Feeds and speeds on a waste board

I’m getting ready to make a new waste board for my x carve tomorrow. Laid it all out in easel 28 in square 1/2 in thick. 10 rows of 10 8mm holes all the way thru the board. My question is on the feeds and speeds easel gives me
Feed rate of 1016 mm/min
Plunge rate of 228.6 mm/min
Depth per pass of 1.6 mm
It says it will do all this in 3 min

That seem awful fast to do it. Am I missing something?
Greg

change you change the units to inch and let me know what the numbers are? really quck

sure Feed rate 40 in/min, plunge rate 9 in/min and depth of cut .0625

That’s not fast. I resurface my waste board using a 1 inch cutter at 120 inches per minute / .01 depth of cut / 50% step over / plunge at 40 inches per minute / Dewalt DWP 611 speed dial at 4.

With a new waste board I actually use the same specs as above but adjust the feed rate to 150 and depth to .005. Before I start cutting I probe around for the highest spot and zero to that. Then I take a pencil and draw a bunch of zig zag lines to use a reference when milling it. If all the lines don’t get milled away on the first pass I re zero to the high spot and run it again. I repeat until all the pencil marks are gone and will have removed as little material as possible.

If you have to remove .0625 to get it flat then you should look at the height of your Y axis rails in relation to the waste board. Make a spacer that fits perfectly under one end of one rail. Then loosen all the screws that hold the Y rail to the endplate and lower or raise the rail to fit the spacer height. Then move to the other end and repeat. Switch to the other side and do the same. The Spacer should slide down the length of the rail without any increase or reduction in the gap. If there is then you need to look at leveling the base of your machine. (Make sure it is flat and true with no high or low spots. If there are then shims can help.)

If I have some deep grooves to remove I increase the depth of cut but do not lower any of the other settings. I would not cut much more than .03 at one time. With proper carving and zeroing of the Z axis you shouldn’t have any groves to remove that are much deeper than .005

Why remove any more of the surface than necessary. I prefer to preserve mine as long as possible.

Of course this is jut my 2 cents worth but it works very well for me and is a quick cleanup of my waste board when needed.

Charley

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Good morning and thank you Charlie! I haven’t gotten to the leveling yet. I’m making a new one and i was referencing the speeds and feeds Easel was giving me for drilling the holes 10 rows of 10 100 holes .Easel says all done in 3 min. any ideas?

Oops, I thought you were referring to resurfacing you waste board. I don’t use the standard hole pattern that came with the X-Carve Waste Board. Instead I use T-Slot Tracks. I still have the original waste board but only use it to fasten the tracks to and then insert strips of mdf between them with a few holes to use to screw them down to the original waste board.

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Dang Charlie, I like that even better. where did you get the tracks? How do you hold your work in place during cutting?

Charlie,
Did you use any inserts to attach the T Tracks and MDF Strips to the original waste board, or simply use wood screws? Did you raise the Y axis any to account for the lost Z axis clearance?

Thanks!
Rick

For the T-Tracks I just screwed them to the original waste board with some 1 1/4 inch drywall screws. I would have used shorter ones but those were handy. I just had to make sure that I didn’t screw into any of the extrusions under the waste board. I used the spindle with a bit to align the first one so it would be straight inline with the Y axis. Then after the first T-Track was screwed down I put in the first piece of MDF that would be the new waste board and used it to space the next Track. For the waste board pieces, I drill slightly oversized holes that would match the predrilled holes in the original waste board and then counter sunk the screws to hold them down.

For the Y axis, I did make new Y end plates and raised the axis about 1 inch higher. That made up for the additional thickness of 3/4 inch MDF plus gave me a little more height just for grins.

I made the new Y end plates from 1/4 inch thick 6061 aluminum. They are very sturdy. I had to get new screws to attach them but Lowes carried them. I also made the screw holes very slightly oversized to allow for adjustment of the Y axis height to insure that it was parallel to the waste board.

For hold down clamps, I made my own. Everything you can order online stand up way to high and can interfere with all sorts of stuff like a dust shoe, and even the carriage itself. Mine are low profile and work great.

Charley

I must have erased the Easel file for drilling out the holes. I would suggest a plunge rate of 2/3 recommended since you’re going to effectively be drilling instead of milling. Can’t find my CNC journal to give you any examples, so I would keep the feeds and speeds consistent with what you would use on MDF with the bit you’re going to use. I’d recommend an upcut bit, to help remove the dust and save your bit from dulling.

What clamps do you use with the T tracks?

I made my own. The are very similar to the wood clamps that you can get with an X Carve but mine are made from aluminum. I have seed some that have a big arch in them but that can easily get in the way of the carriage. Mine are low profile and I use a variety of 1/2 20 bolts inside the tracks with regular 1/4 20 nuts to tighten them down. To keep them level with the stock, I usually have something that is the same thickness as the stock I am clamping down. Put that under one end and the clamp on top of the stock to carve and they hold extremely well.

My experience drilling with Easel has not been great. It just sets up simple plunges that are a great way to burn your stock and ruin your bit.

I’d recommend Fusion or something similar to generate a deep drilling tool path. That will let you setup partial retracts to clear material and cool the bit, or a helical boring path for a larger hole. That’s what I did for my waste board and it went much better.