with the spindle to do what I want. Plus, I can always upgrade to an Alpha later. Does anyone here have much experience with the new PRS standard for cutting cabinet parts? I'll be cutting mostly 1/2" and 3/4" melamine with it, plus all the other cool things I can think up to cut once I have a 'bot in the shop.
I plan on using the Fein Turbo III for vacuum hold-down, as it seems to be working so well for so many people, and I don't have the money or power to run a large vacuum pump. As it is, we're getting pretty well maxed out on power in our shop. Every time the air compressor kicks on (7.5hp Ingersoll-Rand), it dims all the lights in the shop AND the house.
My main concern though is software. I'm like Danny Ray, I own KCDw , but I'm not paying the outrageous price for the CNC link. I've tried the demo of Cabinet Parts Pro, but I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't seem like it's got all the customization I need for the cabinets we do. Flexcabs looks cool, but I'm not paying $300 for something that doesn't have any sort of demo(haven't contacted the author of it yet, maybe he does offer one.) The thing is, we have a lot of different construction methods for different styles of cabinets, which may seem odd at first, but it REALLY makes assembly fly, and I'm not about to change them to match someone else's software. Soooo, I'm doing something crazy and writing my own. I just don't know if I have the patience to get it done, because I want to start cutting out jobs NOW!
So, I mainly just want to say hi to everyone, and I'm really excited about getting a CNC for the shop. I figure that since I've already gotten the spindle, I may as well get the CNC to put it on so it can't go to waste.