Poor man's T-track

[Lee Roberts]

This was posted not so long ago:

Rutlands are doing 4 x 48" track and fittings for £50. Worth a look

https://www.rutlands.co.uk/workshop-...re-bumper-pack

.Me

[D.C.]

This was posted not so long ago:

Thanks Lee that seems quite good but I would still be clamping against 2mm alu instead of 4mmor 5mm steel and the base of the table would still need extra steel to support it.

Threaded rod is dirt cheap, less than £1 a metre from screwfix (as are a few wingnuts) to make holddown tools from so I'm really struggling to see the advantage of using very expensive t-slot. The only possible advantage I can think is the fact that t-track prevents the hold down thread from droping out the bottom whereas the steel angle allows clamps to fall down through them and need retriving underneath. This can be designed out by making a decent clamping system however so it's not really a big problem.

I think the big problem is the one that Jazz raised of of knackering bits by driving it in to the steel due to acts of sheer stupidity. I suppose I could rectify this by making sure this amount Z travel is impossible for spindle to accomplish, I'm intending to put 1 1/2 inches of MDF on top for a base so no cutter has any legitimate business traveling down that far, if I make it physically impossibe for the machine to that the problem disappears.