Finally got around to checking the levelness of my waste board and the right side is lower by .032". I tried to do the mod that New_Brit_Workshop did (Xcarve Extras #2) but when I tried to loosen the right Y maker slide T-slot nuts on the bottom rail, it didn’t move at all.
What else can I try short of putting some washers under the waste board to raise it a bit.
Any help is appreciated.
You can always attach a second wasteboard to the top of your existing wasteboard and use a flycutter bit to cut off an 1/8 inch. that will assure you the wasteboard is perfectly perpendicular and level with respect to the spindle.
You can find much cheaper flycutters on ebay.
I thought about that at one point. I have the 1000 x 1000 mm board and would hate to loose all the clamp screw holes. I have to do something as it is messing up all V carve projects.
I thought the same about losing the clamps. But now I screw the work down to the new waste board. It is so much faster b
what material and thickness did you use for your 2nd waste board?
1/2 inch MDF with the hold down screws counter sunk 1/4 inch
Thought about how to easily measure the relative height of the wasteboard across the entire surface. Mounted a machinist’s dial on the spindle mount. It works great. I manually slide the gantry and can instantly see how much the wasteboard or material is off from flat. Only takes about 30 seconds to take the dial on and off. Just found the same idea from @IanWatkins back in July. A machinist dial can be had for $17 or so at places like Harbor Freight or Amazon.
The holes are spaced at 75mm intervals, so as long as you know where one is you can drill the rest out of a secondary wasteboard. I’m actually finishing up a video on putting on a secondary wasteboard, and hope to release it tomorrow evening.
My biggest concern about flycutting the wasteboard to level it is that the cutter couldn’t reach the non working area part of the board, so that area would now be at a different level and therefore I couldn’t have any stock past the actual working area of the bed - even if you can’t cut there it seems potentially useful to still be able to have material sticking out there.
I made the top waste board the size of the working area with an extra inch on the left side and back.
Then when I cut an eighth off the top it left a lip on those sides that is great for squaring up material.
I used a hand plane to level off the back, but I left the lip in the front so I had something to register the workpiece against. If I want to cut something that will extend off the front, I’ll just throw a piece of 1/8" or 1/4" MDF that’s the size of my working area on top of the wasteboard, then put the material I want to cut on top of that.
Here’s the new wasteboard video, maybe it’ll help. I also posted it in the maintenance and troubleshooting video thread.
Great info. I was wondering if it would be possible to set this up as an Easel Project with the correct information with the replicator app.
Thanks for all your great videos and especially the time you spend helping others.
It could probably be set up as a project, but it would need to be two different projects to keep from having to flatten the wasteboard with a 1/4" bit (naptime, anyone?). 
I considered making this into a couple projects, but I think it’s a good project for someone to make on their own though. I’d be expecting hatemail when the holes don’t work because of they didn’t do a calibration or when they realize that flattening the wasteboard with a 1/8" bit will take a couple days.
I’m glad to help all I can though, hopefully it’s made up for the lack of projects to show off. That should change soon, when school and work stop taking up all my time.
Robert,
Probably not the answer they were looking for but I certainly respect you for it. Especially when it comes to drilling the holes. If the machine zero point and calibration are not dead on then they will have lots of holes that won’t line up properly. My first attempt at this proved that. I ended up running a second pass that changed the holes from a 1/4 inch drilling tool path to a 3/8 inch pocketing tool path. That fixed it but had I accurately calibrated my machine before hand that may not have been necessary.
Charley
