Images from a recent webinar on flattening and carving a log slab.
ShopBot Tools is opening its highly-regarded webinar training to owners and operators of imported CNC routers. Whether you bought an imported tool on eBay, or purchased from a US importer of Chinese tools such as Laguna, ShopBot invites you to join us for our online webinar trainings.
We’ve come to recognize that some importers (and even some US manufacturers) feel that once they’ve shown you how to start and run your CNC tool, their responsibility ends. We know that several dealers even boast of a short, “free” training session for their tools.
But as anyone familiar with CNC tools and digital production will tell you, taking a file to a CNC and starting it up is not the toughest part of CNC. Rather, it’s the conceptualizing and executing efficient CAD/CAM projects, and integrating digital fabrication into the production process, that can be a challenge to any shop. There are just a lot of interesting components of CNC to learn about – from design concepts to machining issues to material-holding. You’ll want to be able to develop an efficient workflow that fits your style. Everyone can benefit from access to key production information and resources. ShopBot would like to help … particularly shops that are just getting started with CNC. We can help new users avoid a lot of frustration. We recognize that the value of CNC is often less related to how much it weighs or what you paid for it, than whether you can put it efficiently to work in your facility. We’ve trained a lot of people to operate CNC routers over the last 20 years – we have a pretty good idea how to do it.
ShopBot is positioned to help because we design, develop, and manufacture CNC routers ourselves, right here in North Carolina, and not just the machines. We make the software, the electronic controls, and the tools themselves. So we know CNC from a lot of different angles. Maybe even more important, in our own shop we use CNC and digital fabrication across the entire manufacturing process. Our tools are digitally modeled, digitally prototyped, and digitally manufactured using CNC. We have a strong commitment to digital fabrication and robotic production assistance and believe it can be the key enabler for realistically competitive small manufacturing.
How to join the training:
Images from a recent webinar on making a custom bit holder – a great first CNC project.
And, hey, why are we doing it?
ShopBot’s CEO, Ted Hall, has stated: “… If we can provide the training and resources that others are not offering, we feel like we are helping everyone in CNC, including ourselves. It’s that old ‘raising the water level’ thing.”
Non-ShopBot owners are also welcome to sign up for our in-house and regional trainings. In attending one of our trainings, whether online or in-person, you will also learn about items available in our web store—bits, accessories, and other supplies—most of which are appropriate for all CNC tools. And, ShopBot also offers CNC production services and consulting that can be helpful in setting up production with any CNC equipment.
Reports suggest that only 20-30% of production shops that could really benefit from CNC or production robotics are putting these to use. We have been making the case for years that it is robotics that will give the small shop and small manufacturing the chance to be competitive again. ShopBot is happy to lend a hand to all new CNC tool owners.
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