Shopbot users - what have you learned?

[sanddrag]

Good to see someone else using a KFLOP and KMotion on a ShopBot. We did that to ours, and we're having a few issues with it, I think related to Windows XP and the older computer I currently run it on. Are you using the KStep as well, or a different board?

We put a Chinese water-cooled 2.2kW spindle on ours with a VFD that is interfaced to the KFLOP. I haven't really cut much with it yet, but our old original ShopBot PRT Alpha is not a great machine at all mechanically. The new ones are a lot better, but if I can still reliably make parts on the old machine, hey, why not.

On a side note, we really like our old Techno-Isel router. Ballscrew,servos, and linear bearings. Doesn't get much better than that.