New CNC Mill on the horizon

[fvfdrums]

Been a month or so since I could get anything done on the machine but am aiming to have another full on weekend in about a fortnight so want to get some bits ready for the machine.

I am still stuck on the best way to create the bed surface for the machine. I would like to be able to catch most of the chips that sit from falling underneath for example if I just put aluminium strips running perpendicular to the steel current bed. I suppose a thin sheet of anything attached to the bottom side of the bed would do this.

As for the main material lets assume I use aluminium flat bar, how thick and wide does this need to be given I plan on using t nuts to secure down any spoil board or at least some similar sort of system.

fingers crossed I can get it cutting some material soon rather than the basic square and circle combo I have to keep replaying just to prove to people it works!

[JAZZCNC]

As for the main material lets assume I use aluminium flat bar, how thick and wide does this need to be given I plan on using t nuts to secure down any spoil board or at least some similar sort of system.

On my Old machine I used similair setup with approx 35 x 16mm strips but I'd suggest thicker material 20mm min depending on support spacing.
Now this worked OK but in all honesty I found it to be mostly waste of money as 2/3rds was covered with some kind of spoil board which meant couldn't access T-sots so material was screwed down etc.
The area that wasn't covered was only used when I needed better accurecy on say things like engraving etc and I didn't want to surface the whole bed.

The type of work your mostly doing will determine which suits best but I found that while mostly cutting aluminium and mostly 2D profiling that a Good stable spoil board with a Matrix of holes using threaded inserts worked best. It gave good clamping options and most flexabilty for work fastening.
Very rarely did I need to remove the spoil board for acceess to more accurate aluminium base.

If you need accurecy but not over a large area then I'd suggest buying piece of Machine tooling plate and drilling matrix of holes. Then cover rest of bed with stable spoil board material and use T-slot track or Matrix of holes again.!

Just T-slots I find restrictive when using as general all-round machine cutting mixture of materials and Job types.!!

[fvfdrums]

Thanks as ever Jazz :)

What would you consider a reliable spoil board material?

[JAZZCNC]

Thanks as ever Jazz :)

What would you consider a reliable spoil board material?

NOT MDF. . Lol

Phenolic Resin fibre board type material works very good but can be costly. Can get Plywood with Phenolic face which is resonably stable.
Good quality Ply wood with a liminate face can work well.
HDPE but again expensive.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Here #165 i make some comparison of different materials for bed. Have to agree with Dean that the best material i found is phenolic sheet/ for sacrificial bed/.

Furthermore if your machine is well done, you say- cut through deep to 0mm and it cuts through but without even scratching the phenol. Not so cutting aluminum though, where you have to find the sweet spot.