New Member from NJ - Looking to Purchase a 4x4 Shopbot

[Octopus_YachtsNJ]

Hello Forum!

I own Octopus Yachts: Marine Electrical Systems. We do custom installations, service and training for boats and yachts in the metro-NYC area. Currently, we do quite a bit of hand fabrication in Acrylic, Polycarbonate, Starboard, Plywood and Aluminum to make dashboards and equipment trim rings as well as mounts for the boats. Most of the work we do is 2D cutouts on pieces less than 24x36, 1" thick.

I am looking to purchase a 4x4 shop-bot to help step-up our game! If someone has a less than 10 year old machine for sale, I'm interested.

Some of our work can be seen at facebook.com/OctopusYachts or octopusyachts.com

Really intrigued by ShopBot's offerings and support.

Currently deciding on "how much" machine to purchase. Would love to buy a brand-new Alpha w/Spindle, but do I need that much when 90% of the time we are cutting small pieces of 1/4" and 1/2" acrylic in 2D.

[Brady Watson]

Welcome to the SBF.

A 4x4 is a nice size machine but you might want to consider a 4x8 since this is a commercial/business application. Nearly all of the plastic materials sold come in 4x8 sheets. It's nice to be able to just slap the whole sheet up there and go to work. With a smaller machine, you'll have to cut every blessed sheet before you even can put it on the table. A 4x4 you can let it hang off, but it will still need outboard support.

When you get a CNC for your business, things have a tendency of segueing into other areas...you may find that there is nice coin to be made doing large document boards etc that wouldn't fit on a smaller machine or maybe a few one off pieces in marine ply etc. It happens because you just don't know what is possible until you're into it for a while.

For anyone looking to machine plastic parts for a business, I recommend an Alpha. More torque & closed loop. Spindle for sure - in fact, you want a 400Hz Colombo spindle that can turn 24000 RPM. The standard HSD spindles are not as beefy as the Colombo and only go 18k RPM. You want that 20k-22k RPM range for acrylics to get into the sweet spot for cutting and minimizing edge cleanup. Furthermore, you will want some kind of vacuum hold down to keep the sheets held down while cutting.

This isn't a cheap venture...but if you don't cheese out and get the right stuff from the beginning, you'll have a reliable moneymaker in your shop & open up new possibilities. There have been many times during a job where I looked back and was glad I spent the money where it was needed to hook myself up. It's a pay it forward kind of thing...

-B