Large projects on a ShopBot

• The New Orleans house that Larry Sass of the Digital Design Fabrication Group did for the MoMA "Home Delivery" show... 600 or so sheets of material. Here's a time lapse of cutting the parts on youTube
  
  
• This year's temple at BurningMan was cut on a ShopBot by Community Art Makers in Austin, Texas...1600 sheets of ply
  
  
• Rob Bell's Bootiesattva Zome at Burning Man.
  
  
• Some home-brew ShopBot construction projects. Two examples are a knock-down quonset hut-type building called Shelter 2.0 and a laminated plywood timber frame building.

• Material handling. Once you get more than 3 or 4 sheets of materials, especially in a small area, it can become difficult to handle the parts, especially if they're small and similarly (but not exactly) shaped. One solution is to create a seperate toolpath that shallowly engraves the part name or number on each part, using a single-stroke font to speed up the process. You can also print out the sheet layouts and mark each parts with it's name or number using a pencil or sharpie.
  
  
• If there are lots of sheets of parts it may be easier to use tabs to keep the parts captive in their sheets, transport them in full sheets, and then to remove the parts on-site by cutting the tabs with a saw or a router with a trimmer bit. This also makes the project easier to transport...not a lot of loose parts to keep track of.
  
  
• When cutting a lot of sheets it's easy to get in a flow and lose track of things like your bit getting dull or axis shifts. Stop every once in a while to check the cuts and inspect the pieces.
  
  
• Keep a running list of the sheets that have been cut as you cut them, so that you don't cut a sheet twice or miss a sheet completely.
  
  
• Try to get all your materials at the same time, so that you don't end up with variations in quality or thickness between batches or suppliers.
  
  
• If assembly order is an issue, try to plan your cutting so that the parts are cut in the reverse order that you need them... the first parts you need will be the last cut and on the top of the pile.
  
  
• Scrap and sawdust can build up quickly when doing a lot of cutting...clean up and check any dust collectors frequently.