Any schools using the Handi bot yet?

[Hoytbasses]

We've had our desktop for about a year and we're loving it! We can use a second machine and the principal is all for it. We're making signs, electric guitars, small jewelry boxes, ...pretty much anything our little brains can conjure up. (and my 61 year rookie bot programming brain can handle:-)

So I saw the blurbs about the Handibot and pretty much dismissed it as too small to be used in our setting:THEN I saw the video where the handibot was cutting out 12' long stair risers and doing all sorts of cool stuff on bigger jobs.

...which got me to thinking: for the price of one desktop, we could get two handibots, and make dedicated jigs for some of the stuff we're using the shopbot for. a great example is that we make lots of bedside stands in the 14"x16" x 32" (roughly ) size and kids are enjoying vcarving designs and script into the tops of the bedside stands. It looks like we could make a dedicated jog specifically for this purpose, (as well as table tops, signs, small parts, etc.)

that's the LONG winded way of asking the question: are any of you teacher types out there using the handibot, and what's your impressions?

thanks

Karl Hoyt

[Kyle Stapleton]

Get the desktop or go bigger.
We make great big signs and cut full sheet good, as of now we are saving for a desktop top clear space on the big bot.

[markevans]

I'm not teaching but I am a owner and if I was setting up a class with a $10k budget I'd seriously consider the handibot simply because with 10k I could get 3 handibots and some tooling or one desktop.
Making jigs can be part of the syllabus.

[bleeth]

I guess it depends on what your actual goal is. Are you trying to teach your students what they can do with cnc machines and software and how it may apply to the genuine world of getting a job in industry that uses such machines or buy the most units for the least money?
Handibot is a cool tool. IMHO though, no one is going to hire a recent grad because he knows how to use one. That may change down the road, but at this point for general business use in companies that use cnc equipment it is a non-starter.
If one takes a class of average students you may have one or two inspired, motivated, and clever enough to figure out a way to make it work for their own startup business, but for most of your students learning how to use tools that are more generally used in the business world would be a greater benefit.
A desktop is simply, for the sake of discussion regarding the business world, a mini cnc that uses the same software systems and operational mechanics of a larger machine. That is practical knowledge that may translate to helping your students get a job.
As far as stair stringers go, a well trained carpenter with a framing square can layout and cut a set of stringers with a circular saw in half the time it takes to go through the cnc design and cutting system.

[chiloquinruss]

"A desktop is simply, for the sake of discussion regarding the business world, a mini cnc that uses the same software systems and operational mechanics of a larger machine. That is practical knowledge that may translate to helping your students get a job."

FYI, the HandiBot ALSO is a mini cnc that use the same software (Vectric/SB3) and operational mechanics (X,Y,Z) of a larger machine. With Bill Youngs new jigs they are really quite powerful in what they can accomplish. It does require some 'thinking outside the box' though! If it was a schools budget decision between NO CNC's or a HandiBot or two, I think the answer is HandiBot(s). Russ

[markevans]

What Russ said.

[Brett Dickinson]

Just got one. Currently we have a full size machine and Desktop ShopBots.

I had a big problem last year with doing a plaque project with a backlog of projects waiting to be flipped so we can cut a keyhole slot.

If that is all I do with the HandiBot, that is money well spent. I have a lot of other plans as well.

kEEP IN touch

Brett Dickinson
956-455-6153