how uncool is this! there are four shapers here in Ireland and one of the major surfboard makers (hardcore shaper for 20 years) has now bought a shaping machine! this sucks!!!
how uncool is this! there are four shapers here in Ireland and one of the > major surfboard makers (hardcore shaper for 20 years) has now bought a > shaping machine! this sucks!!! pauluk, watch the development of his shapes over the next 12 months… you may have a different opinion then. his refinement and consistency will improve dramaticly and he will feel healthyer and go surfing more often. http://www.feraldave.com
yeah but it may have an affect on the business of us other shapers he can shape quicker and this means cheaper boards.
yeah but it may have an affect on the business of us other shapers he can > shape quicker and this means cheaper boards. Paul Just make you own machine.you only need someone that can weld and some steel, I made my own one and it works great, There is no flex in the foam when you cut a blank on my machine. You can cut foam from 5’8" up to 9’8". I cut 15 to 20 blank most weekend for other people. So don’t complain, just go and make one. E-mail me a fax number and i will send you some plans Rabbit http://www.southcoastfoam.com.au
Can you stick a pic of your machine up here? What is your hold down system and how are you indexing your parts so that when you flip the blank over, it is registered correctly for the program? Are you scanning on the machine, scanning off the machine, or creating programs offline with a cad or package like DAT98? How about your tooling? End mill? Grinder? Big sand paper roll like a CET? So many questions - sorry. Just curious how you are doing things. If you feel that it’s best to keep your process a secret I understand perfectly.
i think rabbit’s machine is simply a profiler. i can’t even beging to think of building anything else using only a welder and some tubing. rabbit, if it is in fact a true shaping machine, please post up some pics!! kirk
yeah but it may have an affect on the business of us other shapers he can > shape quicker and this means cheaper boards. I don’t think that using a shaping machine necessarily lets a shaper make cheaper boards. In fact, in some cases it probably increases the cost of production. He will have to factor in the increased overhead of both purchasing the machine, and the support system and employees it takes to run it. What using a machine really saves is time. If you use that time to do something worthwhile (like fill more orders that you couldn’t fill before, or do more r&d on your designs) it’s a good deal, but if you just ‘sit on the couch and watch oprah’ you’re wasting your money. http://www.kklmachine.com
i think rabbit’s machine is simply a profiler. i can’t even beging to > think of building anything else using only a welder and some tubing. What is the difference between a profiler and a shaping machine? Making a CNC controlled machine is not that hard as long as you have some form of an eletric engine you can control accurately through some interface. For the homebuilder the cost of such an engine(you would need two) and a PLC + software and controller card for the PLC is way expensive. You would also have to write some additional software. IMHO a router would be sufficent to shape the blank(two would be perfect). It would not leave a perfect finnish, but you should get away with just sanding afterwards. regards, Håvard