Just saying hi from London!

Community
1

Morning All,

Just joined and wanted to say hello. Stuck in lockdown in a very wet and cold London so took the opportunity to build a Shapeoko 3. I am a bit of a tinkerer and so am immediately moving on to building a control panel even though the router is not even here yet (delayed due to COVID). Also wondering how the Shapeoko can be upgraded - I was a huge fan of the ‘Home Improvement’ show growing up so as far as I am concerned everything needs a Binford motor swapping in!

Best
Chris

8 Likes
2

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the community and the Shapeoko family!

A word of warning: a tinkering background and owning a Shapeoko can lead to pretty deep rabbit holes and tons of fun upgrading/modding/hacking the machine, don’t ask me how I know. You have been warned! :wink:

While you wait for your router you may be interested in the (free) Shapeoko ebook, it has a section on upgrades.

Have fun machining (soon!)

4 Likes
3

OMG - just had a brief look at that upgrades section - oh dear I am in trouble.

I did the same upgrade process for my 3D printer and in the end very little of the original printer was left! Loving the idea of a water cooled spindle - have had various goes at that in the past with PCs - thankfully that scene is now vastly improved - my first water-cooled PC ended up as a swimming pool.

Best
Chris

1 Like
4

Completely off-topic, but I always had a fantasy of building one of those PC where you drown everything in oil (or anything not conducting electricity) and get rid of fans/pumps completely, letting convection and gravity to their thing. A completely silent PC that could still be used for gaming and running Fusion360. Of course then maintenance becomes…interesting.

2 Likes
5

Nice link here - loving the pinnacles house too!

Chris

2 Likes
6

Welcome!

In addition to the upgrades section and @Julien’s book there’s a printed book:

as well as a wiki which you may find of interest:

https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Upgrade_Overview

but as folks have noted, the machines can become a project in and of themselves.

What sort of projects do you plan to do? Using what materials? And using what design software and techniques?

1 Like
7

Hi Will,

Thanks for the links - the book was actually one of the first things I bought.

I bought the Shapeoko to mill poker chips of all things! I collect them and re-label them which involves milling out the existing label or hot-stamp - its pretty accurate work with small tolerances and the need to be able to work accurately across the whole surface (to do 40 chips at a time).

My daughter wants to use it for arts / crafts and has plenty of ideas!

It will also be part of my new workshop finally arriving in 12 months time.

best
Chris

4 Likes
8

Interesting niche!

Please note that we have a standing offer — if you get stuck on a file or project send it in to support@carbide3d.com (or post it here) and we’ll do our best to work through things with you.