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I’ll plug my ears and wait for the responses to this idea. Has anyone considered or tried using glass as the wasteboard for the XC? I don’t mean window glass. I mean 1/2" tempered. It’s heavy, VERY flat, and stable.
I think conventional type clamping would still apply, using some sort of suction cup on top rather than t-tracks or threaded inserts below. Of course you would be required to use a truly sacricial board between work piece and glass for through cuts.
Haven’t given a lot of thought to bonding the glass to the extrusions underneath. Would it be heavy enough to maybe just sit on top? Just an off the wall idea
That’s why I said you’d need a sacricial board for through cuts. As in, it would sit on top of the class for through cuts. Many people, me included do this already even on top of my MDF "wasteboard.
I checked a local class company. They said $183 for 40" X 40" x 1/2" tempered piece. I used rough numbers just to get a rough idea of cost. They work in tolerances of +/- 1/16"
That’s dimensional tolerance. I haven’t a clue about flatness in terms of actual tolerance. My personal experience with glass is that it doesn’t deflect much before it breaks. I’d trust it’s flatness and consistency enough to risk that part of it
I would just go with some cast aluminium tool plate to be honest. The stuff I buy is flat within 0.38mm at worst, and is a lot easier to implement than a piece of glass.
Also, not quite sure why this post looks like it’s in reply to Phil?.
Not worried about flex, but most glasses flow over time.
I think I would do aluminum as well.
MIC6 is a stress-relieved cast aluminum that maintains its dimensional stability during high-speed machining to allow for tight tolerances. Also known as cast tool and jig plate, it’s often used for precision machine tables, tooling, and machinery. MIC6 is nonmagnetic and not heat treatable.
Yes, I’ve seen it. Very impressive indeed. I’m just thinking outloud. There are lots and lots of very smart and talented people on this forum. Ideas feed off each other. I see ideas that I really like and admire, but they never stop me from thinking of other extrapolations or iterations of my own.
Sometimes my ideas are semi-expensive mistakes. Sometimes I find a winner, but I never quit thinking "what if’
First, I would say there are no guarantees. I had a clamp come loose yesterday, and ruined my project. Clearly operator error. I do know there are some pretty good suction cups available, unlike those ones that NEVER work in your shower. So, in short, I have no guarantee. In fact the basic tenet of this thread was to find out if someone could guarantee me that it wouldn’t work.
As far as holding the glass to the machine goes I think it may be possible to use a C-clamp type device on each end of the machine, provided the machine is blocked properly (both for support and flatness) to allow a clamp to grip the extrusion from underneath. There is ample unusable edge space around the perimeter of the machine to allow for some sort of clamp.
I’m in the thinking stage and have no definite plan to proceed. There could be a great many reasons why this idea is really dumb. That’s why I posted it. You guys are all really smart, and you’ll let me know.
