First attempt at a wasteboard! Fusion 360

Let me preface this by saying I’m a complete newbie to Fusion 360! It’s very similar to Ben Myers’ design, and likely someone else’s design as well. I’ve watched a ton of wasteboard videos.

I drew this wasteboard to use t-nuts with a 2" spacing, with recessed bolt holes to mount the wasteboard to the table below with corresponding t-nuts. There’s also a grid of benchdog holes to make use of something like Izzy Swan’s wooden toggle clamps (Homemade Wooden Clamps for Dog Hole Bench "How To" - YouTube) or Marius Hornberger’s cam lever CNC clamps (How to make the Ultimate Worktable Clamps - YouTube).

Let me know if you see anything that could/should be improved or modified. I can’t attach the Fusion 360 file directly, so I placed it in a .zip file.



Onefinity Wasteboard.zip (415.5 KB)

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I like the doghole grid idea! What’s their diameter in this design? And the Tee nuts are 1/4-20 thread I assume?

I can’t take credit for it, but being a complete newbie (I have a laser, but never had a CNC), I don’t know what clamping method I want to use so I figured I’ll have at least 2 options with this version. :slight_smile:

I made the dogholes for 1/2" copper pipe, but they’re parametric so they can be changed easily. According to Home Depot, the outside diameter of 1/2" pipe is .625" so that’s what they are currently.

And the t-nuts are 1/4-20. I made the head recess 11/16" (with a parameter), but that may be a little tight in reality. May want to bump it up to 3/4".

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Here’s a slightly tweaked version with an extra row of t-nut holes along the left and bottom edges to install a fence. Also bumped the t-nut flange diameter up to 3/4".

I debated adding a grid, but last time I tried that, it locked up Fusion 360… Don’t really know how to do that yet I guess.

Onefinity Wasteboard 2 v6.zip (752.8 KB)


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Hey @AdamsLeatherWorks - nice work! Far from newbie outcomes - kudos. There are a couple ways to optimize your Fusion file, but you got the outcome you were looking for. My main suggestion is you can put the bolt head and screw hole in the same sketch. In fact, you can do all the holes in one sketch, and you can also pattern in the sketch if you want (though extruding is more complicated that way). Though it does seem you have recesses on both sides, which will require 2 sided milling - no big deal, just a little more complicated. Do you plan to use the OF to make the holes or manual?

Open question - seems like standard dog holes are 3/4" or 19mm (but I think Festool is 18mm). I’m curious how well MDF holds it shape after repeated use? Will the holes loosen overtime and cause some holding power issues down the road?

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Thank you! I’m planning on buying a few sheets of 3/4" MDF and the bench dogs (I plan on using copper couplings) this weekend. I’ll resize the benchdog holes once I have the pipe pieces in-hand and can put a caliper to them. I went back into my wasteboard file and made the bolt mounting washer pockets reference the benchdog parameter so I can use the left/bottom row of holes to quickly attach a fence.

I’ll have to figure out how to put the different hole sizes in the same sketch. Seems like whenever I hit the extrude command, I can only select one hole size and the other one disappeared. I’m sure I’m missing something.

Yes, I plan to on letting the OF mill out the wasteboard. Of course, that means I have to learn the CAM side of Fusion, so I may just export DXF (or whatever) files into Carbide Create since that seems way easier right now.

You’re probably right about the holes wearing out over time, though I assume by the time that happens, the wasteboard will need to be replaced anyway.

If you need any assistance, just let me know - I’m willing to help. I can send you the file I’m working on that has a couple different waste board options (but far from complete). If you dimension the holes in the sketch and use option when clicking (that’s alt in window’s land?) you can select multiple sketch artifacts for the extrude.

-Tom

The only thing I would recommend is a linear grid either by laser or by a v-bit. I did this to mine and it makes the setup and alignment so much easier. I also used 3/4 dog holes so that I could use Veritas pups, but that was my preference. http://www.veritastools.com/Products/Page.aspx?p=200

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I like those Veritas pups - hadn’t seen those before! Yes, I’d like to add a grid, but that’s beyond my current abilities with Fusion 360.

I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to get my wasteboard designed & cut out with the OF.

I managed to cut mounting holes in my table, then cut the mounting holes and washer recesses in the wasteboard. Then I flipped the wasteboard over and bolted it to the table and tried to machine the t-nut flange recess when all hell broke loose.

There’s something with the operation that the OF doesn’t like or that I’m doing wrong. I figured it may have something to do with the UCS being flipped since I had the t-nut recess modeled on the back of the wasteboard, so I modified the 3D model and put the t-nut recess on top, knowing I’d simply flip the board over and mill the other side. Well, that didn’t help since it’s still shaking during the 2D pocket operation.

I reached out to the Onefinity folks for support and they ran the same operation from my post process file, with the same violent results… LOL

Can any of you Fusion 360 exports take a look at my file and tell me what I did wrong?

Onefinity Wasteboard 2 v21.zip (363.7 KB)

Eric - The only major thing that jumps out at me is 180in/min is super fast for the pocket op (T-Nut Head Recess). And I don’t understand the edge reference for depth - recommend a negative offset from the stock top, or depth based on profile itself.

Couple general recommendations from my experience:

1 - (Geometry) I set ramp speed to cutting speed; plunge speed should be ~25% of cutting speed
2 - (Heights) I set clearance, retract, and feed height to 0.1"
3 - (Passes) Check multiple depths when you don’t want to take a full sized cut. I have many lessons on finishing passes too.
4 - (Linking) I generally set ramp clearance height to 0.05" and ramping angle to 5 degrees (as large as 10 degrees).
5 - (Linking) I generally don’t use lead in/lead out in wood. I think they are highly desirable for metal (aluminum) but not necessary for something soft like wood.

Hope this helps.

-Tom

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Thanks Tom - I’ll go back and look at the settings you suggested. I appreciate the info very much. Regarding the 180in/min - those were imported from the Amana tool database that I loaded into Fusion. Do you think the speed setting is too fast for the OF to process the operation and that’s what’s causing the violent vibrations in the video I shared?

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I also use the Amana tool database in Fusion 360. Some of the speeds I have found to bit fast for my preference and I chalked that up to the database being for general use. Considering the default cooling for the bit when you load it in from the database is “flood” I think reducing the speed is reasonable.

I’m not really sure. I would think the controller could handle that speed - it’s really not that fast in the grand scheme of things, but ~3x faster than normal hobbyist level machines. It’s possible the S-Curve compensation might be causing the vibrations, but the video sounds more like grinding. Which axis is it coming from? I can’t tell from the video.

I couldn’t tell which axis was acting up, but slowing everything down seemed to fix it. I patched the holes in my table top, resquared the machine by measuring interior diagonals across the machine, then I started over from scratch with new mounting holes and a new wasteboard. The operation that was causing the vibration worked perfectly this time.

So I’ve been CNC’ing for a week or two. LOL

While it was fun to create a threaded wasteboard, it was a lot of work and machining time, and a good learning experience. But when it’s time to replace the wasteboard, I may go this route. I saw another CNC with an aluminum bed that had t-tracks milled into the table top, then it had MDF wasteboard strips mounted to the bed. So long as the mounting holes are centered across the width, they can be spaced anywhere you like along the length.

Anyway, I threw this together in Illustrator to demonstrate the idea - I’m sure lots of people do this, but it was a serious light bulb moment for me as it never crossed my mind to incorporate the 4th (top) layer and it should make replacement very fast.

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Similar to what I did Eric. But I only have one level of waste board. Saves some t-track in the process. You can make the waste board sections wider to save some t-track. Happy to share my model if you want.

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Your track spacing worked out evenly so you could easily add 4 pieces on top if you wanted to, provided the boards weren’t too wide for your clamping needs. My mental hangup was not wanting to poke new holes in my table every time I installed new strips. Yeah, silly, I know… :slight_smile:

I plan on using threaded inserts in the lower board so I can easily swap out the waste board. The lower board is on top of my desk, so that actually makes 3 levels if you include the desktop. Should have real pictures in the next 24.

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I also have worked at designing a waste board. This design is meant to incorporate a “slot” that allows a piece to be secured vertically for using your CNC for box joints.

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