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Thread: Shopbot never cut flat

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Elgin Illinois
    Posts
    706

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    I don't run a vacuum either, no heat issues for sure for me.
    Chuck Keysor (circa 1956)
    PRT Alpha 60" x 144" (circa 2004)
    Columbo 5HP spindle
    Aspire 9.0, Rhino 5

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Posts
    47

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    Those little vacuubes arent bad for heat I dont think. Ive never noticed extra heat around my machine.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Posts
    47

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    Quote Originally Posted by guitarwes View Post
    I have the same problem, hadn't figured it out yet. I have a 2006 PRT Alpha. My bit runs deeper into the freshly surfaced spoilboard the futher you go down the X axis.
    I contributed it to a very worn thin spoilboard and we put a new spoilboard on there and does the same thing. Very aggravating when you have Vcarvings on an entire sheet of material, the carvings on the X0 end are perfect but the X96 end are really deep.
    Exactly! Ever figure yours out?

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Elgin Illinois
    Posts
    706

    Default

    Hello Clay. Last fall, and a few days ago in a follow-up, I made the observation that I could not find any videos or training which teach how to accurately/properly align all of the parts of a Shopbot. It seems as though anyone having an alignment problem needs to rely upon small tips/advice from a small pool of experts. That seems to be a flaw to me, in that Shopbots are inherently unstable mechanically, and prone to being tossed out of alignment, IF they were ever even correctly aligned in the first place. Replace a pinion, bang the gantry with a hard stop or banging the bit, and you get even more out of whack. So the need for all Shopbots to be re-calibrated/realigned seems inherent with the machines. Yet, despite that obvious need to do a technically exacting procedure to a high level of accuracy, there is no training information available from Shopbot. I have looked on YouTube, and not found helpful videos. For example, there is a gentleman who demonstrates how to use a double headed dial indicator on a trammel bar. But he seems to be guessing as he goes along. And he never says how good you need to get, or how good you can hope to get. He says the process is exacting and tedious, and when he is all done, he demonstrates his results, which seem to not be to his satisfaction. As I watched, I came up with more questions then he gave answers.

    I would expect my problem, and those of others on this thread with unsatisfactory results, are all at a loss for how to fix their problems because they lack professional machinist training, and are not able to find training appropriate to the needs of the typical shopbotter that wants to get good performance from their machine. To my thinking, because EVERY Shopbot has to be assembled and aligned before it can be used, that there should be really good training to explain all of the nuances needed to obtain good operation. So after all these years, I can't imagine that Botters haven't asked for this information, especially since there seems to be a regular set of questions from users with problems they can't figure out.

    As noted, I posted my opinion on this last fall, and then a few days ago. I hoped that lots of people would chime in with a chorus of loud "Amen Brother". But only one person commented their agreement.

    It used to be, to my understanding that you could hire someone from Shopbot to come and align your machine. I don't know what that cost, but it had to be a lot. Again, detailed video training on all aspects of alignment, plus showing the various effects on operation for various types of mis-alignment would be vital to having a happy pool of customers who had top notch operating machines which could produce top notch V and 3d carvings, without having to hire a tech to come to their machine, and then call them back every time the Bot got bumped...……. .

    Sigh...………. Chuck
    Chuck Keysor (circa 1956)
    PRT Alpha 60" x 144" (circa 2004)
    Columbo 5HP spindle
    Aspire 9.0, Rhino 5

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