field notes — the shop / wood shop
The ShopSabre PRO 408 is an industrial CNC router with a 4′ × 8′ table — big enough to swallow a full sheet of plywood. It lives in its own room off the wood shop, with a viewing window so you can watch it work.
carves full 4×8 sheetsUnlike the lasers, the PRO 408 cuts with a spinning bit that moves in three dimensions — carving, drilling, and shaping wood, plastics, and foam. It follows designs students create in CAD, swaps its own tools mid-job from a 10-tool rack, and positions itself with an accuracy of about the thickness of a human hair.
Because it carves in 3D rather than cutting flat outlines, it can shape curved surfaces, cut joinery, and mill parts a laser never could. Plenty of the fixtures in this building were cut on this machine.
you'll find it in the wood shop
Machines like this come alive during our camps, clubs, and field trips — or book a tour and see the whole shop.