After some research it became clear that coming up with workholding/spoilboard plan can be a deep hole to get lost in
I have in mind what I want but I wonder if it’s overkill and I should find a simple solution to just get started before worrying about the perfect setup.
What I was thinking is:
1/2” MDF spoilboard
grid of 1/4” threaded inserts
lightly scored lines to create a visible grid
x/y fence at the origin to give my stock a constant origin. This was one of my motivators for using endstops.
3d print some workholding clamps
I haven’t actually cut anything with wood yet so all this is standing in the way of me actually using my tool.
I would recommend not doing something like that until at least your second spoil board. In the first, try just adding screws in the waste of the workpiece.
Or if it is something that you don’t want extra holes in, you can take a board that is about 6" long and put a screw in the middle, with one end on the spoil board and the other on the workpiece. It doesn’t have to be strong enough to hand saw.
For small stuff, you can put blue masking tape on the workpiece and on the spoil board and use CA glue to glue the blue masking tape together.
Great advice! Pretty much what I’ve been doing with the addition of woodworker’s tape as well as a staple gun with the 2.7mm HD material I’ve been fooling with. I’m planning a leisurely burly to Primo upgrade, printing parts in between things like putting a floor down in the house etc. and by the time I’m ready for it think I’ll have a much better idea of what I want than I did when I first put the burly together.
I made a split spoilboard with inserts on my first mpcnc, and I agree with Jeff. Not worth the effort, and it didn’t work out the way I wanted. I recovered the tnuts and still have them in a drawer, lol.
I definitely agree with the thought of going simple on the first spoilboard. It wasn’t until I was on my 3rd or 4th one that I added threaded inserts into mine.
When you are ready for that, I found the following clamps really easy to make and work wonderfully for holding various thickness materials.
I’d never heard of them, sounds like a great idea but I did a search and everything I found was made for a specific nailer and it was unclear if they’re made specifically for these brads. I wonder if they’d work in any brad nailer?
From some additional reading I’ve found (on Wooden Boat forums) the Raptor 18 gauge brads work well in some 3rd party (some Senco and the Ryobi cordless) guns. Chisel tip are apparently more reliable than diamond point. Some may work initially but could end up with deposits left from the resin fasteners according to the Raptor folks, but I’d expect that would be after lots more nails than I would use in quite some time.
The boat builders love the staples (and the proprietary drivers) because then they don’t have to pull the staples when cold-molding complex hull shapes.
Since I happen to have a Ryobi 18 gauge nailer, I may reach out to Raptor and request some samples so I can speak from experience.
I have a Harbor Freight 18 gauge brad nailer that’s very handy when gluing things together that tend to skate around when clamping pressure’s applied, a coupla brads and that’s no longer a problem.
I just Emailed NailGunDepot and asked if any brads are made to work in any nailer.
I’ve occasionally placed a staple in the wrong spot when cutting thin material and carbide bits don’t seem all that bothered by them.
I’ve Emailed a few suppliers asking whether there are composite fasteners that will work in any nailer/stapler or if the machine must be designed with plastic in mind from the start. I’d be thrilled if I could use my <$20 HF brad nailer to hold down work pieces.
I’m cutting wood and not being aggressive about depth of cut. With that disclaimer…
To start I decided to go simple with a screwed down 1/2” mdf board as a spoil board and to secure my workpieces either with screws or machinists double stick tape (or both). The painters tape + ca glue Jeff mentioned is a new alternative to double stick tape… This approach has worked better than I expected.
When using screws I use brass screws so I’m sure chances are high my cutter will win if I accidentally hit a screw. I also countersink them often drilling a hole in the workpiece so they are below z=0 level.
Between jobs I use an orbital sander to even off any raised areas caused in the spoil board by removing screws that secured a previous projects workpiece.
At some point I’ll upgrade to a t-nut and clamps solution or a vacuum table but the simpler solution has allowed me to put some time on the machine and focus on other topics on the learning curve like process, software, routine maintenance requirements, settings tolerated by various end mills and materials.
I would totally love to put a vacuum table on my mpcnc. Drop the work, flip a switch, go to town. I usually spend 5 or 10 minutes just setting up the stock and checking for clearance in the toolpaths.
I’ve heard from one manufacturer and it seems they make plastic fasteners to fit a specific nailer as the internal tolerances are tighter, trying to use them in a nailer not made for them may result in more breakage.
I love the idea of it. I just watched a YouTube vid of a guy making one. It surprised me he blocked off every hole with either the workpiece or other pieces of stock and was using what appeared to be a regular shop vac. Will a shop vac live very long with no airflow thru it for cooling?
The way I understand it, probably not. I did see someone mention a specific brand that used a separate fan for cooling, but my guess is that a pump is superior in every way.
I have an old pump meant for evacuating auto A/C systems, I wonder if that would be adequate? Or if a vacuum could supply enough force to hold the work while allowing some bleed air thru for cooling?
