So I’ve been wanting to upgrade my waste board with T tracks for hold downs instead of the taped holes. I’ve seen others who have simply bolted things to the top of the existing waste board, but didn’t want to sacrifice the vertical height. I’ve been drooling at Phil’s waste board due to the low profile but don’t have such easy access to the aluminum plate. Since I have my entire X-Carve mounted to a torsion box table top that is pretty stiff, I decided to simply get some additional square rail, mount them cross-ways, and then bolt T-Track and MDF slats to those.
I ordered 20mmx20mm extrustions, a quantity of 5mm insert T nuts bolts, and 8 additional inside angles. Then ordered 7 36" T Tracks from Orange Aluminum. Although the 36" tracks come about 3" short from the 1000mm machine length, I decided I don’t usually secure things way at the top of the Y axis and they would be fine. This T Track is already punched for bolting it down.
Once I got everything in, I realized the T Track is designed for #8-32 flat head bolts and the 5mm bolts don’t fit through the holes. Even if I drilled them out, the pan head screws are too large in diameter to sit on the bottom of the T Tracks. I searched in vain for insert nuts with #8-32 threads. So… going through my nut and bolt collection, I realized that if I beveled the edges of #8 square nuts as shown, they would insert in the extrusion and I could use everything as designed.
Before I tore everything apart, I ripped 5" wide MDF slats, and then used the X-Carve to drill mounting pockets, similar to what is used on the normal waste board.
I had to make 2 easel designs, for the front and rear of the slats as the hole spacing is off 1/4" between the ends.
The front design: Easel - Replaceable work surface - front
The rear design: http://easel.inventables.com/projects/5XjJnthAVPrKPiNJ5zh67g
Finally, I took the original waste board off, and started bolting things up. I started by inserting all the nuts into the proper slots and then lightly secured the corners to the new extrusions and simply started the bolts into the sides of the machine. Then I mounted the 2 outside T Tracks to each of the extrusions. Once those were lined up, I tightened all the frame bolts. This photo shows the 1st T Track attached to the cross members.
Once all that was done, I worked my way across the table, mounting a board, then another Track, just starting the bolts, not tightening everything. It was tedious getting everything lined up and took over an hour, but isn’t really difficult, just time consuming.
I need to get some washers to go under the bolts on the slats to take up a little space and then surface the top to make it level with the machine. Hopefully I can get that done in the next couple days and then start carving again!
–Rick