New Buddy owner

[wayne fussell]

I finally pulled the plug and bought a buddy system with the indexer, probe and 4ft power stick. The whole nine yards so to speak.
Having never done any cad work I hope the probe with work for what I need. I was assured by Shopbot this would work and work 10 xs better than the way I'm making them now.
I make RC Model airplane propellers, currently all by hand and it’s a lot of work to produce them. I'm hopeful this will speed up production. Here is the website for my propellers. (www.soloprops.com) I only plan on making the blades. I currently produce 9 different sizes ranging from 16" to 32" in diameter with 4 to 5 different shapes. All the metal machining is done elsewhere.
Delivery is expected February 8th.
So I'm looking for advice. I have a young man close by (1 hour) that I can hire to help me out and is willing to help me with setup and to start the scan process on the blade profiles.
And other help or wisdom anybody can give is well appreciated.

[cowboy1296]

I have a buddy 32 with the 4 ft power stick. I never bought the probe so it will be interesting to see how it works for you.

[wayne fussell]

I just hope that it works the way I need.

[Brady Watson]

I just hope that it works the way I need.

It can work surprisingly well, but keep in mind that probing is time consuming & that you will want a CAD/CAM package like Aspire to parse out anomalous data and smooth out the surface. If you find you are not up to the task of digitizing or are not getting the results you seek, feel free to contact me off-list about high definition laser digitizing. It is cheaper & faster than doing it yourself, especially when you factor in the time spent cleaning up the data in software.

-B

[steve_g]

Wayne

"I just hope that it works the way I need"

It will... but don't get frustrated and give up too soon. There is a learning curve. You said you have never done any CAD work... It's a lot for you to learn in the next year. Having some scans done would help break it all into manageable chunks.

SG

[wayne fussell]

Thanks Brady and Steve.
Brady I just sent you an email.