Handibot Smart Power Tool

Summary

Handibot's core product; a portable 3-axis CNC tool with an "open bottom" design. Rather than inserting material into the tool to be cut--the tool is placed on top of the material that is going to be cut. The base model of the tool uses a small trim router to cut wood, plastic, foam and metal. A variety of accessories can be swapped in for the router in order to perform other functions.

The smallest handibots have a cut area of 6" x 8" with a Z-axis travel of 3.5"--however, because of the tool's open-bottom design, it is relatively easy to complete larger cuts by tiling.

History

The first "Portable Smart Power Tool", was released in 2013 after a successful kickstarter campaign raised $300,000 to fund the initial production run from ShopBot Tools. Named "Developer Edition", it retailed for $2700.00 and was only available domestically at first. International versions of the tool followed in mid-2014.

In early 2015, an updated version called "Developer Edition v1.1" was released, introducing the v-neck front, y-axis backing plates and reed-switch limit sensing. These improvements were selected from a list of possibilities based on customer requests and common maintenance issues.

In March of 2016 a new version of the handibot was released, called "Handibot Adventure Edition v2.0". This version of the handibot was a complete redesign of the product designed to improve cutting performance and to make standard a number of features and accessories with which customers had outfitted their version 1 tools. Adventure Edition was also the first handibot tool to ship standard with FabMo control software and hardware.

In October of 2017 a larger version of the handibot was released, named "Handibot Large Sheet Tool". This expanded the cutting area of the tool to 24" x 6" and was designed to make it easier to tile large cuts.

Specs

The handibot is built with a HDPE frame, housing aluminum mechanical components. The motion mechanism uses lead screw stepper motors and precision linear rails. It is powered by a 110V supply (210V for international tools) and consumes 11 amps when running.

The stepper motors that drive the tool are capable of moves as small as 0.00025" -- however when backlash and tool deflection are taken into account, precision of the tool is +/- 0.0015" (plus-or-minus 1.5 thousandths of an inch). The motors themselves run on 24VDC.

The linear rails that guide each axis are 15mm precision ground steel. The bearings that ride on the rails use a recirculating ball track and are capable of withstanding up to 1000lbs in any direction.

The size of the handibot varies between the two model types; but the two currently available models measure as follows:

Handibot Adventure Edition: 21" x 16" x 13.5", weighing 45lbs

Handibot Large Sheet Tool: 38" x 21" x 15", weighing 65lbs