Will a PRSalpha BT48 be the best solution for my Makerspace and contract work?

I'm in the process of starting up a makerspace in Fargo, ND and while I think that the PRSalpha BT48 will be the best solution for me, I'd appreciate any input current owners might have.

This will be a tool that will be used primarily by hobbyists (who have been trained in operating it), for project-based classes, and for contract work.

I know that for the contract work, at least one of the projects will consist of cutting out pieces for children's furniture out of full sheets of 1/2" Medex, so I'll be needing to purchase the 8' powerstick.

The reason I'm reluctant to go with a full-sized ShopBot is due to two reasons. Limited space: I'm only going to have 2000 square feet to work with, and the ability to move the Buddy against the wall and take up less space is rather attractive to me. Reason 2? I'm likely going to need to partially disassemble the Buddy to fit it through the door, I'm certain I'd have to disassemble a full-sized Bot to get it inside.

Any thoughts?

The full size bot comes disassembled and you put it together.

The buddy with a power stick takes up twice the room cutting full sheets as does a 4x8.

If it were me, I'd probably go with a 5x8 machine.

Thanks Ken, wouldn't have known that otherwise. What advantage does a 5x8 machine have over the 4x8? Wouldn't both be able to accommodate a full 4x8 sheet of material?

The 5x8 can handle baltic birch that comes in 5x5's for very little extra room or cost.

John you really need to look into your crystal ball! Will you possibly be turning later on? The Buddy has very little room for this. Will you need to hold anything vertically such as tenons, perhaps dovetails etc? The Buddy cant do this at all as it is solid steel under the head. With the Buddy unless you follow Andrews excellent advice on this page with regard to table flatness this can haunt you a wee bit as the seasons change UNLESS you lash out on an aluminium frame or phenolic top. Vacuum is very limited on the Buddy - we use the puck system but its no where near as good as conventional on large sheets. I reckon when Shopbot designed the Buddy they had the feeling that they could create a new market for CNC on the construction site. This doesnt seem to have happened even though it is a beautifully made machine. I really do worry though about the load on the X axis when machining very heavy fence rails. You cant seem to get an exact definition out of Shopbot as to the maximum loading. If you have little room the Buddy is very adaptable to a small space when needed BUT changing out power sticks is not as easy as one would think and they are not all exactly the same width so you get slop that is not easily adjusted out if you are old and cant lay on the floor! The dust collection on both systems is poor compared with the Kent method. As Ken says though, the thing just wheels out of the crate ready to go as soon as you hook up juice and the spindle.

However John you are halfway there as you have picked the best value machine money can buy with the best support and you just cant put into words the value of this forum. No matter how dumb the question you just never get flamed! As a suggestion I reckon if you repost your query in the general section you might get more comment from non Buddy users.

I have to disagree with Bob about the Buddy and the use of vacuum. You can set up almost anything you want on a Buddy.

Here is my vacuum setup photos for my BT-32:

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...9&postcount=16

Pucks work and are handy, but you can have a full vacuum table, and still remove it to use conventional hold down with a buddy. That is not practical on a gantry type SB.

Vacuum is not limited in any way on a Buddy, it requires a little "figuring" on how to make it work your way, thats all.

:)

Otherwise I am in full agreement with Bob's advice!

D

Dana...
So if my quick look at your link is correct, you lost 1.5" inches of Z with your system?

SG

You can not beat the convenience of cutting full sheets on a gantry machine compared to a Buddy. I would buy the machine you can grow into. Another benefit of the larger table is that if you have one person who has to keep a jig secured to the table for a few days someone else could cut another project on another part of the table.

Dana I follow your posts like a hawk but sadly missed the one on your superb vac table! Beautiful work as usual like your guitars! From memory you have an original Buddy with the aluminium table??? Reckon in a perfect world the ideal shop would have a Desktop for labelling etc, a gantry for sheet and a Buddy for the smaller bits. My "treasurer." wont allow this unless I shed some of my beloved keyboards! Our next tool has to be a Festool Kapex as I am getting health problems with Makita despite the best efforts on the Bot to shield the thing. I think a lot of the guys on You Tube are fooling themselve on mitre saws.
As you probably guessed we are busily woking away copying Andrews brillianlly thought out edge leveller. Chrissy upgraded her APQS quilting machine to CNC last year and a fantastic set of 10 guide wheels came with it. As the existing ones were fine she gave them to me yesterday on the understanding that I complete several outstanding jobs for her! Thems the breakes.

We use your idea David even on the Buddy. We have a long run job set up on one side at present with "problems" but we merrily work away on the back of the table so one doesnt starve to death!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Eustace

- we use the puck system but its no where near as good as conventional on large

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Bob....pardon my ignorance but what the heck is a "Puck system"?

Cheers