am trying to cut 3mm ply and poly and am having no luck the bit (2mm uppercut endmil) keeps pulling the stock up and and making the whole spindle rattle and lose steps, have tried double sided tape an have it securely held in place but it just keeps on destroying the stock. anyone got a solution to this problem
You might try a Down-Cut bit.
The up-cut bit will have a tendency to lift the plywood up off of the surface. Double sided tape may not hold this thin of stock. Whereas the downcut bit will push the workpiece down toward the work table. The downward pressure will assist the tape in holding the workpiece to the table surface.
Try to place the tape where the bit will not cut into it. This can clog the head of the bit with tape and residue.
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This is when a good vacuum hold down table would be nice! I’m still working on ideas to make a cheep one.
yeah i cut mostly thin stock and down cut spirals and 2 flute straights are all i use but plastic i use a single flute
what kind of clamps are you using? the best way to hold stock down is to use the bolts holes in the wasteboard and bolt it down from the top side just make sure that your bit doesnt hit it
see the silver bolts? I try to use as many as possible to get the stock as flat as possible
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For thin stock, and even thicker stock, I like to use double stick carpet tape from lowes to hold my material down. Clamps hold well on the edges, but not in the middle of the piece. Just make sure your spoilboard is dust free before sticking your material down.
I have been using Hot Glue recently for securing bamboo cutting boards. I have found that the three kinds of double stick tape that I have in my shop, do not like to adhere to the bamboo. Hot Glue, on the other hand, has had absolutely no issue.
I have found that for a 12"x16" cutting boards, around 4-5 globs about the size of 2 BBs, to be sufficient to hold the material securely. One in each corner. A little more wont hurt if doing really aggressive cuts with larger bits. But too much, just causes the waste board to rip up. I have found that my globs are about the size of a dime after the glue has been flattened (this can only be seen once the work piece has been removed from the waste board).
If you are concerned about tearing up your wasteboard, I would be as well if paid $200+ for it, then I recommend a sacrificial waste board. You can clamp or screw down a second piece of MDF to the top of the original waste board. Make sure it is oversized to your workpiece and countersink 4 matching bolts to attach it to the INVENTABLES Waste board.
This will give the machine a wasteboard that can be cut into, screwed into, hot glued etc etc etc, all the time sparing the original from damage. Granted you will loose the thickness of the new wasteboard but when cutting thinner stock, this should not make much of a difference.
Just my 2 cents from experience.
Here is another image of a firmly secured board really if you look at the cost of glue or tape its pretty cost effective to use through bolting but every project is different and it wont work for everything
and really with that picture I didnt have enough bolts to bolt everything down so I did the cuts in 2 stages and simply moved the bolts around in between cuttings but i will be buying more bolts lol
