Can someone let me know if my STL file is doable in shopbot?

[team08]

I just want to make sure what I want to accomplish is possible with the bot before I buy. On a side note, what is the lead time on ordering a bot? Thanks:

http://www.team08.com/shopbot/board_1.156.stl

or replace stl with igs to grab the iges version. Thanks!!!

[gerald_d]

A basic ShopBot does not *do* 3D stl files. You have to find (and learn) a chunk of software that will convert your stl object to a series of *move* commands that the SB will understand.

[rookie432]

Greg, For about an extra $250 you can purchase Millwizard software and import about any stl file and create the NC code shopbot needs to mill your model. So the short answer is Yes.

[paul_z]

I down loaded your part and ran it through mill wizzard. The part seems to be a "dogbone" with two patterns of 4 holes.

From the view I see, the edges seem to be of uniform height; however, I can't tell about the center. If the entire piece is not flat, you'll have to mill each side and there will be issues of registering the part on the second side and holding down a part (on the second side) that isn't flat.

Millwizzard did create a shop bot file,but I can't run the shop bot file through the simulator right now so there could be issues there.

You might check the Millwizzard site. I thought there was a trial version available but I could be wrong.

Paul Z

[gerald_d]

Paul, if you look Greg's profile you will see that he is into snowboards.

[Brady Watson]

Greg,
Your part is a good candidate for 2D cutting if your intentions are to laminate and press the boards together in a buck or mold. Both the 2D cut-outs and the 3D mold can be cut on the Bot. This is how most board manufacturers produce their products.

-Brady

[team08]

Thanks guys. This is indeed a snowboard core, made from vertical wood laminates. The part is actually 3d, you have to look closely, but the thickness goes from 6mm in the middle to 2mm at the tip and tail. This ramp is the biggest thing that concerns me. The insert holes are no problem so ignore those. But for the 3d design, I would cut from a blank that is basically a 12"x60" (depending on board size) piece of wood that is about 1cm thick. Then I would want to cut it to the thickness desired (so it would look like a bathtub inside the blank, 6mm middle and 2mm ends in the shape of the core) and then finally cut the whole thing out of the blank. I have a video of another guy doing this on his homemade CNC I will try to get it onto my site so you can see. If I cannot do this efficiently then a shopbot wont be my machine, so thanks for all the info. I did try some of the demos but could not get a clear idea of what it was cutting so I though someone that actually used the software day to day could know right away.

[robert_cheal]

Greg,
While reading your post it brought back memories from 1989-92 when I was working for Vision Sports Inc., at that time they were manufacturing Sims Snowboards in Costa Mesa California. I would have loved to have a ShopBot back then especially for custom & proto–type boards. We had full scale CAD drawings spray mounted to aircraft plywood and then cut each pattern by hand by using a band saw and router templates. It was frustrating knowing that we could have CAD drawings, even computer precision laser cut steel for molds & cassette components, and then have to take the CAD drawings to hand crafting for the MFG. process. If we had known about the cost economy of a ShopBot back then it would have been an easy purchase. With a ShopBot you could make mold components, the board cores with insert boring, the P-Tex or the die cut patterns for production. Dialing in the parts for proto-type boards would save a lot of hand labor once you got set up properly. We also used a laminated wood core, they also had a pretty wild way of tapering the wood cores. The core was sent through a wide belt sander with fairly aggressive sanding belts on a custom cartridge (carrier) ramped at each end, the sanding would taper the surface of the ends only. The rule was to clear out of the way from behind for when a core slipped off the carrier it shot out with amazing velocity. They were some fun years.

Depending on your present core you could make jigs on the CNC table to hold the core itself in ramp position and then cut the tapered ends with flat 2D cuts. If the core taper is a curve you could create tool paths easily to do what you needed. When I think back to those days something with the versatility and spontaneity of the ShopBot would have been amazing to have in our shop.

Good Luck,
Robert

[Brady Watson]

Greg,
Robert has the right idea. You might want to think about the methods that he described, as they are '2D' in nature and will save you a considerable amount of time in a production run. By only having a need to '3D' machine the ends of the board & leave the center section as a 2D cutout (since it is flat) you will save a considerable amount of time.

In regards to whether a Shopbot is the right or wrong tool, keep this in mind: A Shopbot is a 3-axis CNC and it can do anything that any other 3-axis CNC router can do.

The STL file that you linked to is a consistent 6mm thick across the entire design. There is no variation in the tip or tail section. This is why I mentioned it was a 2D operation. Feel free to link to a model that has the ramps in them so that we can compare apples to apples.

Thanks!
-Brady

[team08]

Thanks agin for the info. Robert, sounds like you dreamed of what I am dreaming about and on the verge of accomplishing! Unfortunately, I really am counting on the shopbot to be able to profile the cores for me since I want to play around with thickness, and not have to deal with jigs. It must be able to move in all three directions at once. I will try to find the video.

[team08]

Okay, here is a vid

http://www.team08.com/shopbot/bot.mov

[ron brown]

Greg,

The part seems to be a simple shape tapered at the ends and "flat" on top. If this is correct, the shape and taper, 6mm to 2mm should be fairly easy to develop a toolpath for.

The core insert and pocket will also be fairly simple to toolpath also. Intelligent flow of the work will be important. If the board is to have the insert glued in and tapered it may be best to make the insert pocket, glue it in and then cut the entire blank at once, lowering the amount of time needed to finish the product.

It would be smart to actually take a blank to someone with a Shopbot and see the process. The intelligent use of the proper cutter and process will make a lot of difference in time and finish.

Ron