I created a quick video of my Workbee:



This was one of my first cuts with the finished machine, so I'm still learning feed rates/spindle speeds/etc

 

My 1m x 1m WorkBee arrived this morning, beyond excited to get my first CNC up and running. Thanks again Ryan!

I am very very far behind where I need to be set up wise, yet to even start its workbench and even that is far down my work shop queue. I'd say it will be the new year before I post updates but please keep the stores/videos/photos coming.

 

The old Festo shop vacuum doesn't have enough power for the more intense cuts though. I've already hooked up my CNC to a larger dust extractor.

 

Very nice! I am planing to do an upgrade soon!

 

Hi guys -

I'm looking for a possible CNC build, the WorkBee looks awesome. Shipping didn't look too bad from the UK to the USA.

I started looking at the documents. I had a couple recommendations:

• In the Manuals Folder, I'd recommend reviewing the naming of a couple documents. For instance, while "WorkBee-Screw-Assembly-Manual" seems straight forward, it then made me wonder what "WorkBee-Full-Kit-Assembly-Manual" was. Maybe this last file is named something like Ancillary Parts or Electronic Elements. Or maybe you do something like WorkBee-Manual-Mechanial Assembly-Srew Drive" and "WorkBee-Manual-Electronic Assembly". Just to remove ambiguity.
• With the above, you could also do a trick I do often when collecting multiple documents together, and the document order matters, and that is name the documents with a number in front so that they sort in a desired ordered. Something like "1a - WorkBee-Screw-Assembly-Manual", "1b - WorkBee-Belt-Assembly-Manual", "2 - WorkBee-Full-Kit-Assembly-Manual", etc.
• On the Ooznest page, there is a tab for "Z Travel Explained", I think it would be great to annotate this with pictures showing the different mounting position and the travel of the router/bit. Since this is a DIY kind of kit, the audience is probably pretty visual and adding some graphics could help.

I love the documentation I've seen so far, it has made it approachable to understand what is going on and helps me feel comfortable if I go forward in getting a kit. I'm eager to see what others are doing in their build. I'm thinking my build might use the Kress 800W Spindle instead of the Dewalt router.

 

Got my tracking number, awaiting the packages to arrive wednesday, I'm almost ready. got to finish cleaning the shop. I have my spoiler board all ready aswell. I made it using another machine.

Holes drilled all the way through two glued sheets of MDF, pocked and t-nuts hammered in. 144 of them altogether 4 inches apart.

 

Nice work Kyle! How thick are your boards then? Are you going with the lower mounting option?

 

The machine is 1500x1500mm so its belt driven. The MDF is 1 inch thick now. The board will be sitting on the supports.

 

Got it!

Looks like you have another machine? Or at least access to one. Why the WorkBee? What other machines did you look at before deciding on this one?

For me, I've looked at several: Ox, Shapeoko, X-Carve, StepCraft, Platform CNC, etc.

 

For me I have many years experience on the Multicam, a company based in Texas I believe. It is very industrial. About $100,000 and about 2000 kilos. It is at my work place so I have access. The workbee is going to be the machine that allows me to do it all from my home based shop. I do large format print, signage, design and now carving I'll probably be using the Workbee for alupanel letters and channel letters, but can't wait to try some custom carved signs.

Choose the workbee as it seemed to be the latest and greatest innovation and I followed the success of the OX. It was more rigid, had a very capable dewalt spindle and I get the challenge of building it myself.

 

Are you considering buying the Laser Engraving Head DL445 or the 3D printing system from Stepcraft as well?

 

Hi @Cncpro

For the moment I moved on from looking at Stepcraft.

I do wonder about their attachments. I'm a bit hesitant on both lasers and 3D printer being out in the open though. For instance I've played around a bit with a Glowforge laser, I like it, but it can produce a lot of dust, smoke and gasses and so I appreciate that it is enclosed and ventilated. As for a 3D printer, I've not had as much experience and in my mind it requires precision and a well heated bed and air volume around it to work well. Again, I've not looked into Stepcraft, just my observations in a drive by.

I'm a bit more interested in perhaps building my own machine, and maybe a slightly bigger one. Stepcraft looks like it may have a nice out of the box and up and running system. If going for a production system, I'd consider CNC Router Parts, though more expensive, they have a nice size table top system I would love to afford and put to work.

 

One of the thoughts I've had about the WorkBee, is if I would feel constrained by the cutting depth of the machine.

I've got a long list of things to make and ideas. One of them include some complex forms that would be carved out of foam or wood and then use those shapes in a vacuum forming machine. I could see these shapes being 2" to 3", maybe 4". WorkBee, with the spoil board on lowest setting would be 47mm, so it wouldn't reach even 2".

I'm curious what others are thinking about this.

 

I

I wasn't taking about the actual Stepcraft CNC. I was talking about their attachments that can be connected to the Kress 800W Spindle.

I'm planning to build a WorkBee as well.

 

@Kyle Barrett and any other USA based WorkBee users, I'm curious what your process and cost was like for customs. Was there much of a fee or delay there?

 

Im from Nova Scotia Canada and I can tell you that the customs are gross. The packages went from england, to tennessee, to montreal and I should have it tomorrow. FedEx is crazy fast but that service does come at a cost. And the government gets their share of the value of the machine. Send me a email if you want more details. [email protected]

 

no duty charges will stop me. Its just the cost of business and buying international that happens.

I'm stoked for tomorrow, Can't wait to get building.

 

I have a heavily modified ShapeOko2 which is performing very well on balsa and light plywood, when looking into the WorkBee it struck me as good looking and well engineered. The C-Beam on the Y is very strong, not only vertically but also sideways and hiding the belts from dust is a good feature. The X-gantry to Z plate is narrower so you get more work area.

Overall mechanical build quality will outperform my ShapeOko2 with ease with only two remarks:
- I have only 4 wheels on the Y carriage while the WorkBee has 14.... this may introduce more friction causing more backlash on the belts. An ACME build is stronger and may not suffer from that effect. On the other hand for light applications I can always decide to install only 8 wheels for the Y axis.
- The main source of backlash on my ShapeOko2 is the X axis GT2 6mm belt, this improved a lot when I replaced the belt with a GT2 9mm belt. So with the WorkBee I would hide the X belt in the C-beam channel too and increase the width.

For the rest I love it and the mechanical package is tempting.

 

Shipped from Ryan monday, I gort the first package wednesday. Then the following two packages yesterday. Here it is all laid out and ready to start. One note. I had to buy a UK to US adapter for the router. But that was cheap. Also The power supply will require the same but it's just a standard computer PSU cable and I have a bunch of those lying around.

Here are a few pics.

I've already started putting together the wheels

 

Got my machine up and moving. Currently using Chilipeppr to control it.

Excuse the messy wiring.

 

Nice work @Aaron D ! How will you be using your WorkBee?

I'm looking forward to watching your progress @Kyle Barrett .

 

Merry Christmas to everyone and their families.

 

Though I've not ordered my machine yet, here is what I was thinking:

750 x 1000mm WorkBee Mechanical Kit
OpenBuilds High Torque motors
Azteeg X5 GT Motion controller with four Bigfoot BSD2660 drivers
Dewalt or Kress FME800 spindle.
power supply and other wiring with items I already have.

This would be my first CNC machine, what do you think?