Shopbot PRS Alpha purchase

The Hackspace
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I am trying to persuade the Inch arts people in Alltrincham who took over the Altrincham Fablab to keep the Shopbot PRS Alpha which has a 4x8 ft cutting area suitable for wood and softer metals (Alu etc) .

However Jo who runs the place seems keen for it to be moved on, one of their trusty’s may wish to keep it. I have offered to run training on it. However a different solution would for it to be available at a 24x7 open access site in Manchester and the Hack space would be the best space.

The machines currently in Fablab Warrington and Burnley are in quite small rooms.

In terms of cost they could sell it on ebay for £10k+ They are £30k new, but I am of the opinion they would offer it for much less money to the hackspace as inch arts are a members organsiation. I may be wrong about this but inch arts got it for zero cost as a donation from the council who paid the manufacturing institute to put it in place.

To keep the perception of our interest warm I would like to visit next week preferably with some hackspace persons or people to look at it and discuss the space it may take. If anyone has any questions please ask.

There are full manuals and it includes computer software licences and dust extraction (into a big bag).

1 Like
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Hey, I’ve been in contact with Jo from inch arts too and expressed our possible interest and value regarding keeping the machine in the public domain. I can’t go with you to altringham until the new year however.

I wonder what the next steps are regarding conclusive discussions from Hacspace members

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JoeF All I really needed was somoene else from hackspace to express an interest, I will visit Jo and talk about how much I also need to check the machine over. When I get an actual price I will make sure hacsapce has first refusal.

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I’d be interested in it myself, it’s more a case of where we put it I think is the question.

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I propose possibly swapping the large storage area with the current CNC room, would potentially be a good opportunity to ditch stuff that’s been there for a long time without an owner too. We could potentially build a screen (+/- sound insulation) to prevent dust freely entering the rest of the space. However I know there’s other plans for this area…