The rise of the Precision Shaper Machine. A reflection

Surfboard Shaping Machines  typically are very expensive and there is a ton of mis-information and confusion circulating in the market about what is needed to achieve the successful milling of surf, sail, wake and kiteboards.

In this article I would like to share the inception story of the now Precision Shaper system.

I would like to start by giving you some background about me.  I started shaping surfboards in college back in 1991 to be exact. I attended the University of Washington and quickly learned the Pacific Northwest had excellent, uncrowded surf when the conditions permitted.. I shaped boards for friends and family back in Hawaii, Implant Students from other states and my own personal boards.  I also shaped boards for some of the more popular surf shops in the Northwest territory during the late 90's..

I was very familiar with CNC machines and was part of a group of shapers in the NW that was looking to purchase a machine from Brazil.  I seriously considered building my own machine with the help of a few of my engineer buddy's but after much thought and planning decided it would cost a significant amount in materials and the time it would take was hard to determine. I had a decent understanding of business and how to create a product  thanks to the  University of Washington and knew the potential issues with any first attempt or start up would cause un-planned for time and money.  It's pretty obvious that making and supporting a product is difficult, you really can't fake it especially if you are to sell a product on the open market.

After a few months of debating with the organized partners over business practice, investment amounts and which machine to choose I decided to go off on my own and start Precision Shapes NW.  The partnership just didn't pencil out on paper and there were to many sketchy agreements amongst our partnership. Instead of the Brazillian DSD machine I selected to purchase an APS3000 from Australia.. At the time this was the newest machine on the market and had a very unique cutting technology.. After making some phone calls and asking some very respected shapers whom I had a relationship with confirming they felt this was the best value for the money.

I put my deposit in and was told to expect a 3-4 month delivery window.. Month after month I waited and almost a full year later my APS3000 arrived.  Instead of real shop space for my new APS3000 I was forced to put it in a outbuilding on my property as I had been making payments on it for 10 months to the bank..  I got her up and runnin and I started producing my quirky short, fat winged swallow quad and twin fin designs that you will find everywhere on shop racks today..

Working with the APS3000 was interesting I quickly learned about things that really didn't make sense for me.. I wanted to move the machine but she is very big which meant lots of shop space needed. Clean up was the act of going into a dust piled room with a snow shovel coming out looking like a ghost and the machine consistently due to its design created certain directional forces moving the blank during cutting and caused 4-8mm difference cutting from side to side.  This really became irritating and I eventually got fed up and started retro fitting my APS3000.  After working over all the issues which cost alot of time and money.

 I decided on building my own machine in my spare time.

You can see the history of my progress here  http://www.precisionshaper.com/About.html if you scroll down to the bottom and work your way up you quickly learn how committed I'am to the system I call Precision Shaper.

Building a machine is one thing but you need a software to run it.. At first I used Shape3d a french software that has a big following.. It was a good software program for users that were PC literate.. This is where I felt it necesary to develop a homogenous software that was quick, easy to understand, user-friendly yet powerful enough to satisfy demanding board designers and above average machinists.  The PSD-3d project was born.. There was and is the option to use more open source programs that cost no money.. The reason I chose not to do this is the support.. If you were to supply serious board builders a hardware/software package both sides needed to be supported real time.. This is near impossible to pull off in a open-source environment.. There was to many what ifs so I asked myself the simple question. If I were to start a company and spend on the low low end even $20,000 of my money on a system could I accept the concept of open source support? The easy answer was no way!  To many risks that things could change out of my own control and with no real time support well you get my drift.. What was most important is that if I was to look at a global picture and have a growing amount of users  it would be a nightmare for me to support my customers as there would be no standardization of OS, Software etc.. At that point I might as well throw in the towel..

My PSD-3d software is considered really good by all of our users,  most have experience using all the other software SurfCad, Shape3D, AKU Shaper, APS3000 and Boardcad.  PSD3d was developed to be very direct and stable while I can manage supporting it and can provide my customers immediate support that they appreciate..

Today my machines are used around the world by craftsmen of all different levels.. We have made great progress and really operate via word of mouth. The only constant negative I hear is that some are skeptical of the price of our system.. I always say we will take more money if you want to pay us however just ask our users and they will tell you how good our machine and software is. How easy it is to quickly master and how we pride ourselves on fast and knowledgeable service..

We take great pride in what we do and are not limited to surfboards.  Our system has made signs, hot wires blanks, makes stringers, skateboards, Architectural products and even drone parts. We have extensive knowledge with multiple motors, drive components and structural material design. 

We are passionate about what we do and believe in our capabilities as do our customers.. 

Mike  

The mystery of the cantilever

Cantilever designs can be challenging to engineer however if you truly understand the forces and velocity that a machine will encounter it becomes a very advantageous design..

We moved to a cantilever design with V5.. It's more about creating a user-friendly interface from a loading, registering, maintenance perspective while working toward saving shop space "$$$$" and international shipping costs.

Our system maximizes the advantages of the cantilever due to our software abilities and experience across vast machine builds and mediums.  The secret is really managing all aspects of the design leveraging both positive and negative attributes.  The result is something that works extremely well and has become a dependable and predictable work horse..

Mike 

Precision Shaper Design 3d software

 PSD-3D is a software package designed to be simple, flexible and fast.  I made this software after my experiences running different machines using the available software on the market and becoming frustrated with the results.. 

PSD-3D is very stable and has a focus on not only designing boards in a digital environment I took special attention to the operator interface. This in my opinion will make or break a system.. The tools we provide our operators are not found in any other program on the market. This is just one of the advantages we provide our users.  Next we add "APO" or adaptive path optimization making our system auto-pilot enabled.  To sweeten the pie we have a very very special algorithm that was designed specific to the drive components I created providing very smooth transitions and traverses

Our software can open Shape 3d, AKU "yuck" and APS3000 files as long as you learn the simple rules of our program.. If you do so all transfers with ease and we even can locate design errors in your native files..

Last I must mention the most important.  When you decide to become our customer you are buying not only a great system you get excellent hardware and software support.. Why? Because we designed both from the ground up to work together in harmony..

That's the difference. Thoughtfully designed, proven, well supported, and pound for pound will beat its competition hands down.  The fastest return on investment, the best supported, the most easy to use, low affordable maintenance and deadly accurate mills..

Because of our capabilities we control our own destiny providing our customers stability..

Construction material Aluminum vs Steel

PSV5.II 2010

 Which is better? What is heavy duty? What will last? What makes sense?

ALUMINUM VS STEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unlike the "one hit wonder" surfboard machine builders here at Precision Shapes we have created a plethora of different machines from both a design and material stand point.  If you do some homework on us you will learn that we utilized different frame materials, different drives,  linear rail systems and finally both servo, stepper and encoded stepper motors creating quality working machines that are found world wide. We do extensive testing on all our products before we release them for sale..

Why?  Because I learned back in college the only way to be sustainable is to have a wide variety of experience in whatever you do.  You need not only be able to design a product and execute a build with your primary product selection, you really should know and understand what your competitions using understanding strength and weakness in order to find and position our product in the market place. Components and vendors change and you must always be ready to integrate new technologies without introducing risks for PSNW and its customer base.

First realize that the below paragraphs are really directed at Surfboard machines specific.  

Steel: Its heavy!  However this has nothing to do with being heavy duty. It does have excellent vibration dampening property's.  I will say that if you look at most the big bad steel machines they usually have aluminum board holding fixtures. So the vibration is still in play.. Also due to the weight of the machines gantry/car you need to use much larger motors to push and pull all that weight back and fourth. Is this heavy duty? Or just Heavy? lol.  Some of our competitors like to use the old Thermal Expansion scare tactic. " Aluminum will expand and contract".  Well lets see the truth is all metals face potential Thermal Expansion or the act of the metal increasing and decreasing in size during temperature change. Steel does this roughly 1/2 the amount of Aluminum. You would need to have a significant temperature change for this to come into play at all.. We are talking micro-inches of change through a major and fast temperature change. Our users just don't have this issue.  Is it our construction method? Maybe strategic leverage of design? Or maybe anyone who owns a machine  should provide a proper stable environment that coincides with protecting electronics and motor drives which quickly eliminates the micro-inch thermal expansion possibility?

In the end if you put your machine in the space shuttle traveled to the sun then back to the moon at warp speed after the machine expanded and contracted it would take minutes to make some adjustments getting her back to true.  HMMMMM??..   Besides even the steel machines have aluminum plates in critical area's they even use aluminum to hold their boards.. Tah Dah thermal expansion!! LOL.

Steel to me is just a hassle and really gives you no advantage. Lining up linears on a steel machine is a real hassle and unless you mill the frame and can control powder coating thickness binding or sticky spots is inevitable.. That's ok most hacks solve this by slapping some bigger motors on their machines to fight through the lack of precise build execution.

 I laugh harder when I hear my machine is "Heavy Duty" only to look at the machines design and understanding the designer fell into the excessive weight abyss.

 I wonder did anyone ever measure the amount of true cutting force needed per medium?? Guess what?  I know exactly how much force is seen at variable velocitys at different depth of pass on my system.  You see others may be forced to use steel due to the fact they hang a 5hp -60lb spindle on their z axis and in order to support that they have another 100+lbs of mass.

 Do they have the ability to code a software to create smarter tool paths that work within the machines traverse forces?? The answer is usually NO.

So IMHO steel just seems like a waste of time and weight causing no real advantage. More weight= bigger motors= more money and expensive repairs not to mention greater power consumption and adding upgrades is a major costly overhaul.

I really like working with Aluminum for most board related machines.  Balance and structure of design is really the key to using aluminum framing. Its easy to just start adding power and weight. The magic is designing and building efficient and as lean as possible while providing predictable performance.

  So remember bigger is not always better..

So to those building machines or may attempt to build their own machine remember the rule of "HEAVY DUTY".  Is your machine really heavy duty?  Or is it just heavy fighting to perform with all the excess weight you have added. Do you even know what forces and tolerances you are dealing with?   I suggest you learn those first before you break out the pencil and paper.. 


Good luck and have fun..

Why??

The answer is a bit complex and has multiple reasons.  I grew up with the ocean as my playground.  Mom took me to the beach everyday as we lived 2 blocks away from the very spot that was the birth place of the sport.  Since a very young age I had a fascination with surfboards, canoes really anything that appeared to glide or fly across the ocean.   This passion grew and eventually started making my own boards.  I rode some of the best boards made by some of the greatest shapers but nothing was like making and riding my own..  The more boards I made the more respect I had for shapers.  Shaping is truly a craft that is very technical and complex.  I became addicted to the study and theory of board design and certain shapers had very intriguing methodology. These shapers I idolized. In fact I have much respect for anyone that takes any part in the art of board building as since 1991 I have had my hands on foam, cloth and resins lol..

 I have always been a tinkerer and if you know anything about me my passion is to create things that make life better, more efficient or to simply improve on a pre-existing product that in my opinion is not yet at it's full potential.

 With my board building background and being a tech tinkerer  I decided to create the Precision Shaper System.

1. To aid small to medium hand shapers, giving them a way to save their joints and  learn a new modern way of doing things if they care to.  

2. In the hopes to ensure in the future more boards are still made by those that care to in a more efficient manner.

3. To satisfy the "I" generation. Kids these days are part computer it is like an extension of their minds and so to help relate and bridge that gap I went my own way.

4. To provide a competitive edge for the small and medium shaper's against over seas manufacturing giants and big marketing dollar surf mag brands.

5. To empower shapers by providing the ability to own their own machine eliminating cutting center dramas and putting that money back in their own pockets.

6.  I'm passionate about CNC motion systems and developing stable and very specialized software

7.  Because I could

Whatever the future holds, wherever we take it, however you want to get there.  GO YOUR OWN WAY!!!!!!!

Open Source softwares and Surfboard Shaping Machines

This is a topic that can be a double edged sword.  Open source is a great way to develop software for some applications.  The idea is to have a group of developers lending their individual expertise to a particular project/software  that will be distributed for free to the masses..

The idea is not new and while teamwork is always a great way to accomplish our goals I have to take a few moments and list some of the issues relying on open source software in a cnc Business environment..

 Lets call it what it is..

1.  Open source software is really geared toward the hobbyist user.. These users have little to no real expectations as the software is free. They also have very little production needs or time frame requirements. This is the perfect user for an open source style software. I like to believe these types really do not need the assistance of CNC equipment.

2. This means that the user himself is most likely responsible for building his or her own CNC machine which will be used for his own personal use. In this case it works. Again no real expectations, low barrier of entry and no responsibility.  This does not mean this individual cannot find some amount of success using open source software.

3. The integrator:  This is a small company that produces a product or machine to sell on the open market based on open source software.. Why you ask? Well its free!  It relinquishes the responsibility of the machine builder when things go wrong.  It also opens up the machine owner to a host of risk in my opinion.

Such as:

1. No real time support
2. constant bug fixes do to multiple coders working free lance
3. Never ending version issues
4. No real way to consistently manage customers using different versions
5. Hardware vs software integration issues
6. Longer more difficult setup times
7. No true stable environment
8. Potential nightmares
9. Lost revenues

This goes on and on you get my point. I hope.

In a nut shell with my 12 years of experience dealing with CNC surfboard machines these issues boil down to who you are as a individual, what type of business you want to have, how serious you are about your business and if you will try to cut corners relying on a freeware.

So either...:

1. You use an open source software relying on multiple coders who are not getting paid to perform or will ever be held accountable where and when the shit hits the fan.  Think about it you pay thousands of dollars for a machine and then leave the brains of your operation to a separate group who really has no interest in your business aspirations.

2. You find a software that has been developed by machine builders, professional software developers that get paid to support a specific software created for a specific purpose. This paid for software comes with guaranteed support, stable delivery and maintenance. This option looks at paying customers and will upgrade based on their real world business needs all the while ensuring it is bug free and if so they move like lightning to correct any mistakes.

In my honest opinion anyone looking to buy a machine needs to really understand what they are buying. The devils in the details and unless you are the hobby type attempting to build your own machine I would stay clear of the open source option.

Look at any serious systems builder and you will find they either use a premium 3rd party software with support or they have coded their own refusing to leave their company's destiny in the hands of non paid  developers that could have any agenda..

Precision Shaper has used open source software.  Actually we have a copy of a very popular os available software and through testing and trials really could never feel right putting any of our machine customers at risk. It was frustrating enough navigating in the design to G-code module, and the tool paths in our opinion pretty generic and archaic.   Our customers have real expectations, they demand support and appreciate how we look out for their business and their best interest. There is nothing wrong with Open source software.. I just would not recommend making a large monetary investment on a machine and trying to run a legitimate business based on it..

This is why we created PSD-3D surf design software. The most affordable and well supported CAD/CAM Surf software available. It runs not only our machine but any 3 axis cnc surfboard machine.

Sorry its not free but very quickly you will learn its worth every cent.. ;)

Mike