Just a question for the general users

[Ajcoholic]

Did you get into woodworking when you decided to purchase a shopbot? Or, like myself, did you come from a background of woodworking for several years, and decide to incorporate CNC afterwards?

Just curious..

AJC

[michael_schwartz]

I wanted a ShopBot ever since I was in high school and saw various magazine adds for them. I knew I would buy one someday. I was also more or less just interested in woodworking at the time, and just starting to acquire basic carpentry tools.

Fast forward about 10 years I had more than a couple of years of experience with woodworking under my belt, I finally got my ShopBot.

[chiloquinruss]

My fantasy was that when I retired I would have a Shop and a Bot. Well I have retired and I love my Shop and my Bot. Now I'm learning about wood stuff! Russ

[mcmark]

Hi AJ

telecaster911 here, from the forums. :D

I'm guessing you're building guitars.

I come from a long line of woodworkers. Dad, both grandfathers, etc, so I've been around cabinet makers and furniture makers all of my life.

[phil_o]

Hi Andrew, ditto on Russ' reply for me. You don't happen to have a brother named Al by any chance?

Phil

[myxpykalix]

I have done woodworking all my life, built my shop around my table saw, knew nothing about CNC then one day saw a show called "Cool Tools" where they demo'ed a small shopbot....I was hooked! I didn't need a CNC....
BUT I WANTED ONE!!!!:D
So I bought the biggest one, custom made a table for a indexer (with the help from Scott Cox with plans) and haven't regretted spending one penny that it cost.

The only problem i had was fitting it into my shop. The solution...build a bigger shop!:eek: It took a few years longer then i had hoped

[dlcw]

I came kicking and screaming into the computerized age of woodworking (CNC). I think the nail marks are still in the floor of my old shop :D

I've been working with wood since I was around 8 years old (45 years ago). My Dad got me started in construction, pole barn building (the old way of hand cut mortise and tenon joints). I didn't get to touch a power tool until I was 16. The first power tool I owned was an old Craftsman 3/8" electric drill. Then I got a circular saw. Then a small router. I was in 7th heaven and figured I could do anything.

I've been woodworking on a much larger scale since the early 90's. I got big stationary power tools and am now up to 6 routers including two in tables. In the mid 2000's I started looking at CNC's as a way to be more productive and still offer a high quality product to my customers. After looking at many CNC's (and price tags) I settled on the Shopbot as a good entry level CNC machine. It took me a long time, lots of money poured down the drain and tons of frustration but I finally got the machine working.

My only regret is that I didn't jump into this arena much sooner. I might have won a lot more business. :(

Overall happy with the capabilities of the machine and the additional business it has enabled me to win.

[steve_g]

Andrew:

I've been around... I worked my way through high school and college doing construction, manufacturing, electricity, electronics, mechanical design, you name it. So friends, family, and acquaintances have often asked me to go into partnership with them in various endeavors. When one particular venture was sold I decided that I was going to invest in myself. I replaced my tired construction grade shop tools with cabinet grade equipment, and ordered a ShopBot at that time. It's interesting how your thinking changes when you have a bot, whenever a project is proposed to me, my first thought now is "how can that be made on the bot"!

Steve

[dlcw]

Steve,

I hadn't really thought about it but your are right. When asked about a project, I first think if/how it could be done on the CNC.

My mind used to race around trying to figure out all the machine and hand steps that would be required to do a project. Now that happens after I exhaust CNC solutions.

It does really change the way you look at making a living at wood working.

[bleeth]

I dropped out of the business world (banking and finance) at 23 and started hanging wallpaper. Prior to that the only woodwork I did was some summer work framing and roofing and a short stint in a plant making cable spools. Got bored with wallpaper after a couple years and my roommate got me a job at the SeaVee boat plant he was working at. Went from 700-a grand a week to $4.25 an hour and have been doing wood ever since (Near 40 years). Never ran a CNC till I bought the bot, although by then I had been in management at a few places that had them. My first actual experience with them was the steel cutters at the shipyard. Of course they are only 2 axis.

[don_roy]

I'm a tool freek, especislly computorised tools . I'm a machinest an have come to age when the cnc were starting and have been envolved in cnc my whole career.
I have also been envolven in wood working since I have been on my own. When I saw the possibility of owning my own cnc router I was intent on finding a way to justify owing one. So I did . I happen to have been able to quote on a job that would be well suited for cnc application, an got the job. So I ordered my shopbot and paid for it on that job. It's been heaven ever since.
I love my bot and just can'nt find enough to do on it. I have kept up with the upgrades and have purchased Aspire, which I think is a fantastic software for wook working.
That is my 2 cents and I'm sticking with it.
By the way I'm a big fan of the forum although I do not post much. I think most members have a lot on the ball. Thank You all.
Don

[Ajcoholic]

Hi AJ

telecaster911 here, from the forums. :D

I'm guessing you're building guitars.

I come from a long line of woodworkers. Dad, both grandfathers, etc, so I've been around cabinet makers and furniture makers all of my life.

I am also a third generation woodworker. Although, my father was trained as a millwright in the Navy, and didnt start the woodworking business until he emigrated to Canada in the late 50's. I have a bunch of my grandfather's old hand tools (planes, chisels) I brought over from a visit to Europe in 2009.

Anyhow, I imagine I will try some guitar stuff at some point, but it certainly wasnt my motivation for getting the 'bot... $20K + can go a long way making them the old fashioned way :)

Right now, I am focusing on trying to make my custom furniture business easier to increase my output, and offer products I couldnt otherwise do at a reasonable price. We'll see how it goes...

AJC

PS I do not have any brothers, and luckily no uncles name "Al".. ;)

[shoeshine]

I'll throw in my $.02...

I was an art director at an advertising agency and painter (fine art) prior to the "bot". Though I did work at a cabinet shop during school, my woodworking experience was purely hobby level and what I learned doing a few house re-habs. What seems to be more useful is some base computer/CAD knowledge.

The bot has opened so many levels of creativity.

I am now slowly creating a business making kinetic art and architectural elements.

To my mind it is the ability to think in 3/2.5D that makes the "botter"

The rest can be learned.

YMMV
Chris

[CNYDWW]

Lets see, At age 18 first real job out of high school was at a local millwork company. I tailed planers, resaws, straightline saws, molders and eventually ran all of the equipment. Also worked in the "custom" door shop with the tenoning and line boaring machines. I had many a day covered in elmer's woodglue after feeding a rotating clamp rack for a ten hour shift. From there (during a break from the millwork company due to a large fire) i went to work for a local furniture store delivering and doing minor repairs, hanging blinds and the like for their interior designers. Helped with carpet installs a time or two. When the millwork company opened up manufacturing again, i went back to work. I even set to making knives for the molder's cutter heads etc. Spent some time in the cabinet shop up the hill from manufacturing. Knee surgery took me out of work and my job was filled when i got back. Went to work for a timber framer up north and learned a lot more. Half of the time i was building furniture in his shop or helping with cabinet work. The other half i was working on half log stairs and other on site projects. I will say this, I will NEVER build another log bed again! Due to a big accident, i was out of a job again. Moved to new england. Worked for home depot then a couple small cabinet shops before moving back to NY. Started doing my own furniture and some cabinet work locally while i worked other jobs. Some years passed and i found myself spending as much time in my own shop as I was spending at work. I ended up working as a mold tech and pattern maker for a company building aluminum processing equipment and then disaster struck. I got sick, turns out i had several small clots on the brain that caused some "minor" damage. Out of work again on my own. Sold almost everything to stay afloat waiting and waiting for insurance to go through that never came. After all hope was lost, i forced myself to work with the few tools i had left and began to get better. Purchased a small cnc router which was toast after a year then found the 5x10 prt. Currently it is running off the small machine's controller.

As far as my father. His idea of carpentry included a chainsaw, rusty used nails and a very large eastwing hammer.

Regards
Randy

[Ajcoholic]

As far as my father. His idea of carpentry included a chainsaw, rusty used nails and a very large eastwing hammer.

Regards
Randy

Now THAT made me laugh!! ;)

AJC

[gc3]

2.5-3 yrs ago and after 140 interior louver door stiles all done by hand with a router/jig.....i knew I had to have a cnc

thank you Ken Z and Bill K!!!

then came the crazy obsession with door panels...it won't stop there!

...cutting one as i post :eek:

[CNYDWW]

Now THAT made me laugh!! ;)

AJC

There was a story when i was a kid. My mother told me he used a chainsaw to turn a window into a back door. Working on the very house years and years later, pulled off the door casing and yep. It DID happen. If you think that's bad you should see the wiring:eek:.

[bleeth]

What's wrong with using a chain saw for that? I've done a bunch of window and door openings that way.

OK-They were log houses!!!

:D:D:D:D

[CNYDWW]

What's wrong with using a chain saw for that? I've done a bunch of window and door openings that way.

OK-They were log houses!!!

:D:D

Only logs were the rafters in that house. After growing up there i still have dreams about coming in the front door with a gas can and matches.....:D