Fall 2022 Product Showcase: ShopBot Zeta

One of the most fun parts of my job is having the opportunity to see tools, 'cause I am a bit of a tool junky, and a really cool part of that is then having the opportunity to show those tools to you and go through their features and their benefits and what's cool about the stuff that I get the opportunity to see. So, that's what we're here to talk about and I am ready to show you some cool stuff. CNCs have come such a long way, computer numerical control, in case you didn't know what that meant. And the availability of them to, woodworkers like you and I, is absolutely incredible. Now, here's what's goin' on with this. There's a machine that ShopBot makes called the Zada machine, and we were recently at the big IWF show in Atlanta and they had the machine set up there. So, we took advantage of the video crew bein' there, me bein' there, ShopBot bein' there, the machine bein' there to run some video on that machine. So let's have a look at that video. It's gonna give you an opportunity to see the features and benefits of that beautiful CNC. Takin' advantage of bein' at IWF where ShopBot has got their Zada machine set up. I want to fit this in my shop, but this is a way more convenient way to get video. So, Ryan, tell us what have we got goin' in this cool machine? This machine is a perfect machine for cabinet makers. I mean, it's got it all. It's got the vacuum hold down. It's got a tool changer, which is kinda hidden in the background back there. We're gonna see it. Yeah, it allows for loading and unloading from both ends. The sides are a little lower, loading from all directions. Another exciting feature we have is a drill bank. It's able to drill you know, five holes in the one direction, you know, five holes in the other direction and it determines how many holes it needs to drill to get, to get the job done. And how many bits to activate. It's gonna, it's gonna control that on its own. It does, yeah, it's all through the software and what cam software that determines what drill to use. It looks at how many holes it has to drill and it determines how many holes or how many drills to put down at the same time. So, let's hit a couple things here. Vacuum bed means we don't need hold downs on here. The vacuum is gonna hold that sheet in place. Tool changer means you don't have to get in there with collar wrenches and do that bit change. It's gonna do it automatically. And although we're lookin' at a big machine here, ShopBot does have smaller footprint machines with these same characteristics, right. Desktop Max can be equipped with a vacuum bed and a tool changer as well. Yes, yes. So, what you're about to see, what you're about to learn is also applicable to home shop, edge top type applications and we're gonna start on the software side or the computer side. Yeah, we're gonna take a look at the software, see what it took to get from the computer over to here. The whole process to get from computer to a cut cabinet is roughly about 15 minutes to have a complete completed cabinet. Nice. So, we'll see it all. All right, let's have a look. Ryan, with ShopBot products everything is controlled from a laptop, not from a fob, right? Yeah, everything's on the laptop. The benefit of that, it's not only you have this fob that you're tryin' to figure out what it is. You're able to install other software on the PC as well. So you don't need to go back to the office to program something to bring it back to the shop to make it run. You can have everything that you need, all the cad cam software right on the laptop that's running the machine. And I think the user interaction is so much more intuitive comin' off the PC than it is off of a fob. Yes. All right, what you got? So what we have now is an example of that software on there. We have a cabinet that we've nested out here and this is what we're gonna see cut. Couple things that we're gonna see a little different that I don't think a lotta CNC cabinet makers do are pocket holes. And it's what these little slots are here, just little pocket slots for cabinet assembly. So here, where we're lookin' at these slots, that's pretty cool. We're gonna do, savin' a step 'cause we don't have to go to a pocket hole machine after the CNC, nice. So, once we've been here we've calculated tool files. We're ready to go right to the control software and run that file. You're makin' a cabinet called IWF Demo. We are. And then this is sending. It's about to send the signal to the spindle and then it's just gonna talk back and forth from here on out. Turn on the spindle 'cause we're ready to go. We should hear that start up. I have to turn the vacuum on to make sure that's gonna hold down. That worked good there. And clicking ok and away we go. Tell me again how many inches per minute we were runnin' in on these profile cuts. Yeah, so 500 inches a minute. Full depth pass. Full depth. With a 3/8 bit. Absolutely. That is incredible. You know, 100% complete cabinet, ready to go to your edge bander, pocket holes. You've got the shelf holes, in under eight minutes. So, I love this, the addition of that pocket hole, kind of a fluting cut there, and just like a pocket hole, we're ramped down to full depth at the end. And what a great time saver to not have to go to a pocket hole machine when you come off your CNC. And I wanna say again, we're looking at kinda CNC on steroids here. But, a lotta these features are available also. All these same features are available on the smaller desktop machines. We have the desktop machines also have the tool changer on 'em, edge clamps, you know, for dove tailing, any kinda that. It's also capable, turnings. For the axis, yeah. Well thanks, Ryan, this was a great, a great look at this machine, really fun. All right, thank you. What a great video and I can't get over that machine runnin' at the speed that it was cuttin' that 3/4 inch plywood. It's absolutely incredible. And I know I mentioned this on that video, but I wanna say it again, that that's a large scale machine. The desktop machine that I've got in my shop is also capable of accepting the vacuum hold down and the automatic tool changer and I'll tell you what, if you're a CNC person and you get the opportunity to use an automatic tool changer, what a treat that is. It makes workin' through your project so much more efficient. It makes it go so much faster. So here's really key to keep in mind that ShopBot's great about developing new technology and getting that technology available across the board on their machines. Ragine has a question for us. It is, does it also run off of a Mac versus PC? And what a great question and I'm smart enough to know when I need to say, I don't know. I use a PC on my ShopBot here to drive it and I actually am not aware if I could also run that off a Mac. So, good question for ShopBot's customer service and they'll straighten you right out on that. So again, growth of CNC routers in the marketplace has been absolutely phenomenal and it's really cool to see that technology grow and be accessible for home hobbyist woodworkers as well. It's a lotta fun for me to do this and I hope it's fun for you as well, to have the opportunity to watch these product videos. And part of the goal here is to help make you a more educated consumer, so when you're doing your tool shoppin' we're zeroing in on exactly what you need and what's gonna help you out in your shop.