If I surface the spoil board first, do I really need to Level the Z? Seems that surfacing will achieve the same affect? I’m actually building a new table and I’m using a combination of Ryan’s and Doug’s torsion box. My thought was to surface the top board of the table and then lay a new MDF spoil board over the top. Any thoughts on this approach?
Preface the following with “I don’t have a lowrider.”
I’d level the Z (and make note of the procedure you use) before surfacing the spoilboard. If the Z isn’t level and you surface relative to that, if your Z gets out of sorts, you won’t know how to get it back to parallel to the milled surface.
Well that was kind of what I was thinking. If I surface with zero offset in the Z, then it doesn’t matter if the Z gets out of sorts as it’s easy to reset the Z at any time. And if I surface the top of the torsion plate, then the spoil board should always be in sync even if I every have to replace it for some reason.
If you want a truly level surface then your best bet is to level Z, surface it. Then level Z again, after that take one last very light and slow surface pass to get that real smooth finish. And it needs to be done on the actual surface you plan to work from. If you surface your table then put a piece of MDF on it then you are no longer working from a surfaced area. Leveling the Z will get it straight from the differences in Z endstop height. The way they are set up you will never get both of them perfectly in the same spot. And level isn’t “level” its actually trammed. You are making the surface to match the machine not actually level by a level.