Only a ShopBot is a ShopBot

The BF himself. Founding Father. Inventor. Tinkerer. Maker. If he’d lived in our time, you know he’d own a ShopBot 🙂

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” So said Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers and also one of our country’s earliest inventors / Makers / tinkerers.

Why is wise Ben Franklin on our minds of late? Because it would seem there are some who would like to benefit — unjustly — from the good reputation that ShopBot Tools has been building for almost 20 years. These people, doing business on the internet, would like you to associate their CNC tools with the ShopBot® brand of CNC tools. The tools that these people are trying to sell you are not ShopBots.

If you visit www.alibaba.com, a Chinese company, and search the word “shopbot” with their search tool, a page will come up with numerous CNC tools and related equipment, touting the name “ShopBot” or “shopbot” in the main product descriptions. But rest assured, not one of these items are actually ShopBots.  The term “ShopBot,” by the way, is a registered trademark of ShopBot Tools, Inc., and ShopBots are made in and sold from only one place, the company’s headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.

As seen on Alibaba.com. This is most definitely NOT a ShopBot® tool.

This is a ShopBot® Desktop CNC. Note the distinctive blue-colored edge of the tool. All of our tools feature the “ShopBot blue” color, and all of them rock our logo….

What can be said of these non-ShopBot tools being sold out of China? The quality of Chinese products has been improving. There are probably some good tools among them. We just want you to know that they are not ShopBots.

We also understand there are a number of American companies that import Chinese-made CNC components and then assemble them in the US. These tools may suffice for some. But these imported tools are not ShopBot Tools.

What makes a ShopBot Tool so special that others seek, at best, to flatter it with imitation — and at worst, to lead you into thinking that their tool is a ShopBot?

A ShopBot is a tool designed and built to the exacting standards of its developers in Durham. We have been innovating, developing, and building professional digital fabrication tools for almost 20 years now. We understand the tools and also design and create the software that runs them. The result of these efforts is a growing line of production tools that are powerful, precise, and reliable — and affordable, too.

It has been our mission since 1996 to make the tools of modern manufacturing accessible to all — especially to small and medium size production facilities. There are now more than 8000 ShopBot Tools at work in schools, makerspaces, FabLabs, TechShops and importantly, in production facilities of all sizes in the US and around the world. Everything from circuit boards, to kitchen cabinetry, to parts for boats, delivery trucks and fighter jets are being manufactured with ShopBot tools.

If you own a ShopBot, you know that a ShopBot is more than the tool itself. It is also the support that we surround you with to help ensure you get the most from CNC technology. You have access to free technical support for as long as you own the tool, and that’s just the beginning. You can jump onto the ShopBot users forum (a very busy, informative place), take a ShopBot training class online, watch training videos online, or visit us for training here in Durham. We also offer specialized production support services to ensure your successful integration of ShopBot tools into your workflow.

Beyond that, we assist entrepreneurial people to grow their businesses with the help of our free site, 100kGarages.com. This is a resource that enables collaboration between digital fabbers and product designers around the world (you don’t even need to own a ShopBot to participate; your professional use of any digital fabrication tool will grant you access to the community).

We’re proud of the reputation that we have been building for these 20 years, and we understand that it is dependent solely upon the satisfaction of our users. We love to meet and get to know ShopBot users, and we like telling their stories. There are dozens of these stories here on the ShopBot blog; if you’re doing something you’re proud of with your ShopBot, we’d love to hear about it and tell the world. Finally, if there’s anything we can do to help you with your ShopBot tool, just get in touch.