Quote Originally Posted by fvfdrums View Post
I am thinking about getting a full sheet of material for the base of the bed and then assembling aluminium strips on top to form t slots with a wall around the outside to contain some material however it won't be very high because we still need to be able to move the bed in the future so maybe 150mm hopefully it should contain a small percentage of the shrapnel I fully expect to end up on the workshop floor!
Put some Thick Plastic sheet round the sides so then you can raise or lower and still contain everything. Thick along lines of bellows but all around edges.

How to have Bed.? . . .Well there's million dollar Question.!! . . . . . . So many options and not one will suit everything you do on the machine.?
What I mean by this is that you will always find that some Job won't suit how you have the Bed.?

My bed is Aluminum pieces arranged to make a T-slot but I find most the time it's covered with a Spoil board that I screw into rather than using the T-slots.?
Reason being is that 95% of my work is milling aluminium that I drill thru, Cut thru or Pocket thru which makes a bloody mess of the shiny aluminium bed.
The work piece always falls so that you can't reach the bloody T-slots or I need scaffolding to reach them for secure clamping. 90% of the time most jobs have one or two holes and if not then usually no problem making some around waste edges so screwing down is easy and quick.

On the machine's I build I find the best setup is Solid stable base board, Aluminium or Palstic if using coolant with a Matrix of tapped holes Drilled or in router case Marine Plywood with Laminate face and threaded inserts. Then a sacrificle surface on the top with Same Matrix of holes drilled for Access for clamping. The top board can be screwed into if needed, which is often the case. It can cut when profiling, pocketing or drilling and be re-surfaced when becomes too chopped up.
It can be removed easily when more accurate work is required like engraving, which often needs a very flat surface and work sticking down.

So my Vote is either Aluminium plate with matrix of holes or Marine ply with laminate surface. Both using surface board.!