Looking at waste board ideas while I am waiting on the remaining parts of my Lead to come in, what is everyone doing for waste boards? I am currently on copying the layout that the X Carve has, but curious what everyone else has been doing. How are you cutting hole patterns in on the sides and ends that are outside of the work space? Also, how are you surfacing it flat and not having a lip on the edges of the usable work space area?
I use particle board because it is cheaper than MDF. I purposely leave a lip on the sides so I can easily square up work stock. I use a 1 inch whiteside surfacing bit which reaches the front of my cutting area. Also, I have two spoilboard layers. The bottom layer is the full size of the machine, the top layer with t-track is 48 inches long so it is a couple inches short of my total cutting length. But, I have yet to cut anything larger than 24 by 48 inches. I wanted to be able to feed material though the bed for cuts longer than the work area which is why I removed lips on the two ends.
Also, I gave up on threaded inserts because no matter what, I never had one where I needed it. Also, in the particle board they would often pull loose. Maybe MDF is better.
Mdf is a bit better than particle board at holding threaded inserts, but gets progressively weaker every time you re-surface it. I use threaded inserts known as E-nuts. They have no lip so can be driven below the surface from above. If I haven't got one where I need it I just have to drill a new hole (being careful to avoid spoiler board supports). Alex.
Also, my first job after re-surfacing is to use a fine V (10 degree) engraving bit to scribe a 100 mm grid on my spoiler board. Alex.
I use a piece of plain old 1/2” mdf, and super glue and painters tape to hold material in place. They get wrecked and resurfaced frequently enough that going crazy with inserts and t track is pointless to me.
Painters tape on the board and the stock. Superglue in between. Google it and you'll find plenty of videos on the technique. Its the fidget spinner of workholding.
I use the super glue tape technique as well when my work piece is near the size of the finished product. It is awesome. But, if you need to clamp a vise down or some other holding fixture the t-track is nice. Also when cutting a small part from a 12" by 24" stock material clamps will save you a lot of tape and super glue. Options are nice to have. I can probably resurface my spoilboard 10 times before I hit the t-track.
It is a great method for smaller parts because you do not need holding tabs. I like to use the Hobby King CA glue and activator because it is cheap. It also helps that I can pick it up for free at their USA warehouse which is only a few miles from me.
I made a set of P clamps that screw down into the D Nuts in my MDF Spoiler-board. & I also use double sided tape on occasion.
If So. Grab the zip file HERE PS Obviously the upright bolts don't have to be that long, (as in my photo). They were all I had to hand. Regards C
There is a good video on youtube by myers woodworking. He is making the board for a Shapeoko but has the spoil board layout, clamps, fences and everything you need to make a good spoil board. I have made some with T-slots and they are a disaster. You can make them work but MDF is not very strong and clamping always distorts them. I have made a combination with T-slits and Tee Nuts and that works but the T-slots are still a problem. I have had most success with all 1/4'-20 Tee nuts that are 5/16" tall. This way the Tee-Nuts are under the spoilboard and cannot pull out they are far enough down that you can resurface many times on 3/4" MDF. The threaded inserts that is used on X-Carve seem impractical because MDF will not hold them. Check the myers videos, files and etc on youtube. I have two CNC routers and one uses a 2.25HP 1/2" collet bit router so I use an Infinity Mega Planner 2" bit to surface. On my smaller 1.25HP router it only has a 1/4" collet and I use a Whiteside 6210 1" cutter to flatten.
This is the Internet @gdon_2003 Your post is useless without pictures Also a link. I have thrown togethor a couple of Fusion360 models of spoilboards in the lead 1010 build thread... I have no actually milled it yet though..
This is the internet @ljvb . You can find the videos faster than it took you to write that. I happened to watch a few of them the other day. They are here: Myers Woodshop
Bumping this again since I am to the point where I am about ready to surface my waste board. My hang up is that if surface it, I am going to have a lip on on 4 sides since the machine cannot travel all the way to the ends. That will cause issues since I will probably be carving stock pieces bigger than the work area and will overlap onto the raised edges. Would it be best to just sand down the raised edges?
Most of my jobs are in very thin stock, so this may not fit with what you are trying to do, but I have two layers - spoil board topped with a thinner layer which is a fraction smaller than the machineable area. I surface the top layer (but often deliberately leave a lip on one side and one end to help with alignment). Whether that would solve your problem depends on the total depth you need. Alex.
Yes it does. I have seen other people do that on some of the other machines as well. I upgraded to the cnc4newbies Z axis so I have a little more travel over the OB z setup. The X axis is my limiting height now which is still 4". I am going to go the route that you mentioned with another sheet of 3/4" MDF (since I have that already). Will probably do 1/2" next go around. Going to drill a hole pattern and do the threaded nut route and see how that works out. I just watched the Myers woodshop wasteboard video yesterday and he basically did the same thing on his shapeoko. Best part is that it is removable, so if you need the extra height, just take it off and use tape and superglue on the regular wasteboard.
As I treat the top layer as semi-disposable I don't bother with pre-fixing threaded insert or T nuts - if I have enough thickness left I sometimes use a flange less threaded insert put in from above or just use a woodscrew to fix a clamp in place. I tried a grid of threaded inserts once but they were never where I wanted them. Alex.
PS - another trick I find useful is to use a very thin (20 degree) engraving bit to just score the surface in a 100mm grid straight after surfacing - it's a great help when aligning the workpiece to the X or Y axis. Alex.
Very good suggestion, I think I saw you mention that earlier in this thread or somewhere else and am planning to do that. I like that about the X Carve wasteboard. As for the threaded nuts, I go back and forth on that, I think I may try it on this first one to A) get me some practice with the software and running the machine and B) I already have the threaded nuts
Another question or two Alex if you don’t mind..Do you surface The lower board which is attached to the machine ? And also how do you attach the upper board to the lower?
I surface the lower board only when I need to use it (I'm a model maker so 90% of my jobs are 6 mm thick or less). I attach the top board (which is usually a scrap piece of mdf - although I do have a couple of boards made up with fixtures for repetitive jobs) with well countersunk woodscrews. Alex.
When I first built my Lead 1010 U placed a pieces of 3/4 MDF as the spoil board, and not knowing a thing I made it all but about 1 " from the x rail to rail and completely covering the Y rail length' I have surfaced it once or twice and I have a depression so to speak, My question is tomorrow I plan to replace it any tips on the size? obviously not as big and within the resurface area,,
The edges are quite useful as a positive stop for aligning workpieces properly, otherwise two options - Add a 1/4" thick sheet the exact working area dimensions on top of the base spoilboard or - knock the edge off with a plane, sander, etc
