New Shop Bot Table Top...any thoughts and comparisons?

[Teach]

I really like the Shark- plus, and I was wondering if anybody was up for comparing the Plus with the new Shop Bot Tyros table top. The first thing is the price, and I've seen where people have mounted heavier duty motors then the Bosch.../.any thoughts? I am recently retired Tech Ed. Teacher, and have some cnc experience in public school. The Plus seems to be about what is needed, and small enough to fit budgets and space.

[spinningwood]

I've never seen the Shop Bot Table Top ("SBTT"), but looking at the specs it seems like it might be a fine machine for a limited set of applications. But it's a lot smaller than the shark pro plus and substantially more expensive. The real deal killer for me is that the thickest material you could work on is 2". I would call that more of an engraving machine that a cnc router, but that's just me.

While the SBTT website talks up the 3D carving capabilities and prominently displays them in the website pictures, the partswork software that comes with the SBTT is the same as the VCarve that comes with the Shark. Great for VCarving signs and cutting out 2D parts, but not so much for 3D. You would need to upgrade to Aspire (or something else) to really take advantage of 3D capabilities.

For the money you pay for the SBTT, you could buy the Shark Pro Plus AND upgrade to Aspire and have a much more capable system (and maybe have some extra money left to buy tooling!).

Just one persons opinion.

Ed

[Tim Owens]

The Shopbot now uses the Vectric software they just renamed it. You get Vcarve and Cut3d but they call something like part buddy suite which is the same software you get with the CNC Shark Pro Plus.

[Michael Rytter]

I LOVE my shark Pro Plus! I considered the Shopbot Buddy, (which is NOT the tabletop), but by the time I bought all the "A-La-Carte" accessories, I would have spent in the high "teens", compared to just over 4 grand for the Shark Pro Plus.