Our host for this Camp, Barry Boyd, runs an established cabinet shop, and many of the attendees also indicated their interest in using a Shopbot for this purpose
So we started off our Camp with a Friday afternoon software session. Ryan Patterson of Shopbot showed how to use Shopbot’s Partworks software, as well as his own Cabinet Parts Pro offering.
There was a larger than normal percentage of people seeing a Shopbot for the very first time , and so we concentrated on how important the choice of software is in producing the kind of work most people were looking for.
We actually hit a stretch of “bad”weather ( by local standards…) on Friday as the temps barely hit 50 degrees, and it rained quite a bit ( but we were also told it was a “dry cold”……). This kept a few people from making the Friday sessions.
On Saturday we had a little better weather, and a much better crowd. Ted Hall started things off by explaining what’s going on at the Durham facility, and he showed some pictures of the almost ready for production 48″”Buddy” bench top machine, including the Power Stick add on.
This session was followed up with some discussion about the various forms of vacuum technology that is available at the moment, and Barry then gave a demo of his two Fein vacuum table to show how he holds down his sheets for cutting cabinets.
Ryan stepped in again to do some more Partworks designing, and we segued into carving 3D work.
After our lunch break we went back and Barry and Ryan drew up, and cut out a full sized cabinet. This gave the first timers a great chance to see what you can do in a small shop environment.
From there we covered the topics of sign making, ( See Scott Smith’s Camp sign above), digitizing, and mold making.
Ted came back to host an explanation of how to create, and modify Shopbot files through the use of the control software.
Then we moved into more types of carving work, and finished up with a survey of some of the projects Shopbotters have been creating in the last year.
It was a good Camp, in a great shop, and I think we’ll be back in the desert again next year….
Leave a Reply