Ski Builders Forum

heuvlee wrote:i might be purchasing one of these kits with my uncle.
why would the 4'x8' not be adequat to profile cores?

Because the Z-axis is not accurate enough due to flex in the long gantry. They're offering a gantry upgrade now which should fix the problem. However, the general rule with this kind of gantry is: the shorter the gantry, the better the stiffness, and the better the repeatability.

Anybody know anyone who's used one of these yet?

For the price it certainly is tempting. An 8x4 slate pool table off ebay to hack apart would give a stable heavy base to mount it to. For $1500 you'd be pretty much set.

Alex13 wrote:Anybody know anyone who's used one of these yet?

For the price it certainly is tempting. An 8x4 slate pool table off ebay to hack apart would give a stable heavy base to mount it to. For $1500 you'd be pretty much set.

Amidnightproject on this forum and one other guy have one. They both seem pretty happy, but the machine has its problems (ie one of them had the Z-axis wander while cutting mdf probably due to the high cutting forces which caused the z-motor to lose steps).

Ok I just got off the phone with Mike (owner) had a really great conversation.
While we were talking he mentioned that he has had almost 100 sales in the past few moths where people would be using them specifically for skis or boards. so I want to know how many of you have one. 100 machines that's a ton of people buying just for skis. maybe hes extravagating though maybe i heard him wrong and he said inquires.

If that true, a revolution in the industry is on its way!

you have to apply the 99% rule and that means that he has sold ONE to a ski builder

my own machine "lost steps" because the pulley attached to the motor shaft had it's set screws spin out. so that lack of z precision could be due to that, or the weak gantry, or other stuff not tightened properly or weak hardware. but can probably be modded or fixed.

Over the new year I was talking with a buddy about how my process would be so much better if I 1) had the money for a cmc and 2)had the space. after i explained the process about what I was going to be using it for he told me about this project that he saw on kickstarter. Its called the Handibot. http://handibot.com . it is made by shopbot, basically it is a cmc machine that you can take anywhere. I called shopbot and asked when it will be released and what I would be using it for. He told me they will be selling to the public as soon as next week. though the tool will be able to cut and profile cores if you are looking for high production this may not be the tool for you only because it may need more setup attention each time.

after reading this thread I thought I would share another tool with you all.

Oh well http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4360

chrismp wrote: Because the Z-axis is not accurate enough due to flex in the long gantry. They're offering a gantry upgrade now which should fix the problem. However, the general rule with this kind of gantry is: the shorter the gantry, the better the stiffness, and the better the repeatability.

I'm running the 3x8 for this reason. I actually almost cut my width down to two feet to help eliminate it but I found i actually use 3' wide material quite a bit for other projects. Deflection is visible if you are running the machine fast.

chrismp wrote: Amidnightproject on this forum and one other guy have one. They both seem pretty happy, but the machine has its problems (ie one of them had the Z-axis wander while cutting mdf probably due to the high cutting forces which caused the z-motor to lose steps).

Yep. Z axis doesn't have enough torque to combat the forces on the cutter plus the weight of the router. Fixed it with bungie cords.

chrismp wrote:

amidnightproject wrote: Amidnightproject on this forum and one other guy have one. They both seem pretty happy, but the machine has its problems (ie one of them had the Z-axis wander while cutting mdf probably due to the high cutting forces which caused the z-motor to lose steps).

Yep. Z axis doesn't have enough torque to combat the forces on the cutter plus the weight of the router. Fixed it with bungie cords.

Can you elaborate on the bungie cords? Also have a Mogul - made it 2x7 roughly. Seems like there are a bunch of us on here that have one. Generally I am happy as I am new to the cnc land but would love to see how others with the same machine are doing things.

It's as simple as it sounds really.

The first 20 or so cores and everything was fine. STarted cutting new molds one day and noticed the z was diving hard. Like HARD. cutting 1/4" into my sacrificial board. The craftsmen weakens the z motor over time.