Flattening my waste board

X-Carve Upgrades
1

I spent a few days changing to a T-slot waste board like Charlie Thomas has and adding Roberts little plates to the Y axis for stiffening, good job Robert! After I screwed everything down I put a straight edge on each board an and I have a low place about mid ways front to back of about .006 to .008. I have a bit, i think it’s an inch or an inch and a half. Should I surface each board individually or just cut them all at once like it’s a regular one piece board?

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2

Personally, I would leave it. That’s pretty good. If you need greater precision, you would flatten a sacrificial waste board and then fasten your work piece on top of that. Within a few weeks your measurements will change anyway. So this is a good practice. Also, it’s a good idea to check in with folks whose advice you are following before committing… just in case the time/benefit is no longer there for them.

3

It depends on what you will be machining and what accuracy you need. :wink: I’ve seen someone from Inventables mention that 0.003" is about the best accuracy of the stock system.

4

I’ll be cutting mostly 1/8" birch, i may in the near future try my hand at some 1/4 in aluminum or 3/8s material i need a dust boot badly.

5

Honestly, you’re not likely to get exponentially better than that.

I usually just put a piece of hardboard under my work and cut deeper then the wood for a cleaner cut anyway. Doing that makes slight differences in depth less meaningful.

6

I changed the base for 20 mm x 40 mm rails and added an extra one in the middle to prevent bowing did the side plates and it is still a bit off I would pull all of the t slots and level the waste board (with a real waste board bit) if you need to get it dead flat then put the slot track back in. I removed all the slot tracks and went strictly to tape and ca under 12 x 12 and screw directly down over that.

7

I’m going to put my dial indicator on and make sure of my measurements then I’ll make a few cuts and see. Thanks for all of the inputs guys I appreciate each and every one
Greg

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9

How do you do it, each plank or all at once?

11

thanks a lot!

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