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Well, I finally took the plunge. A little over a year ago I reached the point where drilling and cutting full sheets of material was pretty routine, but having to manually draw, nest and toolpath the sheets full of parts was so time consuming – and occasionally error-prone – that it was becoming obvious that … Continue reading >>> Cabinetmaking Software I thought I’d take a break from the technical side of things and look back over the last year to see what kinds and quantities of jobs passed over my ShopBot table in a typical twelve months. I’m talking about the twelve months of 2008 – I’ve been trying to finish this column since January. … Continue reading >>> The Year in Review OK, as promised I’d like to explain how I use the ShopBot and VCarve Pro/Partworks, along with my favorite CAD program, to nest and cutout parts from full sheets of material, including working with the RTA (Ready-to-Assemble) fittings that you are probably familiar with. Some people have a less-than-favorable impression of … Continue reading >>> Ready-to-Assemble Well I know it’s been too long since my last installment, and I have a bit of a backlog of ideas to write about. I’d like to detail how I use VCarve Pro and my ShopBot to work with the RTA (Ready-to-Assemble) fittings, but there is something else I need to … Continue reading >>> Customizing VCarve Pro and PartWorks Why not use the ShopBot for all my panel cutting? Mainly because I’m just not there yet with my software, panel hold-down system or spindle. That was me about a year ago. I’ve been purposely taking baby steps towards using the Shopbot for all my sheet cutting needs as … Continue reading >>> Almost There When I built my vacuum table I knew there would be items which would not lend themselves to being held down with the vacuum, so I incorporated T-tracks into the table. Not being sure how I was going to use them, I figured I’d come up with … Continue reading >>> Meet My New Friend, Cam So my other psychic bid involved a query from a local closet outfitter – he’s a one man show who installs closet shelving similar to the big national companies you are probably familiar with. Two of his brothers own a commercial cabinet shop and had been providing all the shelving, … Continue reading >>> Closets In the venerable card game Bridge, bidding follows a carefully proscribed set of rules and formulas, in order to provide accurate communications and allow partners to reach the most advantageous contract. Deviating from these rules is liable to provoke the ire of one’s partner and opponents, and cause the bidders to wind up with a … Continue reading >>> Psychic Bids A few months ago I replaced the worn out plywood and MDF table which came with my ‘bot (the demo model from the 2004 IWF) with a custom-designed 8 zone vacuum table. There has been a lot of interest in vacuum tables recently, and since I posted a few pictures of … Continue reading >>> Vacuum Table … ultra! Here’s a project I completed earlier this year, which if not for CAD and the ShopBot might have had me running screaming from the customers’ house. This was for long-time clients who own an unusual home characterized by round and curved walls, many of which are made of solid stone. The … Continue reading >>> Not a Square Corner |
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