Minnesota Camp Shopbot - Sept 21

[foamcarver]

Hi Everyone
Just thought I'd let every know that our camp is coming up soon-the 21st of September. It will officially start about 9 am but I'm sure that Mark will be here by about 7 am for anyone who wants to come early.

Our address is
4270 Centerville Road
Vadnais Heights, MN 55127
phone# 651-778-2950

I'll find some hotels around here to add.

Also on Monday I'll be posting some pictures of our latest job- The Corona Cantina at the Mall of America, we did the bird, the Corona bottle and the Airplane.

See ya soon
Nikki
nicole@foamcarver.com (mailto:nicole@foamcarver.com)

Check out our new site www.foamcarver.com (http://www.foamcarver.com)

[billp]

Slight correction-It's actually the 20th of September(Saturday) so please factor this in when making hotel reservations....

[billp]

By the way we have started to get responses from those planning to attend this Camp. If you haven't done so already please drop me a note at -campshopbot "at"gmail .com so we can figure out how many people to prepare for. Thanks !

[gene]

Mark and Nicole,
Would you PLEASE adopt me ? I clean up after myself am house broken and will work for food. I just checked out your site and its GREAT. The work ya'll do is incredible. i only wish i could do some of that type work but i dont think theres much call for it here in this backward a** place i live . GREAT WORK I would love to see it in person .

[foamcarver]

Yes, Sorry I guess I was thinking of my sons b-day party! It is the 20th

lol Gene! Thanks we love our new site! We just put it up a couple weeks ago. We do all the web design and hosting here also

Nikki

[mysterium]

Hi Mark & Nicole,

I would love to participate but unfortunately the date falls on the weekend when I am out of town...

Being new to CNC ( bought a used Shopbot recently but have yet to get it set up) the Camp would have been a great help to forward my very naive understanding of CNC. From what I've read these seem to be annual events. Is there any chance that a Camp could be held in the Winter when things quite down for a lot of us in the "frozen North"?

I was happy to see someone "local" owned a Shopbot, I am not far from you being just outside of Rochester.

Thanks, jim

[billp]

Jim,
Sorry you won't be able to make this one. We're starting to get RSVP's on a daily basis, and will probably have a good group in attendance from your area.
We try to arrange the schedule so that we cover as wide a range as possible geographically throughout the year. While we'd like to be within easy driving distance of everyone owning a Shopbot, this isn't always possible. Another issue we have to deal with is the weather, and it's effects on traveling conditions. This is why you'll notice that we tend to head South in the Winter, and migrate North as the seasons change
( sort of like the professional golf tour.....).
Because of these facts, we've been trying to promote the idea of having Shopbotters around the country sponsor their own gatherings, called "User Groups". This is when a local 'Botter volunteers their shop for a get together similar to a Camp, but it's mainly for the purpose of meeting others in the area, and having some loosely organized sessions on whatever interests those in attendance. No agenda, or schedule.
In fact the Shopbotters in the Atlanta area did just this last week during the IWF woodworking show. Davis Buchsbaum opened his shop/home on the Friday night of the weekend, and had over 20 people attend to just hang out and "talk 'Bot"...
There are easily enough people in the Minnesota area to support a group such as this, and maybe it's something we can address during the Camp. That would allow us two meetings (or more)in a geographic region during any given year. Sometimes people are surprised to find out just HOW close others are to their location.
One thing I'm going to suggest to EVERYONE reading this FORUM is that they "modify"their user profile, and include the city/state where they live/work. This may help people find one another, as well as helping newcomers learn how many people are "local". With 5,000 Shopbots out there now, we're in a LOT of places...
This suggestion is not only for the folks in Minnesota by the way. In all likelihood we'll only be doing one Camp in an area each year, so if you want more contact with others in the surrounding region, consider starting a "User Group"! If everyone throws a few bucks into the pot, you can all help the "host"offset any expenses, and you'll surely get a lot more out of the time spent than working by yourself in the garage/shop !
I'll be glad to work with anyone needing some info or support in this process, and you can always contact me at - campshopbot "at" gmail.com
PS- If you'd rather attend a more formal "Camp" (hard to really call Camps "formal" after you've been to one...)and we don't have one on the calendar for your area, use the e-mail address above and we'll see what we can do to correct that...

[foamcarver]

With the date just around the corner, we still havent heard from many people. We would like to get a head count so we can get chairs and have enough coffee and drinks and food. We'll open the doors at 7am for doughnuts and coffee. There are a few hotels within minutes from our shop.

AmericInn® of White Bear Lake, MN

4675 White Bear Parkway, White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Reservations: 800-396-5007
Front Desk: 651-429-7131

ST. PAUL NE (VADNAIS HEIGHTS)
1100 EAST COUNTY ROAD E
ST. PAUL, MN 55110
Reservations: 1 877 410 6687

They are both about 5 minutes from our shop.

Does any one have anything that they would like to give a class on.

Also bring in some of your projects that you've done over the last year!

See you soon
Nikki
nicole@foamcarver.com (mailto:nicole@foamcarver.com)
651-778-2950

[billp]

Nikki,
I've got about 15 names (so far) which I'll pass along to you in the next day or so. For anyone else planning to attend please let us know soon. Thanks !

[rcnewcomb]

I'll try to bring some stone carving samples.

I would love to talk to anyone at the Camp who does gold leafing. I'm still refining my technique.

[jsfrost]

Randall,

My technique needs work also, but I would like to talk over what works for me and what doesn't. See you there.

Jim

[foamcarver]

Well our 3rd annual camp is this weekend. looking forward to seeing old faces and
some new ones also. This should be a very
productive camp I am sure Bill as always will have lots of info to share if any one has anything to share with the rest of the botters
bring it on.

Sorry i have not been updating the camp info as often as I would like we have been extremly busy
so I am looking forward to learning some new ways
to use the Shop Bot and hearing what you all have been doing over this last year.

See youu all soon...

Mark-

[foamcarver]

The date for our camp is Saturday the 20th not the 21st as stated above.

See ya there...

Mark-

[rnels]

Mark, Nikki, Bill and all others who had a part in hosting the camp,

Thanks again! Got some more ideas and revitalized for another year. There are things that are covered every year for the benefit of ones interested in buying or just starting with the Bot but Bill always adds the latest and greatest additions for those of us who have been to a few camps. Mark also added the Apoxie (sp?) demo which was quite interesting.

Bill, don't suppose you could produce a CD (or add a few to the USB stick (thanks by the way!))of some of the presentation pictures to hand out at the camps. It's hard to remember all of the different applications you had pictures for.

Thanks again!

Randy

[billp]

Randy,
I'll check up and see what we can do. Might be even easier to set up a web page somewhere so people who can't make the camps can have access as well...(However, many of those images are buried in the earlier "sets" on the Flickr page, you just have to dig through all of them...)
Speaking of Camps, the Minnesota Camp Saturday was a good one ! We had some more excellent "Show and Tell", and as usual our host Mark Meggitt wowed us with the scale of the projects he has been taking on for the last few years. His demo on the application of epoxy pastes to foam was really impressive!!!
Thanks to all who traveled as far as they did to join in. I have posted pictures on the Flickr page; http://www.flickr.com/photos/campshopbot/
and I'll try to get the Blog posted in the AM....

[billp]

Minnesota Blog's up !- http://campshopbot.blogspot.com/