My experience has been a GREAT one!

[billp]

Apparelly not....

[wmcghee]

It is really great to hear some stories of how others are doing with their Shopbot. I have been struggeling with a decision for the last year or so on what to do. I have a good job, or at least thats what everyone tells me. I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a good
J-O-B (Just Over Broke). Its about a
40,000+ dollar a year job with the railroad. Been there about 2 1/2 years. I work with good people and the work is usually easy. But it is second shift and my off days are like Tuesday and Wednesday. Sometimes they change to Thursday, Friday but they will always be in the middle of the week until I am an old man and the family is raised. And I just don't like working for someone else.

I have decent insurance, and very good job security. And I will be able to retire at 60 with a very good retirement (I'm 33 now).

I have for the last 5 or 6 years had a part time business woodworking. I've not done much in the last year or 2 with it because of the way I work. I have a website where I sell tools also that does pretty well. I would like to grow it more and do the woodworking (or something with the 'bot).

I would like to get some input from some of you guys on what you would do if you were in my shoes. I have a stay at home wife with 3 kids,3, 9 and 16. I will have my house paid for this Spring and have plenty of land to build a shop on.

I feel like time is slipping away and I have always heard that when you get older and look back on your life the things you regret are the things you didn't do. "Time steals a young mans dreams" is what a good friend tells me his Grandpa use to tell him.

Sorry if I made any of you want to go to bed early because of boredom.

[gwilson]

To everyone that has posted I love hear about your starts and businesses. I am working out my wants and needs for a bot now and will be ordering one here very soon. Have business plan as well. And just if any one needs it I am a cad operator w/ Autocad 2006 and Autodesk Inventor 10, If I can help with files and translations let me know.
Thank You,
Gerald

[Jay Olsson (Unregistered Guest)]

Hi guys, I'm a Swede in Fla. who's done boatwork and carpentry all my life, (25yrs). I somewhere heard about this shopbot'"thing", downloaded the manual and a year and a half later bought a clonker 10'x4'PR96. It's been 5-6 yrs now that I've had this thing going, as a supplement to my other machinery,all along keeping up with this forum as one of these who never post anything.
All I want to say is that ya'll are great,and there can not possibly be a nicer group of people out there.
Thanks everybody for allways being willing to lend a hand to whomever need it. Awesome.

[gerald_d]

Bill_P, was that just a typo on apparently, or clever wordplay on apparel?


In our case the ShopBot was used to set up a career for an 18yr-old son when he finished school in the year 2000. In some months he earns more than his father, other times (like this week) he gets into his pickup with some friends and goes exploring around the country. None of his old schoolfriends have the independence and self-assuredness that he has today.

[jay]

OK, you fellows have moved me to stop lurking and pipe in.

For you guys that are thinking of purchasing a Bot, all I can say is it is the best thing I have ever done.

I paid for my Bot and made a living in ten months of ownership. My wood carving and woodworking started as a hobby after retirement then after 5 surgeries to my hands (carpel, trigger fingers, etc.)I had to give up personally doing the carving. Figured there had to be another way. Someone told me about the Bot. I watched the forum for about a year thought about purchasing a used machine but very few came along so with no idea of what I was going to do with the machine I decided to buy one anyway.

I was warned not to get too excited and make a lot of promises to people that I would get work to them. I received the machine, built my own steel table and went about learning two things. One, what I could not do with the Bot and two, things that I could do with the Bot.

I do a bit of everything with the machine, I cut stair stringers for a local stair company, cut signs for a number of the local sign companies, cut cabinet parts for stuff I make for some of the local furniture stores, make some specialized moldings for a local lumber yard, cut rough landscapes panels for a local carving school, etc.

All in all, I have a lot of fun, don't work a ten or twelve hour day anymore, after all I am retired, ya right, well that was the plan, and make enought money to keep the wolf away from the door.

Just thought I would mention the major reason I purchase the Bot instead of another CNC Router was because of the Forum. You will never come across a better bunch of great helpfull people.

Thanks to all those who participate so freely in this forum.

Jay

[Brady Watson]

Personally, I tend to march to my own beat, and the experience of owning a shopbot has just helped me to be, well...more of me. The best advice that I could give anyone would be to follow your heart. I had my bot for about a year or so before I got laid off. I used to write software for a living and the stresses of the 100 mile round trip commute, office politics and incredible workload really got to me. I knew that if I kept up that pace I wouldn't make it to 40. I bought my bot as a 'Plan B ~ maybe someday'...Well as the company went under from poor management, I found that Plan B was soon Plan A when I got my severance pay and walking papers...I was a bit scared since I still had the mortgage and other bills to pay...BUT I had wished, prayed and summoned this with all my might because that job was killing me...so I was pretty happy inside when it all came down to it.

What really bolstered this change was all of the MANY posts and personal e-mails from other shopbot owners that helped me get going with the business side of the bot. There was no 'there, there...or poor you' nonsense, just helpful, straight advice and wisdom from those who had been in my same situation. That experience right there justified my Shopbot purchase...and I knew that I had found the right group of people to propel me into the right direction. There really is no other community like the Shopbot family. I guess it's like a Harley in a way...if you don't own one, then you wouldn't understand.

Probably the only real truth out there, is the voice that you are hearing and the echoing of the old man speaking of time and lost dreams. Of course as a father, you have to do what's best for your family, but you want to do that without breaking your own spirit. I'm sure that there are a number of times that any of us can remember when we ignored that voice inside (yeah the screaming one saying, "I'm not sure how much longer I can take this job...etc")...and because we ignored it, we paid a greater price than if we hadn't.

The biggest lessons that I have learned since I started a business with my Shopbot are:

1) Trust the universe in all of it's wisdom that you will be provided for. You're still here, aren't you?
2) If you are getting paid to do what you love, you are doing what you are meant to do in life.
3) Don't feel guilty charging people for 'playing'
4) The only way to fail is to stop trying.

I now work probably 18hrs a day all together...BUT no longer have the stress related ailments I had 2 yrs ago. (it's not really work remember?...I'm getting paid to play!) I'm not making what I made in the corporate circus...but I am happy! I genuinely love what I do & nobody tells me what to do. Momentum is building and business is getting better and better every day. YOU have to do what is right for YOU...and there's no 'wrong' way to do it.

Keep visualizing your business...as if you already have it right now (that really works). You may be suprised how quickly and perfectly things start moving towards that vision with only your strong intent. Think of work in the context that a musician does ~ "It's just a gig, man"...You play one for a while, then move on to the next one. In the end, it doesn't really matter what you do...but don't leave with your music still in you.

Hope that helps.
-Brady

[mikejohn]

Gentlemen all
Longing as I am to be a true member of this community (9days, 9days

), I thought "this going to work in my night shirt I can do".
You all forgot to mention where all that sawdust can end up!
..........Mike

[billp]

Gerald,,
No typo, just an attempt at a clever pun which "apparently" was out of reach for some...
AND to keep on target with this thread , the shop mantra here is: "Nothing is really work, unless you would rather be doing something else......"

[weslambe]

Wayne,

I was a computer geek and I wrapped up my last contract job in August of 2001. I thought that I could cool my heels for a couple of months then go looking for the next contract. 9-11 was the next month and the next contract never happened. I sat around the house building furniture for my wife and raising my little girls. (then 4 and 6 mo.)

After about a year and a half of this I found out about the Shopbot and went to the 2003 jamboree. I bought my prt96 at the jamboree and haven't regretted it for a minute.

If you haven't seen what I've done with the 'Bot then go to www.doorbot.net and see. Not only has the Shopbot helped bring in a second income, it's given my career goals a new direction.

I am currently in negotiations with a regional building supplier to sell my cabinet doors and if they start giving me too much business, I have lined up a couple of other Shopbot owners to take up my slack.

If you have a product to sell before you buy your Shopbot you've got a great head start. One thing that I've said over and over to my software customers is that the small cnc shop is the modern equivalent of the blacksmith. Every town needs and will have one. If you don't do it, someone else will.

Now I have 4 children. 2 girls aged 8 and 4 and 2 twin boys aged 16 months. I stay home with them during the day and work on DoorBot. At night and on weekends I make cabinet doors as they are ordered. I am on the verge of great success and I wouldn't be anywhere close to this without the ShopBot.

To sum it up; I am very pleased with ShopBot.

Wes

ps, in regards to Geralds post below this one; how true. The shopbot doesn't make anything except what you tell it to make. If you told it to make left handed smoke shifters it would do it all day long. Now, can you sell left handed smoke shifters? That's another issue. It helps to have a product to sell lined up before you purchase your Shopbot. I have seen quite a few shopbots for sale in the couple of years that I have been coming here. I think that it's mostly because they thought that they could throw some material up on the machine and start making money. It's not that easy, it's a business and if you don't know how to run one, you have to be able to learn how.