Question about: Extended Length Base (y-axis) for V2 Handibots

benkeller3 Wrote:
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> Well I have been reading about the extended model
> so long that the price has gone up $300 .... Disa
> ppointed and ordered my Shaper Origin... and I wou
> ld have driven just down the street to Durham to g
> et it....
>
> Maybe later Handibot when you do get the extended
> version out.

While I think you gave up right as the calvary is showing up, I think you will like the shaper. I got the chance to run one at Maker faire New York and it is a great unit. Can't run autonomously but as a hands on tool it is sweet.

Daniel Block Wrote:
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> Maybe this has been asked, but how will indexing w
> ork? Do we need to buy new indexing jigs? And if s
> o, when are you planning on having those available
> ?


No need for a jig with the Bridge edition (that is the name Brian is trying out), just put a precise pencil mark every 6 inches on the wood. You'll get far better results with just that than with the old jig.

Makerfaire has ended and no mention of the extended version. What happened?

I spent most of the weekend at the shopbot booth they had production unit number 0 there and it looks very nice. A lot of subtle improvements from my betta but looks exactly the same.
Brian had to rush out Sunday afternoon to get to yet another event, just a matter of getting him some time in the shop and it will go live.

Thanks for all the help this weekend Mark. Hope you had at least a little fun!

Bill, I had a blast, really. Great fun pretending to be the cnc evangelist I want to be when I grow up.

Is no news, bad news?

Z-add Wrote:
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> Is no news, bad news?


I don't think so, just Hofstadter's law hard at work. Brian had to go some other seminar right after NYMF, let everyone get back to the shop and with any luck, we will see them soon.

No news is only sorta bad news...I think that everyone at ShopBot has been so busy with the release of the new version of the desktop tool that my work on this has flown under the radar a bit (everyone should stay glued to the forum!!) -- so there's a little bit of hurry up and wait going on as my push to release bumps its way through the powers that be. I'm ready though--and looking forward to being able to ship. To any of you that are frustrated that it wasn't available by Maker Faire--I'm with you there! It all sounds like more of the same--but I feel like it will be worth it when it is all done. I'm looking forward to moving on to the next project!!

> ShopBot has been so busy with the release of the new version of the desktop tool

Huh? Is this the desktop max you are talking about or a completely new product?

The 18x24 Desktop (released prior to max) has been updated to use the Max's chassis--rather than a single motor in the middle to drive the Y axis--it uses the dual motor setup that the max has. The change has also involved redesigning enclosures and other little bits and pieces.

So--lots of efforts over there to get things rolling out the door on that. I can do a lot on my own here (design, photography, webstore, documentation...)--but have to ultimately integrate it with ShopBot's sales and marketing team. So at the moment I'm trying to steer everything through its last checks over there so that I can get it published asap.

The tablet holder should be coming out in a couple days as well...same story with that one.

ta-da: [store.handibot.com]

Congratulations, I hope it is as well received as it should be.

Three sales already! Time to get to work packing things up!

I'm one of them! But its still unclear to me how you index in the x direction with this version? The roller appears to allow you to roll the thing across the Y access, not the X access. But what if I'm cutting something more than 6 inches wide? How do I ensure the handibot is straight after I move it? Does this support the large indexing jig? The nice thing about that was that it at least ensured it was straight (assuming the jig was straight).

Daniel,
indexing is extremely easy with the extended Y, you just slide the unit 6 in. at a time.

So mark your 24" or less X whatever board every 6 in.
Clamp it tight with the provided clamps.
Cut the first tile.
Move 6 in. to the right, there is a pointer for this.
Cut the next tile
Continue

This works SO much better than the old jig.

Watch Brian do it here with an older prototype.
[www.youtube.com]

The rollers are mostly to make handling easier.

Got it, I would imagine that will work for most of my projects, especially if I make some sort of jig to allow the handibot to easily clamp down.

Now what if you have something that is larger than 24 inches in the y direction--say a 4x8 piece of wood or something? How would you clamp down?

Daniel Block Wrote:
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> Got it, I would imagine that will work for most of
> my projects, especially if I make some sort of jig
> to allow the handibot to easily clamp down.
>
The extended Y comes with brackets for clamping most sheet goods out to about 25in.

> Now what if you have something that is larger than
> 24 inches in the y direction--say a 4x8 piece of w
> ood or something? How would you clamp down?
The 24 inches will cover 95% of your use cases but say you did need to do some cutting on a 4x8 there is always old fashioned shop clamps.

I also decided to add in a little cutout on the bottom of the base that will fit that blue pointer than came with the handibot--I wasn't sure if anyone would want to bother using the old large material jig with the new handibot base--but just in case!

Thanks to some feedback from Mark I also added a few mounting holes around the base for bolting the frame down on material that is larger than the frame itself.

It's also the case that the long pieces of the frame are T-slotted extrusions--which make it easy to add any kind of jigging you can think up to the bottom of the handibot. Come to think of it--I'll include a little baggy of extra t-nuts and bolts with these when I ship them out--just for people that want to add their own jigging to the bottom.

I came up with a few little things that solved specific problems that I had--like how to line the tool up lengthwise on a long board...how to brace the tool against tipping when it is sitting on a thin piece of material.... but I imagine that other people will have different uses that will benefit from different jigs.

Post videos of how this extended version will work.
Also there is no announcement via twitter of this new product.

Brian, I have not been on the forum in some time and have missed all the fun! Congratulations on getting the ELB and a few other accessories into the store!

At one point you talked about new rails for the standard base to allow the switching back and forth from the ELB, are these available? My desire to switch back to the standard base is not portability related. Rather more of a desire to continue using the accessory base and rotary axis. That is to say, if there is a way to modify the accessory base, stretching to support the ELB that would work too. You may have an extended version of the accessory base planed for the ELB but knowing how busy the team is it may be sometime before you can free up the production schedule, but turning 24" long items in one pass would be great fun.

I also gather from the discussions the Quick-bit is more than just a nice to have for the ELB.

Cheers,

Yea--we're not currently working on an extended version of the accessory base...but the ELB (Large Sheet Tool) is built onto sticks of 1.5" T-slot Extrusion--which would make it pretty easy to build an accessory base onto the tool frame by picking up some pre-cut pieces and corner joints from somewhere like McMaster or Misumi. The T-slots in the accessory base are spaced at 1.5" as well--so the rotary axis can bolt straight onto 1.5" Aluminum tslot extrusion

Thanks, Brian.

I am not in front of the accessory base to measure and I would not want to even consider purchasing any extrusions until I had the LST in hand. That said, looking quickly at what would be involved from parts and assembly there are several options. Such as stacking 1.5" x 3" rails or framing sides and bottom with 1.5" x 1.5" rails with corner braces. The 40mm x 160mm could result in the least number of parts, but alignment might be an issue.

Building the sides as stacked extrusions would offer the possibility of raising and lowering the base easily based on material thickness. But I digress!

Circling back to my first question - "At one point you talked about new rails for the standard base to allow the switching back and forth from the ELB, are these available?" A corollary question might be, are new Adventure Editions being built with compatible rails?

Thanks in advance,

Ohh! yea! Sorry--forgot the first question--
Yes, all the adventure edition handibots since this March have been built with compatible rails--so I've got THK rails in stock in the sizes required for the Adventure Edition's 8" base--they'd cost about $50 a piece--so $100 for the set. I don't have them up on the store yet...but that could be an option if people wanted.

Brian,

I just go my upgrade kit. I'm having a hell of the time getting the bearings to go on the new rails. I'm guessing that's because I have an older handibot (I bought last december). I didn't see any new bearing in the upgrade kit though. Do you need new ones?

Thanks,

Dan

Dan,

I should have installed bearings on the rails of the tool before sending it out--if there aren't any new THK bearing blocks on the long rails of your base--I'll overnight a set to you tomorrow.

Brian

Nope, definitely no new bearing on the rails. I checked the box too, just in case they somehow slid off.

Also, while we are at it, a couple of more questions. The instructions seem to be missing how you wire up the new motor the Y axis. The wires are different colors than the old ones, so it wouldn't be easy for me to figure it out.

Finally, there seem to be a few extra pieces in the box not addressed in the instructions. Just so we are clear, I know which pieces are for clamping down, and so I'm not talking about those pieces. But besides those, there appear to be 5 others pieces.

First, there are some curved yellow pieces, what are those for? Second, there are three random blue pieces. I'm guessing one is for the back of the Y-axis screw (also not in the instructions), but I can't figure out what the other two are for. They look like they clip onto something.

Ah Dan--I'm sorry about that. I'm about to go box up some bearings for you right now. They'll leave on today's express shipment.

Brown-White-Green-Yellow from left to right--in the place of the original Y motor
I'd meant to include the doc on how to install the accessory motor cable (that is shipped with the rotary axis).

Those extra thingies in the box--They're going to be best explained by a good project video...but they're just little extras that I had found useful during some projects that I'd done with the LST.

The blue ones pop into those rectangular slots of the bottom front and back of the frame. They're a kind of fence that allows you to line your handibot up on a long piece of lumber. I was doing sign carving for some local trails and I found it really difficult to ensure that the handibot wasn't sitting skewed on the board--so I made these little snap in things that the board can be aligned against during that kind of cut.

The yellow wedge things are another add-on to address a problem I had with sign carving. I'm sure we've all experienced this problem where we've got the handibot on top of a piece of material that is much thinner than the base of the tool. Everything seems fine until the router rushes over to one side and the handibot tips off of the material and ruins the cut. The yellow wedges are slid into the extrusion in place of the two clamps (or in addition if that is needed) and their height is meant to be adjusted until they can be locked down for use as outriggers to support the handibot when it is balancing on a thin piece of wood.

The other blue piece should be described in step 49 of the motor removal/bearing swap doc--lemme get them up online just in case.

Thanks for this. One other question. Do you have any models or base dimensions for the large cutting tool like you do for the original? That would be super helpful in making some jigs. I could measure myself, but if you have the dimensions that is easier. Basically I want to make something with some grooves for the clamps, so that I can easily do repeatable tiling without having to use the marking (although that is pretty easy too).

I can't find the hood cut file.. I go to handibot wiki, user docs. and all I get is Hood Modification.sbp How am I supposed to open .sbp file with my vcarve it has to be .crv doesn't it. Not starting out good This is not looking like a good idea prove me wrong please...