Just got all parts for my Journeyman and have completed assembly. I used a 60 degree bit to lightly mark out the cutting area on my base top, which we know is 48 1/8" by 32 1//8 inches.
Now I need to build my spoilboard, which will be ttrack with approx 6" mdf slats in between. The first t track, on the left, will be outside the cutting area, and I will go to the right and fill in until the end, where the right ttrack will also be outside the cutting area. For now I have cut a filler strip that indexes against the y rail base supports and the first track is lined up exactly at the left most cutting line. See pic.
The question: Do I make the overall dimensions of my actual spoil board area the exact size of the cutting area, a bit larger, say 1/2" on all sides, or a bit smaller, say 1/8".
Have read lots and can’t seem to identify the right approach.
Depends If you make it the same size as the cutting area you’ll have no issues surfacing it or having a part of it surfaced to one height but the perimeter at a different (higher) height.
But if you make it oversized you get the advantage of having support for pieces that are larger than the cutting area. That’s the design approach OF took with the QCW - their slats extend to the rail supports on the sides and to the rail ends front & back. This also provides support for clamps, wedges, etc.
The downside is that if you aren’t surfacing to the extended edges (there are some manual workarounds to do that) your material will not be flat which may cause issues with your projects if you don’t account for it.
Since most of my work is on smaller than cutting area projects, I went with a cutting area spoil board. I did try the oversized spoil board when I got my QCW but found it to be less than useful and a PITA to surface it across the entire surface. If I do larger (longer) projects then I use scraps in the back to give the longer pieces some support while I’m cutting the front of the board. Shims under the support pieces take care of getting those to the current height of the spoil board since it’s getting thinner as I surface it when my too deep cuts make it less reliably flat across its surface.
If you make it the same size as the cutting area you’ll have no issues surfacing it or having a part of it surfaced to one height but the perimeter at a different (higher) height.