Table Flatness

Dave Burtchell · Post by **Dave Burtchell** » Sun, Nov 13 2005, 6:12PM

Forrest,

With only one port in the center, I noticed the other day that I could move the spoilboard down a little bit by hand with vac on. Acts like the gasket is not squished flat on the ends of the table. With nothing on the table, the vac gauge reads close to zero. It seems like there's not enough suck to squish the gasket flat.
I figured it was not related to humidity because the problem was there immediately after a flycut.
Removing the gasket SEEMS to have solved the problem.

Dave

Dave Burtchell · Post by **Dave Burtchell** » Tue, Jan 10 2006, 6:43PM

Forrest,

A while back you said:

Example:
Daylight value is 8.50
Set Flycut wasteboard to (-.01) which removes .01 from spoilboard
Add .01 to 8.50 and your new daylight value is 8.51
Reset all tool lengths

I've tried to set wasteboard to (-.01) to surface the spoilboard but the program doesn't want to accept the negative value. It just won't cut into the spoilboard. Any suggestions?

Dave

Forrest Chapman · Post by **Forrest Chapman** » Thu, Jan 12 2006, 8:22PM

Dave,

Very sorry for the delay. I'm not sure why its not working for you but tommorow I'll give it a look. Are you using a wasteboard? If so how often are
you flycutting your spoilboard? We only flycut once a year.

Forrest

Dave Burtchell · Post by **Dave Burtchell** » Tue, Feb 28 2006, 10:32PM

The flycut program is really cool, just dial in the wasteboard thickness you want. But I was having a problem when it came to the spoilboard. It's been about 6 months since I did it last and it needs it again. Trouble is the control won't accept a neg. value. What I did was to change the switchspoil value in the M999 macro to .01 smaller, from .264 to .254. Remeasure tool length, and run flycut with wasteboard thickness set to \"0\". And that's it!
Way cool! No need to manually get daylight for your first tool to set the tool length sensor. Quick and easy.
Thanks for your help, Ryan and Forrest.

Dave

Forrest Chapman · Post by **Forrest Chapman** » Tue, Feb 28 2006, 10:39PM

Dave,

Now that one I hadn't thought of. Very smooth!
Forrest

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 8:09AM

Forrest,
I wound up leaving my old company before ever trying your program. Do you have the spiral program you mentioned in your other posts? Also what size bed was this written for (looking at the g-code it seems like a 5' x 12'). If the spiral was written for a 5' x 12' then we will need to modify for 5' x 10'

Also let me see if I have the steps correct.

1) Flycut spoilboard clean on both sides.
2) Load new wasteboard and set wasteboard thickness to .24 (thus taking .01 off the first side)
3) Flip wasteboard and reset wasteboard thickness to .23 (taking .01 off the second side)
4) Establish tool length to the wasteboard
5) when waste board needs to be flycut reduce wasteboard thickness by .01 and increase tool daylight by .01

When you start with a new wasteboard do you manually get daylight or do you decrease daylight by the increase in wasteboard thickness for the new board.

Now that we have the new machine up an running I would really like to try your system if you do not mind. Thanks.

Bill Rutherford

Forrest Chapman · Post by **Forrest Chapman** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 9:00AM

Bill,

The program post download is on the first page. It will have to be altered for a 5x10 table and starting position may be different. Check it high without the router running to make sure it clears any table fixtures. Your initial spoilboard daylight value will have to be set up manually. I don't know why Daves machine wouldn't allow a negative setting but it must be a safety feature, however he found a work around. Hope this works for you.

Forrest

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 9:16AM

Thanks Forrest, I will give it a try and let you know how I make out. It is really great when shops that are competing against each other (at least to a certain degree with the custom machining) are willing to work together. If I can ever be of assistance with anything let me know.

Bill

Dave Burtchell · Post by **Dave Burtchell** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 5:39PM

Bill,

You said:
1) Flycut spoilboard clean on both sides.
2) Load new wasteboard and set wasteboard thickness to .24 (thus taking .01 off the first side)
3) Flip wasteboard and reset wasteboard thickness to .23 (taking .01 off the second side)
4) Establish tool length to the wasteboard
5) when waste board needs to be flycut reduce wasteboard thickness by .01 and increase tool daylight by .01

With our CS40 I have? to do it this way:
1)Flycut spoilboard clean on both sides. 1-2 times a year.
2)manually get daylight, touch off of the spoilboard.
3)Establish tool length to the SPOILBOARD. This is the daylight value.
4)Load new wasteboard and set wasteboard thickness to .24 (thus taking .01 off the first side)
5)Flip wasteboard and reset wasteboard thickness to .23 (taking .01 off the second side)
6)when waste board needs to be flycut, set wasteboard thickness to .22 and record this new value in \"settings\".

When you start with a new wasteboard, just set wasteboard thickness to .24 again.

It just occurred to me that maybe you don't have a tool length sensor? If this is so, then your post makes sense to me.
Sorry if I got myself confused.

Dave

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 7:41PM

Dave,
Thank you for your reply. Yes we have a tool length sensor. I am not used to cutting with a wasteboard, we usually cut just on a spoilboard so I forgot about the wasteboard thickness setting in control nesting. Thanks. As soon as I get some 1/4\" MDF in we are going to give this a try.

Bill Rutherford

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Wed, Mar 01 2006, 7:41PM

Dave,
Thank you for your reply. Yes we have a tool length sensor. I am not used to cutting with a wasteboard, we usually cut just on a spoilboard so I forgot about the wasteboard thickness setting in control nesting. Thanks. As soon as I get some 1/4\" MDF in we are going to give this a try.

Bill Rutherford

Brian Shannon · Post by **Brian Shannon** » Thu, Mar 02 2006, 11:58AM

Bill,

I just started using a waistboard a few months ago. The vacuum holds the parts much better WITH the waistboard. I was amazed! Go figure.......

Brian

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Thu, Mar 02 2006, 12:44PM

Alright, so now I am commited to trying it but I am having a hard time coming up with the 1/4 mdf in 5' x 10', so two questions:

Thermwood; do you still sell them direct and if so how much for the material and to ship say 10 pieces to New Hampshire

Everyone Else: Does anyone have a supplier that will ship via common carrier? I can have it picked up without a problem.

Bill

Forrest Chapman · Post by **Forrest Chapman** » Thu, Mar 02 2006, 12:55PM

Bill,

I have a 5x12 table but I buy alot of 5x8 white 1S mdf for backs so I just use these and add a 4x5 peice on the end. Also do many of you find it nessasary to fly both sides? We have always cut only 1S at time and never had issues. We do however have 24/7 climate control.

Forrest

Bill Rutherford · Post by **Bill Rutherford** » Thu, Mar 02 2006, 1:27PM

Thanks Forrest, I wondered about using two pieces. You don't experience any problem with one piece moving seperately from the other?

As for flycutting (at least as far as a spoilboard is concerned) I have alway found that if we only flycut one side we get a pretzel. In fact even when we have cut one side and are flipping to cut the second there is often some warping.

Bill

Thermwood / eCabinet Systems

Table Flatness