I think the last time I did my fully sheet machine it was right around 3 hrs or so. Thats a LOT of surface area to cover
2 Likes
Make sure your router is extremely trammed. That is huge! I used a 1/2" , 2 flute, bit and I thought my router was perfect…it was not.
Take a very light cut you are asking a whole lot from the machine doing that. I have no experience with a three flute face mill I am not sure that is a good choice for wood. I am fairly certain that is for metals at a low RPM.
1 Like
When you say extremely trammed, what exactly does that mean? I figured I’ll find out pretty quickly if it’s not perfectly perpendicular to the rails it’s riding on but not sure if you mean something else?
Eh what kind of bit do you recommend? If you have a link to one that would be a good starting point for me, totally new territory. This is the one I have, say’s it’s for wood and spoilboard surfacing. Amazon.com but who know’s what to trust in these Amazon descriptions.
Yes but that is a GIANT bit, made for a very large machine/router. A lot of us use this one, and the tram is slightly more forgiving. Amazon.com
As for tramming test with this, Printables
2 Likes
Ah awesome another bit I bought I shouldn’t be using haha, I’ll grab one of these smaller bits!
For tramming, correct me if I’m wrong, but this tool would only work if the surface I’m measuring from is perfectly parallel to my Y rails? Almost seems like I should surface a small area and then measure for tramming in that area before then surfacing the entire spoilboard?
Yes, kinda. Your surface should not be that far out. If you want perfect, tram it, put something down larger than the swing of the tram tool. Surface it and set it again, then do your table.
But it is wood it moves with humidity and temp.
Tramming it once should be really really close.
2 Likes
I never surfaced a table for 7 1/2 years. Just started doing it once a year or so (when the table gets replaced or covered).
2 Likes
Gotcha that all makes sense! And yup it’s probably overkill, but figured I’d get it as close to perfect atleast once. Thanks for all the insight!
1 Like
Even taking light passes, it will create an enormous amount of MDF dust, which is very bad for lungs. Make sure you have good dust control in place before you try to do surfacing!
1 Like
Yup for sure! I’ve got my harbor freight dust collector, an overhead whole room filter/scrubber, and I’ll be wearing a mask as well. One of the things I’ve started trying to take more seriously these days!
1 Like
Hi @Rob_W !
I am also in Maryland and have all my lowrider parts on order, but want to get the table built before everything gets here. I also want to have a 4x8 workable area, and like the idea you have for the table. Have you gotten your table built? Showing it off at all? Maybe willing to help another Marylander out with maybe cutting the @DougJoseph design or chatting about what’s working for you?
2 Likes
Hey Chris, welcome to the community! Glad you like my mashup of ideas, so far it’s working great for me and I am really liking my belt mod. As much as I’d love to cut out a replica table I’m just not dialed in yet for my feeds and speeds and still have a lot to do. While the motion system is working awesome, I’m not confident enough yet in my technique to want to be able to cut out something that requires a bit of precision… atleast not yet.
I’m happy to share my cad of the table as a remix of what Doug has done (small tweaks to make the overall table narrower and accepting of my belt mod) as long as @DougJoseph’s okay with me sharing it since it’s based on his work.
I can share the cad for the belt pieces as well. We had an exciting last couple of weeks, good and bad (new baby, 2nd birthday for our firstborn, and family dog unfortunately passing away) so ive not been super present here or in my shop but hoping that changes soon
But like I said, motion system has been without issue, I’m just still learning feeds and speeds lol
Absolutely! Feel free to share away!
1 Like
I drafted up a plan:
This is loosely based on @DougJoseph 's concept with the half-height dadoes for ease in constructions and going through the sides, that can be more easily constructed on a table saw since I don’t have a LR to create it with. What I wonder is, I have the sides of the box as 3/4" MDF and the ribs as 1/2" MDF. This creates potential alignment problems as I will have to change the dado stack to accommodate, and that might not be perfect.
Does anyone think that going to 1/2" would make a big difference in strength / rigidity? Would it make more sense to have the outrigger supports (planning to use Super/UniStrut attach externally after wrapping the box in plywood (I can’t wrap with all of these ribs sticking out)? I am worried that if whatever support is made (I can make a template with a Shaper Origin and then bandsaw / flush trim router so they are all identical) would be in perfect alignment (parallel) with the table… Should the strut be above or below the table? Is there a preferred or ideal height if above or below? I am thinking that if I did create separate arms, I could make them flush as well as adjustable for height.
The original LowRider design is based on the machine “riding plates” being the same height as the spoil board. My table design was setup so the spoil board was ever so slightly higher than the superstrut, simply because I wanted to be able to “resurface” the spoil board 2 or 3 times over a period of years, with its height slowly approaching the same height as the superstruts.
Near the top of my website page for accessing the Fusion 360 files, there is a link for documentation and older archives. https://design8studio.com/for-lowrider-v3-cnc-cut-table-dxfs-for-cutting-f360-archives-docs/
On that docs page there is a “front on view” showing how my spoil board is ever so slightly higher than the riding plates. That was present in both designs, the ones with metal struts and without metal struts.
Thank you for this bit of advice! Do you see any issue with making separate brackets for the strut, since it’s rigid and won’t conform to the brackets if they are slightly off? I was thinking that if the brackets are firmly affixed to a plywood skirt around the MDF of the torsion box, and if I cut them such that I could put a metal plate with a slot in it, and screw-in inserts in the plywood skirt, that I would be able to adjust height pretty easily and make sure that the strut was parallel to the tabletop.
Really nice
I’ll probably print the belt holders, mine are starting to bend
At just a quick read through of what you are thinking, I don’t see any problems right off.
2 Likes
Your build post caught my eye right away, as I am hoping I can run it with Klipper. I’ve been doing production printing for a couple years with all machines running Klipper. You know where my head is at. I may at least just flash the controller with Klipper for initial set-up and assembly, but it would be a dream to be able to control the CNC with it full time. What I am reading says it doesn’t sound like it is going to be a straightforward way to control for daily use as of yet, or am I (hopefully) mistaken? Does the Jackpot experience give enough of what a Klipper oriented person wants?
Jackpot doesn’t work with klipper yet because it has an esp32 processor.
I am also interested in the answers to the rest of your questions.
1 Like