ShopBot Tools ShopBot Desktop Review: 2 Years In!
Founded by Ted Hall (see video of Ted @ TedX), ShopBot Tools out of North Carolina is the manufacturer of my amazing ShopBot Desktop which I picked-up in the USA and drove across the Canadian border almost 2 years ago now. I got my new digital camcorder for this trip so here’s what I saw.
It’s amazing how fast time goes and here is a video going through every aspect of the machine in case you aren’t familiar with this CNC table router.
During that time, I’ve designed, redesigned and cut well over 50 CNC table router projects – you might say it isn’t a big deal until you consider these are multi-sheet projects and especially at the beginning as I was getting the hang of it, we often cut two or three times!
Be sure to read my 6 month review. Here’s one of the more complex ones… my Mangonel B Siege Weapon! I miss the beard!
During the past two years, the ShopBot Desktop was working in an unheated Canadian garage that dipped below 0 degrees Celsius, I know this isn’t good for equipment so I’d run the warm-up routine twice and you know what… it powered through board without any issues.
What was especially nice is that I never had to worry about overheating (shows how little I knew, read below). I had several days where I’d cut for 8 hours straight.
After about 6 months, I drove it back down to ShopBot HQ and had it crated and sent Australia – Adelaide first then I drove it in a van for three days straight to Perth – it was a great camping companion in the outback.
I must be up there with one of the most traveled ShopBots in history! Here, I’d be cutting through board, not when it was below freezing but over 40 degrees Celsius! I hate air conditioning so maybe it was more like 35 in the shed. I went from one extreme to another and guess what… NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!! Overheating? What’s that?
During this time, I filmed a lot more videos including this ones comparing different CNC machine types which you can see on CNCKing.com‘s homepage.
So, after two years of traveling half way around the world by ship, minivan, car and plane what problems have I had with this machine? ABSOLUTELY NONE!
Yeah… this is a very boring review but in this case, boring is great when it related to CNC equipment!
If you are looking for a high quality CNC table router, you really want to check-out ShopBot Tools at ShopBotTools.com and get your hands on one. As for me, I look forward to getting a full-sheet CNC table router once things are a bit more settled for me here and you guessed it, it will 100% be a ShopBot!
If this little guy can handle anything I throw at it, I can’t wait to see how well their large format machines do. I tell all my friends how much I love this machine and when you get one, you’ll be the same!
