Question about Wasteboard Size

1

I just received my Elite Journeyman. I made a table for it measuring 72X52. I used the specs for the QCW wasteboard from 1F found here: QCW Wasteboard Frame for Journeyman SPECS . The dimensions of the wasteboard in these specs is 52 x 41.5.

My question is, how do I flatten the wasteboard if part of it goes outside the cutting limits? The video online shows a temporary wasteboard added on top for demo purposes. If I just want to use the main board, how do I flatten without having a higher border on the outside?

Thanks!
Ethan

2

If I understand correctly, I think what youā€™re trying to do is akin to cutting off a tree limb youā€™re sitting on. The most standard method for creating a wasteboard is to have a replaceable bit of material on top of the surface your machine is mounted on. This means you can size this to your exact cutting area, and replace it without having to take your machine apart.

3

I understand. The issue is the specs from the Onefinity have the t-tracks in them. So basically, I would have to cover up the t-tracks with another piece of MDF fit to the cutting area. I guess, I am not sure why the specs have the wasteboard going outside the cutting area. Maybe not meant to surface it?

4

Yeah itā€™s a small gripe that has been discussed a few different times on here. Some people like having the defined cut area and enjoy having the lip, others flatten it manually after the fact, some put another wasteboard over it.

The way I would handle it is to mark out what is and isnā€™t in the cut area, slide the boards down a few mounting holes and flatten the ā€˜outside the cutting areaā€™ part just a hair lower than the cutting area. Since you donā€™t cut on that spot, it being perfectly flat isnā€™t critical.

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5

As you pointed out, you donā€™t want the spoil board to be larger than your milling capacity. I have a Foreman, with a 48 x 48 spoil board, even though the inside dimensions are 52 wide inside by almost 54 long on the inside, but some of that is outside the milling limits. You would not be able to tile a project that is longer than 32 inches with a journeyman, so I wouldnā€™t put spoil board there that leaves a lip, and really, why would you want spoil board longer than that (to support what?).

6

Mine is bigger. I have a Journeyman, so 32x48 but often have a piece of material longer than 32" Iā€™m carving because Iā€™ve tiled a design. Sometimes the part itself is longer than 32" or sometimes because Iā€™ve got a bunch of parts spread out over a 6 or 8 ft sheet of plywood that I slide up as I load additional files. Not sure why Iā€™d not want the spoil board any smaller. (I surface the basic area, push the boundaries by using a larger diameter cutter than I tell VCarve and slide the MDF sets in the QCW up in stages - probably not getting .001" flatness but itā€™s been perfectly fine.)

7

Hey esk1020,

on a Onefinity Journeyman, the machine will allow you to have the center of your milling bit to go from 0 to 1220 mm in the X direction and 0 to 816 mm in the Y direction (or whatever is set in the MOTORS pages under ā€œLimitsā€). You can then add the radius (=half the diameter) of your surfacing bit to each of the four sides of the workarea, so you know the maximum surface you can mill with it, but there will be a little region in every of the four corners of the wasteboard that cannot be reached by the bit because the outline that a bit mills is a circle. You can remove that with a chisel or handplane later.

Even when using a very large surfacing bit, you donā€™t have to fear to mill against the machineā€™s feet as there is enough space around the machineā€™s workarea, see Cutting area location.

Note that when you use the QCW frame, the milling bit will not move exactly over the area where the workarea seems to be, i.e. between the four machineā€™s feet, but its movement area is much shifted towards front because the bit and the Z slider are not exactly in the X axis but attached to the front side of the X carriage. So there is a rather large region that cannot be accessed by the bit in the rear of the QCW frame, of where the t-tracks reach, and where you could also make the wasteboard slats much shorter since neither you can surface that area nor can you mill something there. Correspondingly, there is a rather large workarea where the milling motor and the bit (and the dust boot!) protrude the QCW frame beyond the front, where you will have no support for a wasteboard, so workarea that is wasted, and that you have into account when building a table and more specifically, an enclosure! Because of this, donā€™t build a table or enclosure that ends at the machineā€™s front feet. See Dust boot overhang and more links below for exact dimensions.

Note that the shift of the workarea with respect to machineā€™s feet (and thus the inaccessible, wasted area on the rear of the wasteboard slats when using the QCW frame) differs a bit depending on whether you have the old Z-16 or the new Z-20 Z assembly and of course also whether you have the 65 mm or the 80 mm spindle mount, as each results in a slightly different position of the center of the bit.

I think someone measured the useless area on the rear one day, but I couldnā€™t find it anymore for this post. Since the exact distance differs a bit depending on the options above, I think you should measure it on the machine (and report it here!)

This phenomenon can only be avoided by not using the QCW frame and making a machine base that has its wasteboard where the machineā€™s workarea is.

8

For my waste board I made the slats only as big as the machine could cut seen below.

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9

Hey Auntjemimma,

how did you proceed to determine the required length of the wasteboard slats on the rear? Did you put in raw MDF and use a V-bit to jog around the outer edges of the working area?

10

I just added the surfacing bit radius to the full limitations in Y for the Journeyman in V-carve pro and cut slightly under that dimension to ensure that the surfacing bit would clean out the entire length of the slat. In the Image above you can see the full limits of the machine with the V-carve grid I did on the surface.

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11

Hey Auntjemimma,

so the MDF blanks you took were full length or an estimated length, and then you sawed them afterwards, according to the milled pattern?

12

On the first go round I went with the lengths that were in the template that comes with the machine which created the lip on the backside for my initial waste board. I then replaced that waste board with cnced slats and used the Vectric default limit dimensions (+ extra for the surfacing bit radius) as a guide for the length of the slats. I forget the exact length, but Iā€™ll check when i get home.

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13

What type of spacing did you use for your dog holes there? Is the hole spacing uniform from board to board or just within each board?

Iā€™m very much leaning towards picking up a QCW soon and the design you have here is pretty similar to what I currently use without the QCW so Iā€™m wondering how it might translate over as I currently use a 20mm hole on 96mm center to center spacing, and I know the QCW is mostly designed around imperial measurements.

Also unrelated, does anyone know if all the QCWs come with leveling feet now? The store page only says it explicitly on the larger sizes and not the woodworker / machinist sizes.

14

Iā€™ll check the file when i get home, Itā€™s been a while since I made these.

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15

Hey NewsVan,

you are right, it is said explicitly only on the Journeyman:

ā€œAll QCWā€™s now come with Leveling Feet and Oops Clampsā€

but not on the Machinist and Woodworker pages. Maybe ask @onefinitycnc at info@onefinitycnc.com

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