:: View topic - Some help in/around Bozeman MT

Hey all. Apologies in advance for not knowing where to stick this request, moderator can move as you see fit.

I'm looking for a kind soul to help out a friend of mine. She's got a pair of skis I made for her a few years back now, and the tips are splayed open due to my ridiculous choice of spacer material at the time... Anyhow, wondering if there is anyone in the Bozeman area who might be up for a little 5min epoxy / C-clamp repair work? I'd send her to a local shop, but being a shopboy myself I know there is a tendency to shoo away such work.

I'll happily PayPal anyone a few coins who might be up for the task. I can PM pics, info, and instructions, but it's a pretty cut and dry situation.

Thanks is advance!

I could prolly help her out but im not back in town until the 14th of feb.

Many many thanks. I'll let you know.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.