[mafitch7479]

Does anyone have any recommendations on a spoil board cutter for surfacing the MDF spoil board on our AXYZ router? I would think it'd have to be pretty balanced, since the default spoil board surfacing program won't run at any less than 8000 RPM's. I've seen a couple of different models from Onsrud, and one from vortex tool, I'm just not sure what to go for.

Thanks in advance.

[cabnet636]

i use a standard 1.25 inch mortise bit,

[ger21]

If you don't mind spending the money, I'd get either the Vortex or the Amana. I'll have to check, but I think we have the Vortex at work. It's about 3" diameter, and we run it at 15,000 and 600ipm. Still takes 5 minutes to surface our 5x12 spoilboard.

[cheetahcnc]

I use an onsrud 1.25" 91-000 P84492. Surfacing the spoilboard makes the most dust you will ever see from your router :drowning:

[mafitch7479]

If you don't mind spending the money, I'd get either the Vortex or the Amana. I'll have to check, but I think we have the Vortex at work. It's about 3" diameter, and we run it at 15,000 and 600ipm. Still takes 5 minutes to surface our 5x12 spoilboard.

We ordered the vortex yesterday afternoon, so hopefully it'll work. The tool rep we go through didn't think it was a good idea to run it at a very high RPM, but he's got less experience with routers than I do lol.

I use an onsrud 1.25" 91-000 P84492. Surfacing the spoilboard makes the most dust you will ever see from your router :drowning:

I believe it, especially since we mostly cut aluminum, but we have a dust collector that I can strap onto the spindle head to keep the dust down.

[dfmiller]

I just ordered a Onsrud 91-000.
I see 18K max RPM .125" Max cut
What overlap or machining strategy do you use?
I can just imagine the amount of dust it generated. It will be a good test of my Kent dust shoe and Oneida Mini Gorilla ;-)

Thanks
Dave

[mafitch7479]

I just ordered a Onsrud 91-000.
I see 18K max RPM .125" Max cut
What overlap or machining strategy do you use?
I can just imagine the amount of dust it generated. It will be a good test of my Kent dust shoe and Oneida Mini Gorilla ;-)

Thanks
Dave

I think I just overlapped it by like 15% of the cutter diameter. I've only had need to do it once, and that was apparently in May, so it's been a while. Our router has a program right in it for planing the spoilboard.

As for the dust, it wasn't bad. Our dust collector worked very well. I think it's an Oneida Gorilla, 3HP if I'm not mistaken. Wasn't a bit of dust that escaped.

[dfmiller]

Thanks,
I will have to either use Mach Wizard or VCarve to write a simple program.
My dust collector is the little brother to yours. Only 1.5hp. I will be using a short hose. ;-)
I would have guessed a larger overlap.
Good thing I asked.
Thank you.
Dave

[mafitch7479]

Thanks,
I will have to either use Mach Wizard or VCarve to write a simple program.
My dust collector is the little brother to yours. Only 1.5hp. I will be using a short hose. ;-)
I would have guessed a larger overlap.
Good thing I asked.
Thank you.
Dave

I didn't see much reason to have a very big overlap, depending on how much of a cut you're taking of course. I only took like 0.025" off the top of the board, so it wasn't much. And our dust collector piping must be close to 30 feet long to the router, plus 10-15 feet of flexible hose to run to the spindle. It's a pretty slick setup. Just wish I could quiet down that damn noisy vacuum pump!

[dfmiller]

I think I have about 0.045" to take off. I will probably take it in two passes to understand how badly my table is sagging. I ran a dial around it yesterday and I think I have a 0.040" dip in the middle. I eventually will add another support under the table.

I am not running Vacuum yet. I have a small pump that I might try out after I make a vacuum table. Mine is not an industrial router like yours is. Mine a little hobby one.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/xyz_ga...antry_kit.html

I assume you are using a big pump and are just sucking thru the MDF?

Thanks
Dave

[mafitch7479]

I think I have about 0.045" to take off. I will probably take it in two passes to understand how badly my table is sagging. I ran a dial around it yesterday and I think I have a 0.040" dip in the middle. I eventually will add another support under the table.

I am not running Vacuum yet. I have a small pump that I might try out after I make a vacuum table. Mine is not an industrial router like yours is. Mine a little hobby one.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/xyz_ga...antry_kit.html

I assume you are using a big pump and are just sucking thru the MDF?

Thanks
Dave

yup, pull right through the MDF. Works really well except when trying to hold down relatively small pieces.

[dfmiller]

How big is your router table?
How big is the pump?
Thanks
Dave

[mafitch7479]

How big is your router table?
How big is the pump?
Thanks
Dave

The table is 4'x8', the vacuum pump is 7.4HP

[dfmiller]

Interesting.
That about 4 sqft per HP.
I wonder how that scales down. I think my pump is 2 HP.
I need to learn more about this.
Thanks
Dave

[ger21]

Dave, we have two 25HP pumps on our 5x12 table.

[dfmiller]

Gerry,
That must really suck ;-)
Now I have two points on a data set.
Do you know of any good links to using MDF in a vacuum table? I have found some good info on a Vacuum table using non porous material and a series of holes.

Thanks
Dave

[ger21]

That must really suck ;-)

If you lay your arm on the spoilboard, you can feel it sticking to the MDF.


If you want to suck through MDF, the least expensive method is probably what some of the ShopBot guys do. They run 2 or 4 vacuum motors. Browse through the links at the bottom of this page. ShopBot Vacuum Motors

To hold parts through MDF, you need very high volume (cfm), as there's a lot of leakage going on.

For a small machine, dedicated pods or fixtures are usually a much better choice. They use a seal to prevent leakage, and are usually able to hold much smaller parts. They usually require a pump that can pull high vacuum, though. But the CFM requirements are negligible. See here for some DIY info.

Vacuum Clamping (Vacuum Hold-Down Jig)

[dfmiller]

Gerry,
Thanks, those are both great threads. I had read the one on the high vacuum low CFM before.
The low Vacuum high flow was interesting. One of my pumps is high vacuum low flow and the other one is slightly higher flow if I recall. It for sure does not have meet the requirements for MDF.
More to play with. I will have to go looking for my bigger pump today. It's somewhere in the shop.
Got 2/3 of my dust collector. :-( they are still tracking the rest.

Thanks.
Dave

[TAProwler]

The table is 4'x8', the vacuum pump is 7.4HP

Hey mafitch7479,
I noticed that you said you were cutting mostly aluminum. Your table size is the same as mine and your vacuum pump also sounds the same. This is my machine. I have a 7Hp motor turning a Becker vac pump.

I haven't used mine to cut aluminum yet, but I was wondering what thickness of aluminum you are cutting? How well does your set-up work with thin sheets (if you cut anything thin - like 0.032" or 0.040")?

I saw your comment that it doesn't work as well on smaller parts, which makes sense. Does it help to cover the unused portion of the table?

Just curious, as I am approaching the day when instead of working constantly on setting this machine up, I'll actually start using it .

Thanks for your insight.
R/Todd

[mafitch7479]

Hey mafitch7479,
I noticed that you said you were cutting mostly aluminum. Your table size is the same as mine and your vacuum pump also sounds the same. This is my machine. I have a 7Hp motor turning a Becker vac pump.

I haven't used mine to cut aluminum yet, but I was wondering what thickness of aluminum you are cutting? How well does your set-up work with thin sheets (if you cut anything thin - like 0.032" or 0.040")?

I saw your comment that it doesn't work as well on smaller parts, which makes sense. Does it help to cover the unused portion of the table?

Just curious, as I am approaching the day when instead of working constantly on setting this machine up, I'll actually start using it .

Thanks for your insight.
R/Todd

the majority of what I was cutting was 0.016" or 0.025" 2024 aluminum sheets. It certainly seemed to make a difference to cover the unused portion of the table.

What I had problems with was holding down parts such as the frame that's around a laptop monitor. I tried using tabs, which helped, but my edge quality just didn't turn out what I needed to get. Between trying to figure out a good spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and type of cutter, there were just too many variables for me to get the quality I needed in the time I had, not to mention the fact that we have a mill that does them very well (other than the adhesive).

I will say that the vacuum system has worked extremely well for cutting card stock with the tangential knife system we have. It's also been very successful in holding down fabrics with a vinyl liner as a top layer. I'd like to find a pizza wheel style cutter for our knife system, but haven't been particularly successful