I am attempting to make a cutting board as shown in Mo’s video on that piece. I started by cutting the board from a piece of MDF. Laterally, the cut was good, but the depth is an issue. About 3 - 4 inches of the cut actually went through the whole piece of MDF, just piercing the bottom side. The remainder of the cut doesn’t penetrate to the bottom side of the MDF. ALSO, the saw dust remained in the cut on the X axis, top and bottom cuts. It was really stuck in there so that I had trouble cleaning it out with a very small screw driver.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be wrong here? I set the depth of the cut to .75 inches, the exact thickness of the MDF. I clamped the MDF securely to the waste board. I use a Suckit dust boot and good vacuum. Not sure what’s going on.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Many thanks,
John
John,
Have you leveled your spoilboard yet? This makes the worksurface parallel with the Gantry. There are several methods that will get you to this same place depending on your spoilboard, some don’t want to deface the stock spoilboard. Ultimately if your spoilboard is not parallel with the Gantry then this can cause the cuts on one side of the table to be shallower than the other side.
As to the wood chips getting packed into the slots, I recommend an Up-Cut bit. This should pull the chips Up and out of the pocket where as a downcut will pack the bottom of the slot with chips.
1 Like
MICHAEL - thank you very much. I will try both remedies this afternoon. Is there anything in the forum about the best way to level the waste board?
John
Do a search on the forum and see what you can find. I have not done so personally
I do not know your skill level/experience, so my recommendation to any beginner is to make sure that your machine is as close to perfect and square first. This goes a long way. A good foundation is extremely important. Once the machine is as square and as flat as possible then look at your spoilboard. I do not use the stock spoilboard so I have no issues removing the surface of my spoilboard. If you have the stock spoilboard and do not want to surface it, then attach a sacrificial board to the top of it that your workpiece can be attached to. Now the entire top can be surfaced.
I recommend a larger flatbottom bit. I am considering one of the new spoilboard bits with replaceable carbide blades, but have not tried one as of yet.
The wider bit will speed up the process and leave fewer ridges. In reality a perfectly squared machine should leave absolutely no ridges. Once the machine is surfaced it can be resurfaced as often as needed as long as it is thick enough. Each surfacing should only take enough to get the spoilboard flat.
This is a quick explanation that should get you started.
