Is anyone able to offer training on the Shapeoko? I would love to do some small projects on it. How precise is it? I am hoping to use it for wood projects, is wood material allowed? Thanks,
Colby Sherman
We have two Shapeoko. The smaller Shapeoko 2 is managed by Woodshop and intended for wood. The larger Shapeoko 3 XXL is for Plastics - no wood cutting allowed on that one.
How precise do you need it to be? (Lack of) gantry stiffness is a challenge. If you use small bits you may be able to get .005" precision. If you expect to take big honking cuts then you may not get that kind of precision because it’s a small router on a less-than-rigid gantry.
The biggest issue is repeatability when changing bits. The gantry may move a little when you change the bit. I put clamps on the gantry on both sides of the router head when I’m changing bits and that helps some, but when I need real tight precision I just suffer through using the same bit for all the cuts.
Here is a part I made on the smaller Shapeoko. It doesn’t happen to be wood, but you can see that I got a reasonably precise result. I didn’t measure the precision. (I made the flat disk on the Shapeoko and then domed it manually).
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I’m not sure what it has now but would there be a relatively simple way to use a vacuum hold? Cause I’ve seen (only the table itself nothing else) on Amazon for a couple hundred 160-289 that would work, I’m not 100% on what everything is needed to get it going or how much the part that sucks the most would cost but it’s an interesting thing to toss around as an idea
Everything seems doable to the other member right up to the point you put that damn penny in the photo. Once it dawns on them what that penny signifies, a slow depression creeps in along with a deep feeling of inadequacy.
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I literally didn’t comprehend that was a penny my brain saw it and assumed it was one of those huge joke pennies but holly shit, that’s insane!
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For small parts, I’ve found double-sided turners tape to be an adequate hold down.
Actually, the penny is intended to signify that he can get reasonable accuracy with the machine. 
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Do you use the thick gooey kind, or the Norma double sided tape kind, if it’s the gooey on do you think when doing a bigger part it would allow movement when making passes or do you think with enough tape points across it’d be fine. And I guess if it did move it’s spring back into its original place
Also what’s the useable dimensions it can “mill”(I don’t know the right word but basically what’s the biggest thing you could put in there)
Normal double-sided “turners” tape (thin, but not like Scotch-brand craft tape). The foam tape wouldn’t give a stable surface.
0.005" Would be accurate enough I believe. Do you know anyone willing to offer training? Would ideally like to use the multicam, haven’t been able to find anyone to train me yet
To give you an idea of what the Multicam is capable of, here are some train wheels I did with a 1/16” bit. With very light sanding, the mahogany inserts were a slip fit into the wheels.
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That would be perfect! What would be a good day for a side session and checkout?
Colby Sherman