Got a spot in a cad and manufacturing and robotics class. Tues, Thurs nights… I will be imbued with mighty knowledge. I will likely miss Tues meetings for some time 
congrats! Knowledge is power!
Way to go! Want to see your robot at the Hive!
I did see this ") https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/uarm-swift-your-personal-robotic-assistant-education-gadgets--2#/
I think it is mostly cad cam, and the new desktop toys rather than build a robot.
Two tidbits so far… they have had good success with backlash eliminators made of delrin. Apparently tapping process they were using left enough material to preload the screw.
The next is pretty interesting, the teacher says that last years 250 buck kit made 3d printers are outperforming the top of the model line units previously purchased in terms of successful prints to bad print ratio.
and of course, pre processing is your friend.
Finished the class. I now am more educated.
One thing they do on the router is leave .004 on a final pass as an “onion skin” to keep the cut out in place. Dunno if that was mentioned here or not, but it stuck with me this time.
Also, the base assembly for the hive router is much more rigid than the one for the pro machine in this class. And the hive base seems to additionally dampen vibration from rapids to a greater degree. This surprised me a bit… the two end pieces for the base of the table reportedly could not be lifted by two hefty fellows, and needed to be moved with a lift.
The vacuum table was nice, but really loud, and limited in some ways… either parts had to be turned off, or the holes blocked with stoppers to maintain grip.
On another note, the school is moving to accreditation, and will be opening adult education classes and certifications on these topics this September. It will be about 45 minutes away from the hive.
what school is it, just curious!
southern-hills-career-tech-georgetown
I think the website is down, or the web look up has a bad link. But it is Southern Hills in Georgetown, and they are opening an adult ed center focused on advanced manufacturing in Mt Orab. This class was a bit of testing the waters to gauge interest and such before accreditation and classes start up in September. This article is from the start of the grant award, and the process.
http://www.newsdemocrat.com/2016/03/05/southern-hills-jvs-receives-grant-award/
Onion skinning is certainly possible.
It depends on the shape of the piece and how you want to finish the edges. Cut and sand a few tabs or sand all the way around the entire (not very convoluted) edge.
(and, with real wood, I would use 0.04 at least.)
John2pt0