Wayne Locke’s User Group

 

One of the fortunate coincidences for my trip to Austin was that Wayne Locke’s CNC User Group was the weekend before SxSWEdu and SxSWCreate. Wayne’s gatherings are, by far, the longest running gatherings of ShopBotters and others that are interested in all things CNC-related. This year, as always, it was held in his shop behind his house outside of Austin.

 

Our host

 

Wayne is a woodworker and furniture builder that specializes in church furnishings. Like many woodworkers he works by himself, which means he falls into one of two categories…very organized or total chaos. Fortunately Wayne falls into the first one!

 

You can never have too many clamps!

 

Keeping track of scraps

 

Since he does such a wide variety of work, Wayne’s PRT ShopBot has been modified with a couple of custom additions. He’s added an indexer to the side of his ShopBot, modifying the table so that he can do an 8′ turning. He’s also added a very versatile vacuum hold-down system  with a highly customizable plenum for holding parts of all sizes. His table is a funny color, but we try not to hold that against him.

 

Indexer in a lowered section of the table

 

Discussing hold down options

 

Wayne’s table allows for both vacuum and mechanical clamping using t-slots

 

One of the first presenters was long-time ShopBotter Santiago Laverde. Santiago does custom cutting and specializes in jigging and setting up for production runs. He started with an overview of some of the work he had done, followed with one in jigging for production that used a bottle opener as the example product

Santiago

 

Some of Santiago’s work

 

Holding jig for machining bottle openers

 

A prototype cut for a bottle opener

 

One of the main topics of discussion this year was chairs, which began with a presentation by Gary Weeks that described how they currently make their rockers. Their handmade rockers are beautiful, but very labor intensive to make, so they came to the User Group to explore the idea of adding a ShopBot to their shop. Lots of creative and clever thoughts from the crowd, including a discussion of what “handmade” really means and where tools of all kinds fit in. It’ll be interesting to see what they decide!

 

A Weeks rocker

 

The Weeks crew talking about their beautiful chairs

 

Wayne examining a rocking chair arm

 

Longtime ShopBotter and frequent forum participant Steve Glassell followed with a great presentation on how he uses his ShopBot to build his line of rustic chairs. Steve has developed a very clever joinery system that makes assembling his chairs quick and strong, held only with glue and a single screw. Steve has created this design–and the files–so that everything is cut from one side only, without any material flips. He and Wayne followed up with a two-way discussion of the ways they shape their chair seats.

 

The same chair built from two types of wood

 

Clever joinery. This pocket is cut in the back leg…

 

…and the seat support fits snuggly into it, leaving room for a tenon on the seat cross piece

 

The crosspiece and tenon fit in the recess…

 

…and are held with a screw and wood glue. The screw can be removed after the glue sets

 

Texas Boatbuilder David Lemke talked about how he used his ShopBot to build both boats and “plugs” that production boatbuilders use to make molds to manufacture boats. As a plus, he brought signs for a of couple of attendees to take home. 

David Lemke

 

A stack of frame pieces for a boat hull

 

Truer words were never spoken!

Brett Dickinson, long-time ShopBotter and Texas educator, talked about some of his projects and the schools he’s worked with including the Dripping Springs, Texas Fab Lab and their F1 in Schools team.

Brett Dickinson

 

The Desktop MAX rolling cart that Brett designed and built

 

Members of the F1 in Schools team from Dripping Springs, Texas

 

Machinist Matt Schreiner, also of Dripping Springs, spoke about his spreadsheet system for fine-tuning feeds and speeds for machining materials like aluminum. He also showed some of the techniques for aluminum machining techniques that he uses on his XCarve using Fusion 360.

 

Matt showing a machining simulation from Fusion 360

 

Will Leonard of the Alley Theater in Houston wrapped up the event with a presentation on how he uses their ShopBot to make sets for the productions that the theater does. Will uses their ShopBot to cut out the pieces and also to engrave lines for color changes, to make it easier for the painters to get a clean edge. Although much of the design and fabrication is digital, they still need paper plans to keep track of it all!

 

Paper plans help keep track of everything

 

A section of a floor from a recent play

 

The most important part of any ShopBot event is the show-and-tell items and conversations that are constantly going in. And of course lots of food! 

 

Show and Tell items

 

More Show and Tell

 

The bases of large candles that Wayne machined on his indexer

 

More show and tell

 

Santiago describing a project he is working on

 

LUNCH!

 

My next stop is a visit with Ken Picou, an amazingly creative woodworker and ShopBotter that has been to Wayne’s gatherings for years. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

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