Hay Handibot, be great if you had a similar reg scheme

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Interesting concept. I understand how it works, and it is a really neat idea.

That being said - I wouldn't want to be beholden to owning that tape and having to constantly buy it. Only way I could see it as usable to me is if I could put the tape on a fixture instead of the work piece so I don't have to constantly use it.

Ilan (co-founder) actually stopped by handibot the other day to check out what we were up to. Very nice guy and really sharp.

We've been following them for a long time and what they've done is really cool! I think that the tape is not too bad a deal actually. 2 150' rolls cost about $30 and would be enough to cut out three full 4'x8' sheets of plywood.

For me, the goal of large scale handibotting is to fully automate the process so that you don't have to touch the tool while it cuts out a big sheet of plywood for you. This was one of the reasons that I wanted to re-think the crawler/creeper concept. It could move the tool in the X axis automatically...but you still had to pick the tool up and move it backwards in the sled to get the next row of cutting done...so it was only partially automated.

The extended Y axis on the handibot (that Mark Evans spotted in a photo last month) would be able to cover the entire width of a board--while the rack and pinion drive index the tool in the X. What we've really got to get right is the racking that the long tool tends to do when it is driven only from one side. I've tried a number of ideas and am getting closer but still not there.

For me, it's being able to quickly carve up a big piece of material but not have to devote an entire room to a CNC machine.

The thing that I didn't see in any of their videos is multi-tool use, or complex 3d carving of the material. It's still essentially a 2d process.
With the handibot as long as you are careful how you move it, multiple passes can be made to a piece.

I'm still interested in a device that can re-register as it is moved, such as burning new reg marks as previous ones are removed in the cutting process with a laser. Final 'finishing pass' removes all trace of reg marks.
Maybe a wax spray could be used to lay down reg marks?

I noticed a 'pen holder' attachment in the store. What if the handibot first pass was with a piece of chalk that mapped out reg marks on the material.
The Handibot reads the marks and uses them to cut. Once it's cut, it uses what reg marks remain to draw new reg marks on the newly exposed material (a bit of chalk could be draw over a 3d surface).
Then the 'bot' uses the new reg marks to continue cutting, maybe with a finer cutting bit.

I have been following this project since forever and I am glad it is now hitting the street.

I think it and the handibot will complement each other very well. There are things the handibot will do that the Shaper will not touch and vice versa. Not having the space or the $$$$ for a full sheet shopbot, the shaper will be great for cutting out Open office type things but is will only cut at one depth at a time/pass so in no way is it a handibot killer. We have 5 dogs and a cat and love them all. I'll have two CNC machines, a 3d printer, and a laser cutter hopefully by the end of the year and will love them all.