[Jared]

We have a 4' x 8' shopbot with the spindle that we love. We've made a bunch of stuff on it, and we've used it with wood, foam, plastic, and up to .125 aluminum. The included partworks software is really powerful, but it's much easier to use than a normal CAM package. We've just started using Partworks 3d, which looks great too.

It took us a little while to figure out the best way to cut aluminum. Ours has the spindle, which has no trouble cutting aluminum. We've considered using the mist coolant, but the stuff smells bad and stays in the air, so we just squirt normal coolant on the bit as the thing cuts, and we don't use liquid coolant on thinner aluminum. We do use compressed air, through a vortex tube to cool the air, that helps get the chips out of the way.

The trick that we've found for cutting aluminum is not to go slow. We use an Onsrud O Single Flute aluminum bit, and go about 100 ipm through .125 plate, and I think the spindle rpm is near 14,000.

We have had one little issue with the bundled software. We've been exporting our part to cut as a PDF, then importing that PDF file in Partworks, and occasionally, it gets a little messed up with an edge in the wrong spot.