Quote Originally Posted by wiatroda View Post
JAZZ , My wet router is nothing special, going from bottom up it is steel frame + 18mm mdf board from wickes, painted thick layer of 2k paint + another plywood board( mounting one to which I screw all sheets and pieces) + waste 2-3mm mdf or cardboard. Recently, after maybe 2-3years, I replaced the mounting sheet - It's due too many holes in the old one. Plus there are steel and wooden border to keep liquid contained. Old swimming pool filter + cheapest 3 speed CH pump. Whole bed is slightly slanted to allow for nice return of coolant Does its job.
Sounds good I like the KISS approach and you obviously prepared for using coolant but most DIY builds don't and has you know unprotected MDF is useless if so much has show it cup of coffee.!!
I used to have similiar setup untill last year when I changed to Ali bed and must say I do like it a lot better now but for some jobs it's not has easy as the MDF/screw method and I do actually still use MDF. The difference being I only use small offcut pieces that I throw away after several use's and only for certain jobs.
The main reason I shifted from the MDF bed was the constant movement so could never relay on it being flat or true, always having to surface it flat when jobs required it.!! . . Now it's the other way round I always have a flat and true surface to work from. When cutting jobs that are non surface critical and require thru cutting then I use MDF has a spoil board.
I also use HDPE for accurate spoil boards, HDPE is a nice stable unform thickness so can be relied upon not to change shape and stay resonably flat. It's also easy to screw into and doesn't blunt cutters like MDF.
Because my bed is quite large tend to devide it into segmants and use fixture boards located at a known positions on the bed then use fixture offsets in G-code so I can cut several different jobs on table.
The beauty of this means I can mount different materials on the table while one job is cutting then when it's finished that job it will move to the other fixture and start on the that material and I can remove the fixture plate with just completed job. . . . I also keep one area free that I can work direct off the bed.
Another plus to doing this means I can make better use of expensive offcut material like ALI or Brass.? So long has I know it's large enough to get the job out of and I position it in the correct place on the fixtures then I can cut several parts from scraps at the same time at any location on the bed I choose.
Basicly I draw the part with the X0-Y0-Z0 relative to the corner of the board then select G54,55,56 fixture offset for the selected area on my bed and assign it to this job. Each job has it's own offset code and when finished moves to the next offset and starts again at X0-Y-0 which is relative to the corner of the fixture board.
Doing it like this means I can set several jobs off in different materials in one go and walk away. .