Thinking of Making a New Spoiler Board Out of 1.5 MDF

[gene35146]

The thickest MDF I can find locally is at the big box stores and is 3/4 inch. I am thinking about gluing two pieces together and then cutting a new spoiler board.  This would make for a 1 inch pilot for the screws.  My concern before I go thru this is would it be too wobbly with a that deep of an opening and tip or break easily. Has anyone ever tried something like this?

I was thinking that would give me a lot more room for future leveling without replacing it all the time.

Thoughts?

[redwood]

I can't answer your question, but I think that some people resurface their spoil board more often then they need to. I use my machine quite a bit and maybe resurface at most, once a year. Yeah, it may not be pretty, but there is plenty of unscarred space to support the material .

[johnb]

If you're doing 3D, you're gonna lose some gantry clearance there. Not sure what you're talking about with "tip or break"...are you planning to cut this down into strips? If so, you'll have to recess all those screws twice as far and buy longer screws for any clamps you use in the t-track. Why not just cut a piece of 3/4" mdf to overlay the existing spoilboard and screw it down on the corners with a couple of more screws on the edges in between? You can screw through this into the spoilboards to hold your project down. If a screw lands in the spaces in between the spoilboards, no big deal, you'll have enough holding power through the 3/4 topping board.

[loren]

Have you tried a real lumber store? Most would be able to special order 1 inch MDF sheets if they don't stock it.

[Axiom Tool Group]

Other than decreasing the overall gantry clearance, there is no problem with doubling up on the 3/4" MDF...Though doin gate same with 1/2" would probably serve better.

Locally, at least for us...finding 1" is not difficult with the specialty woodworking locations. Generally retailing for around $35 for a 4x8 sheet. Although we do recognize that its not always locally available.

We chose 1" material to maximize the time between needed replacements. If you remove the minimum during surfacing operations the 1" material should last a long time....that said, many user simply replace it with 3/4", they just have to replace it more often depending on how aggressively they are cutting.


Our demo machines used for classes have never needed the boards replaced. We simply use an auxiliary sacrificial board underneath anything that I'm cutting through....we just keep a number of scrap boards like this on hand for use (they get pretty beat up before replacement).

[jroetz]

We glued two pieces of 3/4" MDF together, added 1/4-20 t-nuts on a 2" grid and engraved grid lines, it's working great for us!

[zaxis4]

Are the grid lines for alignment? What are all the holes for? Looks like a good setup.

[jroetz]

Jan 21, 2020 22:21:04 GMT -5 zaxis4 said:

Are the grid lines for alignment? What are all the holes for? Looks like a good setup.

Correct, grid lines are for alignment, holes are for clamping.

[zaxis4]

what kind of clamps do you use that need a hole like that??? I am not getting it.

[traindriver]

There are 1/4-20 inserts in the holes so he can screw a 1/4-20 bolt into the board to hold the clamps down - it takes the place of the t-slots.

[dadealeus]

I don't know how common this is, but it's been working well for me - so I figured I'd mention it.

I actually use an additional piece of easily removable waste material under my workpieces as a spoilboard. You can see it in the following image:

axiomprecision.proboards.com/attachment/download/1590

I mostly mill HDU and when I purchase it, they ship it with waste material from their factory to protect what I ordered. I take that waste material (it's usually around 1/4" or so thick), clamp it down, and run a really light surfacing path to make sure it's level. Then I just use it pretty aggressively (as you can see on the right of the image) until it's no longer useful to me.

It may be doubling up on spoilboards, but I'm a bit OCD and I like how easy it is to remove the top layer and pop on a new one without my machine looking so used.

[zaxis4]

Jan 23, 2020 20:51:57 GMT -5 traindriver said:

There are 1/4-20 inserts in the holes so he can screw a 1/4-20 bolt into the board to hold the clamps down - it takes the place of the t-slots.

OK that sounds like a great idea. Are they recessed so that you don't hit them when doing a cut out? Maybe that's the idea of the double layer....I am thinking??? Brass inserts? Anywhere to buy them in bulk. I must take a bunch.

[jroetz]

McMaster Carr has them, they're a little over 1/2" tall, so you've got about an inch of spoilboard to work with.

www.mcmaster.com/90975a027

[jroetz]

Doing some test cutting:

www.facebook.com/FASTSIGNSofRacine/videos/863216894127684/

[grossmsj]

Could I get your SVG for Bucky Badger?
My wife and I are both from Wisconsin and attended UW-Madison from 74-81. Yeah, I'm a slow learner.