Clamping workpieces, t track, bench dog or something else?

[niget2002 (David Walling)]

We did have a small vacuum table discussion in this thread:

Neat!

[DIY vacuum clamp / stand unit]

Complete with a small adapter for an air compressor to pull a vacuum (that I still have on my amazon wishlist)

[ttraband (Tom Traband)]

Brass hardware for hold-down is an option that shouldn’t damage steel or carbide bits.

[turbomacncheese (Tony)]

@niget2002

My thinking is the brads are so small that if the router bit hits them, it should chew right through it.

I use my pin nailer all the time if i know i making aggressive cuts. I’ve cut through more than a couple. The metal is pretty danged soft and didn’t damage the tools in any way i could tell. That’s carbide and HSS, i don’t even sweat it anymore.

Mostly i hold things with a diy ttrack. Strips of wood spaced apart, wider on top of and centered on the lower strips to make the tees, and 3d printed blocks to turn 1/4" bolts into tnuts that fit into the groove.

Works great, except where i got sloppy on my spacing.

[timonjkl (Tim W)]

I’m going to try this. I have a couple projects that are 1/4 ply and have cut outs i would like to avoid holding tabs on this one so the brads sound like a good idea.
I use blue tape on the spoilboard and on the edge of the piece then hot glue and then set zero. It works very well on projects that are not cut out.

[larryk (Larry Kasper)]

I will try and post pics in a day or so. tied up on a project right now. Will try and post my FreeCad files I use.

[RobP]

I’m on the screw train. On large pieces I put one screw in the corner then I run the first part of my code which drills little holes where my layout is. I do this with a bit called (screw layout) in estlcam. In reality I just use a 1/8 bit but in estl I have the diameter set to the screw head diameter so I can check clearances. When posting the gcode I simply remove the tool change code after the holes are drilled and leave a pause to give me time to put screws inplace before running the rest.

I tried Brad nails but had issues with them breaking when I tried to remove them leaving little stubs in my spoil board.

[MisterMaker]

I got a square aluminum tube and milled out a slot to turn it into a T-slot, and I 3D printed some T-slot nut holders:

Costed me 8 euro and some time.

[Bartman]

Resurrecting an old thread…

@DougJoseph

…a related method: plastic brad nails. They hold effectively and when done can be snapped with lateral force. If the bit hits one it cuts through no problem.

@JKStewart

If the material is soft enough, I use these composite brad nails. With these, you don’t have to worry about cutting into them. Supposedly these require a specialized (expensive) brad nailer,

@niget2002

I remember the discussion about those brads. Couldn’t remember if anyone had luck using them in a normal nailer.

@JKStewart

IIRC, the concern was that they would jam up a gun that wasn’t built for them, but I’ve never had a jam in my cheap nailer. They do shatter spectacularly when you try to drive them through something too hard, so, as always, wear your safety glasses.

I had the same question about using them in a conventional nailer, so I contacted the company that makes them, and got this reply…

Me: Hi there, I am a hobbyist, with very occasional use for holding sheets of ¾” plywood to the spoil-board of my home-built CNC router. I already own a conventional pneumatic brad nailer, and would be interested to use your composite brads for this application, but I can’t really justify the cost of a dedicated composite nailer that would only be used once or twice a year

Is it possible to adjust the depth settings on a conventional pneumatic nailer so that it could safely use composite brads?

Them: Thanks for your interest in Raptor for CNC work holding. You are more than welcome to use our nails in your conventional nailer. We get it that it may not make financial sense if you are only using it a couple times a year. Here are the two things that may happen when using a conventional nailer with composite nails.

1. Because the drive chamber that the nails are fed through as they are struck is wider in a conventional nailer than our nailers, the nails are likely to get crooked as they strike the wood, which causes them to break.
2. Conventional nailers have a harder/less forgiving driver blade, which sometime causes the head of the nail to split, which can again break the nail.

These breakages can cause your nailer to jam, so you would need to clean it out to clear the jam.

We have customers, like yourself, that are good with using their conventional nailer despite these risks, and are fine with the percentage of nails breaking. We communicate to our customers about this upfront, so they are aware of what can happen. With our custom fit nailers, these risks are eliminated, so that is why we recommend the total solution.

If you wanted to adjust the depth settings on your nailer to make better use of our nails, that may be a good idea, and wouldn’t hurt anything.

Looks like it’s worth giving it a try. Fingers crossed…

[DougJoseph (Doug Joseph (design8studio))]

Thanks for the helpful info! Please keep us updated!

[vicious1 (Ryan)]

@Bartman

I had the same question about using them in a conventional nailer, so I contacted the company that makes them, and got this reply…

Man that is cool to hear, I HAVE to get some now!!!