Surfacing the spoil board on QCW

1

I have not received my machine yet but trying to plan.
Obviously the router will not cover all the spoil board on QCW. What is the recommended surfacing way?
Do you tile the boards? Or Just surface and have a pocket in the middle of the boards?

2

On my machine with the original waste board I just surface what the router can cover and it leaves a pocket. Which I actually like. Itā€™s a visual way for me to see the cutting area and also gives me lips to line up material to the edge of the work area

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3

Thanks. I guess that should work

4

The down side to forming a pocket on the waste board is if you every intend to cut something larger the the waste board you will not be able to lay the material flat on the waste board. I tend to prefer making an island that allows me to surface the entire waste board. I often find myself needing to cut an item that is larger then the cut area.

Mike

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5

True I havenā€™t cut anything larger than my waste board so I havenā€™t ran into that problem but good heads up

6

I simply made my waste board 0.125" smaller than the cutting area. With a 1" bit, it was able to flatten the entire surface using a pocket operation. I guess I could have gone bigger than the cutting area by <0.5" but it didnā€™t seem necessary since Iā€™ll never be cutting there. I didnā€™t want an recess incase I have a piece larger than the waste board recess. I suppose if it is bigger it will just be raised a little.

-Tom

7

Just got my 1F a couple days ago and Iā€™m trying to surface my spoil board. I have the file loaded into the 1F controller okay and it attempts to run the tool path, but the 1" surfacing bit I use isnā€™t long enough to reach the top of the spoil board. The 1/4" shaft is 1.25" long - the same length as the name brand ā€œWhitesideā€ several recommend via Youtube. With the Z axis is all the way down and the router is firmly seating all the way down in the holder, I have a little over 1" between the bottom of the router collet and spoil board. I need a 1" bit with at least a 1-3/4" long shaft. So what bit do you use for surfacing, or am I doing something wrong in my setup? Thanks.

8

And yes, my spoil board is an additional 3/4" MDF board on top of the CNC bench top.

9

Do you have your Z gantry set in the lowest position?

10

Thx Nick for your reply. No, I havenā€™t lower the gantry. I could, and probably will, lower to the gantry, but in all the videos Iā€™ve seen about surfacing the spoil board no one mentioned about having to lower the gantry to accomplish the task. So I was wondering if there was a different setup or bit that they might be using.

11

Iā€™m still a total CNC newbie. But, from what I have learned, you need your router mounted in the vertical location that allows you to cut all the way through your workpiece.

If you always install a scrap piece of material beneath your actual project piece (to protect or prolong the life of the spoil board), then youā€™ll only need to reposition the router for the initial surfacing operation to flatten the table, then you can move it back up for daily use.

12

I have the same issue since installing my 1f on the qcw from underneath stand, with the gantry lowered to the bottom holesā€¦.did you manage to solve this?

13

You can either cut the mdf strips shorter than the t track, therefore staying in your pocket, or you can sand/plane them off after. Another option is to put on a second piece of mdf square on top of the t track and make that your wasteboard. There are many creative ways you can go adapt it to your needs.

As you can see, some users like the pocket it gives so they can visually see the cutting area and gives them a ā€˜fenceā€™ of sorts, others, who may tile, want the wasteboard completely flat. The choice is yours!

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15

Many solutions however I had a pocket and I donā€™t care for it because as stated you canā€™t do items larger than the pocket. Solution: when I replace my current wasteboard I will tile surface it off my current wasteboard and check for flatness again with a level and straight edge to ensure Im not surfacing from an unlevel surface.

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16

Any tips on setting up the file to do this operation? Having difficulty over here. Iā€™m running an X-50, using fusion360 and plan to use a 1 1/8" Amana surfacing bit. So far Iā€™ve made a rectangle the size of my cutting area (48x32) minus 1/8" for fudge factor. My MDF is 3/4" and I want to take off a 1/16th - 1/8th to get rid of existing tooling marks as Iā€™ve been running the machine without having it surfaced up til now.

  • so should I make my stock 3/4" x 47 7/8 x 31 7/8 and the cutpiece the same but with a height of 5/8ths?
  • can i start the operation from the corner - using the touch probe to get my z height directly on my spoil board?

Any help is greatly appreciated! TY.