Calling them like I see em

[dray]

While at the Jamboree & maker fair I couldnt help but notice the missing fulcrim between the high tech devices and the presence of the shopbot.

It ocurred to me a few months ago when a fellow cabinet builder/friend came into my shop and watched me cut out a cabinet and his jaw dropped then I was truthful with him about the price (I usually tell other cabinet makers I spent $100k so that they wont persue it). I showed him the website, I showed him the forums and he came back the nextday with printouts of thermwoods cabinets!! I said you dumba$$ just because of a picture you would rather pay $100k?????

I told him you can do the same thing all day long wit ha shopbot but the picture of the beautiful cabinet stuck in his head.

Then at the jamboree I felt like the shopbot wasnt presented in all of its glory.

What I am getting at is that if I werent a carpenter/cabinet builder. I would set up a trailer with 100 sheets of MDF, a PRS alpha, a generator and start going from cabinet shop to cabinet shop and sell 1 a day.

The only reason I am even saying this is because the more of a collective conscience we have the larger our resources become.

I feel a bit like a missing link here, there are many many engineers etc that have gone to cnc in order to make their cabinets but I have gone a different direction, from actually handcrafting to cnc.

I have never created a cabinet for $$. I create cabinets for people. I am here to be of service to them and I dont buy into all of the paying off bad designers for work or to become some sort of an ICON. I get up in the morning and start creating with my hands or mind for another person.

With the shopbot at my side I can create a better product for my customers, a more square, plumb and level, a sturdier and most importantly a more beautiful cabinet.

I dont know how many shopbots are sold yearly or daily for that matter. But I truely believe in this product and the creativity that stands behind it.

I stood around listening to the non shopbotters talk as they watched the machines cut simple parts. They all assumed it was waaaaaay out of reach so they moved along. I saw Bill Palumbo answering questions as fast as he could he's a people person! He can relate to everyone.

I'm not a marketing expert but I'm a 37 year old carpenter that has a enough technology knowledge to figure out that I can make anything, ANYTHING I have ever needed to make in my trade with one machine.

If I were to go around with my trailer, machine etc I would be cutting my own throat in a business sense.

I hope someone is picking up what Im laying down =)

D.Ray

[bill1]

hello Dan,
Nice article and very well wrote.

[gene]

Danny
I agree with your outlook totally . i too build cabinets for people and honestly the best part of my work is seeing the expression on the customers face at the finished work. I can honestly say that i enjoy my work and love to see how i can improve from project to project.
Anyone who is serious about woodworking and building a better project can not afford not to own a bot. As you said it allows you to go up so many levels in your talent and quality that its hard to find things the bot can`t do. The simplest things like fluted collums and arches add so much to a project not to mention some of the spectactular work some of the other botters are doing and that its unreal at what you can do now.
Its good to hear that craftsmen are using the bot to accent their work

[cip]

I also agree with Danny and Gene, I bought the BOT because I could'nt find a employee that could create the way I like to. So, I bought a helper, the bot, and it creates with me the way I like it.

No pay, no late to work, no "I'm sick and can't come to work" just real creativity and like they said no limits.
And my level of quality has improved with every job since.

Nice job ShopBot.

[Towersonline]

Danny, What a great article. Shopbot should use it as a testimonial. Keep up the great work.

Bill Thorpe