Bot in a Box ™

[shoeshine]

I live in San Diego where price per sq ft for workspace is unbelieveable. So I work in a TINY studio (300- sq ft) where I do multiple other operations, including painting, digital design/printing, and some hot enameling work. dust collection is a huge concern. My traditional wood tools are all on carts and castors to roll outside to use but this isnt practical for the bot given my setup. Most of my projects on the bot are small, less than the size of the table.

So... I give you " Bot in a Box ™ " BT48

The cabinet almost eliminates dust getting loose in the studio. I still have a basic collector hooked up to the bot wich gets about 70% of the dust and most all larger chips from clearance passes. The unit is open to the wall in the rear and I have added a exhaust fan (home depot-$24) vented to the outside which takes care of the fine particulates at a fraction of the cost of an airscrubber. So far the only issues I have had are when I pull off finished pieces and a little bit that falls off the table when it extends to full X, so if I just get better about pulling out the shopvac...

as a huge added bonus, when the unit is running closed up the noise of the router drops considerably. In fact I am thinking of adding soundboard to the inside of the cabinet and a rubber mat on the floor inside to further make use of this unintended "feature"

and If I need to, the stiles for the doors pop out with a couple of wingnuts, and the sides of the cabinet are hinged so I can fully open the unit and roll out the bot on the rare occasion I will need to use the 8' powerstick.

and yes, the windows are rated safety glass.
the only thing I really need to do is run the E-stop outside as I run the bot mostly with the doors closed.

still havent decided on finish yet. It's mostly clear yellow pine with alcoa luan panels.

the unit closed up:

43985.jpg

in running mode with a vinyl dust skirt that allows the table to extend full length:

43986.jpg

the window to observe work in progress:

43987.jpg

open to load /unload:

43988.jpg

the front is a set of bifold doors on good 35mm positive stop hinges that allow me to acess storage under the bot:

43989.jpg

Chris

[carlosgmarroquin]

Wow, neat design. Congratulations.

[beacon14]

That's ingenious and very nicely done - thanks for posting the pics.

[mikeacg]

I love it and the quality of the work is outstanding! What did you do to handle the overhead wires and where is the big blue box with the powerswitch on the newer machines?

Mike

[gerryv]

And to think I was just going to pitch a tent over mine and use my Shopvac when it got too full :-)

Actually, you may have overlooked just one important feature - the wide angle video cam wired into your large screen TV next to the frig. in your den - remote in hand to quickly show all commers that you're watching the job, not the ball game that's on the "last" button.

Seriously, that is really slick!

[coach]

Chris....AWESOME.
I like the circle closure on the bi-fold doors. Hope you don't mind if I add that to my list of things we can do?
What is written on the front, I can't quite make it out.
Thanks for sharing.

[shoeshine]

Michael to answer your questions and fill in on the rest of the design,

The cabinet is built into the wall of my studio butted up against a set of barn doors to the alley out back. the fixed door becomes the 4th wall of the enclosure and that is how I get to the back to deal with wiring and empty the dust collector. I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do when I built out that wall so I ran a couple of dedicated circuits for the bot in the wall. The control box sits under the bot behind the leftmost bi-fold door. so after that its really just getting a usb cable out to my computer. I fished that through the wall to my comp that is on a swing arm so I can move around my shop to where ever I'm using it.

barn door closed which seals up the machine:

44000.jpg

barn door open to acess the back:

44001.jpg

the guts:

44002.jpg

cabling to comp and swing arm:

44003.jpg

Oh and I kind of "dorked out" on the front plaque, a nod to my steampunk inspiration. well no one really sees it but me, so... It reads "Schaie & Co's Amazing Binary Pantographic Fabrication Engine":

44004.jpg

Chris

[mikeacg]

That swing arm is too cool! And steampunk is not dead - I noticed the brackets on the sides of the viewing window. Nice touch! Thanks for sharing all the pictures! I would like to enclose my Buddy, too, now that I have seen yours. I have mine sitting so that I can run my powerstick out the garage door so I could just put a door on the back like you did on the front. Even though I am running a spindle less noise would be a good deal.

[shoeshine]

Thanks Michael, I get a lot of positive feedback on my industrial "comp desk" I really just wanted to learn to weld a bit and needed a project that I was excited about. and yeah thats the idea exactly, execpt I have to turn my machine 90deg to use the longer stick going out the door. thats why the front and sides fold back. Unfortunatly I can barely walk around the machine by sucking in my gut when it is in "long mode" so I wont do it often (i.e. only for a well paying job)

[kivimagi]

Chris,

Wow way to make use of the space. I'm inspired to do more with less..