Robot invades boat shop

[Tom Lathrop]

I went with Graham yesterday to pick up his new ShopBot CNC machine from the manufacturer in Durham, NC.  First we stopped at a steel supplier to get a heavy load of steel sections for the base and then on to ShopBot.  ShopBot has made very impressive gains in the smaller CNC machine market since we saw one of their first machines about 12 years ago.  Their operation and personnel appear to be first class, very helpful and interested in getting a customer up and running.  Graham is probably already digging into the big crate in the back of the van.

There will be a learning curve for Graham but we can expect to see some boat parts zinging off the line soon.  Well, realistically, there is a lot of welding, hammering, bolting and software manipulation to get past first.  In addition to just cutting out plywood, this machine is capable of 3D carving of some intricate objects.