QCW secure waste board from top/bottom, any opinions?

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Mark,

The QCW Frame “Secure from above” has swage nuts.

@Aiph5u

Image 1: A pair of swage nuts
(-- Source: Douglas W. Jones, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

@OnefinityCNC

Hope this helps!

If you order “secure from above”, you got to drill all the countersink holes into the wasteboard slats, but it avoids that you have to do this (the need to tilt up the entire machine on “secure from beneath”):

@Aiph5u

@DaddyDan

Do you or anyone know what these are and where they go?

yes, I know

See The Fine Manual

@Aiph5u

@Aiph5u

…I think you should only buy the secure from beneath version if your enclosure allows to do this:

I find “Secure from above” better because you can leave your CNC in place when you attach the wasteboard slats. And regarding the holes you need to drill for the countersunk bolts, you can create a toolpath for a new wasteboard slat set and simply mill it everytime you need new ones and you can even cut the slats out all with your CNC machine.

When drilling the holes for the countersunk bolts for “Secure from above” by hand I suggest this:

@Aiph5u

Note that in case you don’t make the MDF wasteboard slats with a g-code program run on the machine, but by hand as shown in the manual or in the video, you will notice that for the 9.5 mm / 3/8″ deep holes for the screw heads, they use a forstner bit and as depth stop they suggest marking the depth with tape on the drill bit, however for acceptable depth accuracy and repeatability I would suggest better using these nice and ingenious Star-M Depth stops :

The plastic cap rotates freely and stops rotating when you reach desired depth.

I use a set of them, from 3 mm (=approx. 1/8″) drill diameter upwards. Picture shows ⌀ 15 mm drill (=approx 19/32″). Available here or here

@Aiph5u

@Auntjemimma

The swage nut is Threaded for 10-32. I found them on eBay as well, do you know how to install these inserts into the metal?

with an arbor press or by tightening a screw through the hole. The hole has to be pre-drilled to the appropriate diameter.

@Auntjemimma

The swag nut is Threaded for 10-32.

Then I am glad that I did not order “secure from above” but “secure from below” to use my own to get “secure from above”, but with ordinary M5 threads!

@Aiph5u

I also wanted to have the “secure from above” version, but since before ordering I was not sure whether possibly imperial threads were used (not common outside the U.S., so definetely not wanted), I ordered the “secure from below” version and got me a bunch of “Setzmuttern M5 ”, so that I can install the swage nuts myself and be sure of the thread used.