re:RE: Quandry

Hugh wrote:

>What do you think of ShopBot? (www.shopbottools.com/products.htm)
>Is their s/w proprietary or just the .shp extension?

Shopbot s/w is proprietary. Like Flashcut, they use a "signal
generator/driver box" and talk to it thru a serial port. With DOS!

I have mentioned before that their s/w includes some very useful
features. Ted Hall, who designed the machine and original S/W, is one
of us, in spirit, at least.(don't know if he's on our list or not)

His software is written to reflect someone who wants to make parts.
And isn't concerned with conforming to anybody's "standard".

The orig. s/w was not compatible with anything but shopbot. However,
with about 500 machines out, there is quite a user group of
"shopbotters" who help each other very much like our own CCED list!
And who have written "converters" for Gcode to shopbot, among other
things.

The original machine, IMO, was extremely lacking. Improvements
include a change from cable drive to rack and pinion, and an upgrade
from hardware store "glass door rollers" to bishop-wisecarver Dual-
vee wheels. However, the B-W wheels still ride on the "unistrut
ways" which is probably the weakest part of the design. The wheels
"cut-in" to the strut to a point and then seem to work reliably for a
number of users. Also now available is a steel welded base.

Look at the example uses shown on the website(s). If your intended
use is similar, I feel the shopbot has become a viable alternative.

>If I had all the parts I could build it myself. Price comes out to a
>little less. What do you think?

Should you build yourself?

As I say whenever this question is asked, What are YOUR goals?
Strengths? Weaknesses? Time-frame?

IMO, if the only reason you are doing it yourself is to save some
money, you lose! You WILL spend AT LEAST as much in time/money that
you could have bought a machine! Re-read the previous paragraph.

Hope this helps.

Ballendo

P.S. Tornado's and rain are easy to check up on. National Weather
Service. Is he lying to you?

Maybe not. Mariss just posted some of the HUGE number of things that
CAN go wrong in a business. You may want to re-read his "lucky"
thread. Good Luck.