How Digital Fabrication Promises to Make Small, Fulfilling, Local Manufacturing Competitive Again
A Presentation at SOUTH-TEC by Ted Hall

ShopBot's Ted Hall will be presenting at a Brew & View session during south-tec in Greenville, SC. The presentation will take place on the afternoon of October 25.

Interested in free entry into south-tec? Click on the logo below, and follow the instructions to register for your free pass. Then come see us at booth #2513 while you're at the show!

World Maker Faire New York Pop-Up Factory!

With temperatures well into the 80’s and sunshine aplenty, over 90,000 attendees and 750+ makers were at the 8th annual flagship World Maker Faire NY September 23 & 24. The ShopBot/Handibot booth featured our very own pop-up factory where we showcased the ShopBot Desktop and the Handibot® Smart Power Tool as the primary tools in our production line of the Portable Picnic Tray. 

See our blog post on the evolution of these fun keepsake trays.

Maker Faires are a great place to see makers and entrepreneurs launching ideas, collaborating with new partners, and teaching others how to solder - program electronics - build drones and more. There is never a shortage of ideas or inspiration. 

ShopBotters at Work

Handibot at Pilchuck Glass School

In August 2017, Brian Gillespie and Tara Broyhill were artists in residence at the Pilchuck Glass School. During session 6, “Exploration”, they explored how generative design and digital fabrication can inform the form and texture of glass in new ways. It was with this in mind that they packed a Handibot® Smart Power Tool into their car, drove a couple of hours north of Seattle, and went to “summer camp for grown-ups.”

To read more about Brian and Tara’s exploration, as well as see more photos, visit the Handibot blog.

Guerilla Upcycling

In watching the news coverage about the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey at the end of August, Bill Young saw similarities to images he saw of post-Katrina New Orleans. In particular, piles of construction materials being removed from water-soaked homes, including various sizes of plywood used to cover windows and doorways. It got him thinking about ways in which some of these materials could be "upcycled" instead of ending up as trash in a landfill.

In his latest post on Medium, he discusses some of the ways in which some of these materials can find new life by being repurposed.

Shelter 2.0 Featured in Make: magazine

In the latest issue of Make: magazine (Vol. 59 Oct/Nov 2017), there is a special section entitled "Home Hacks." Shelter 2.0, a project from Bill Young and Robert Bridges, is being featured. Some additional information from Bill himself:

"One of the hardest parts of sharing designs like Shelter 2.0 is supplying files in enough formats, and with enough information, to be useful to everyone. To help solve that problem, the Vectric team has offered to add special tags to Shelter 2.0 files for use in their free trial version of VCarve. With these tagged files we'll be able to include machining information to Shelter 2.0 files not available in other formats, and users will not only be able to make some modifications to the parts but most importantly will be able to create toolpaths and run them free of charge on their own CNC tools."
 
Details will be available after the Vectric User Group taking place in Las Vegas, NV October 20-21.

Brand New From Handibot!

Introducing the Handibot® Large Sheet Tool – Now, take on large projects with a portable CNC that has extended reach. The Large Sheet Tool’s rigid frame clamps onto materials up to 24” wide – allowing you to quickly execute large projects with a series of accurate cuts; sliding the Handibot down the length of your material. With this tool you can cut the entire width of a 24" sheet of material in one pass (ideal for the 24" x 48" plywood sheets available at every hardware store and lumber yard).

And, meet the Handbot® Touch-Screen Control Panel, the newest accessory for the Handibot® Smart Power Tool Adventure Edition and the Handibot Large Sheet tool. This dedicated touchscreen tablet mounts firmly to the frame of your Handibot. Flip it up to enter commands when running the tool; fold it down, out of the way, when you're on the go; or take the tablet out of the holder to pass around to students or co-workers collaborating on a project.