Wasteboard plans?

A whole room for your craft! Lucky buggers mines in the garage which is freezing in the winter.

I too was tempted by steel although weight is a concern.

In the UK material is very expensive. I have had one quote at 450 quid for a washboard to be made up. Now I’m considering 2 pieces of 5mm thick aluminium on top of each other and marking/drilling/tapping it myself - Might get one for under £200 then…

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@Luke Look into scrap yards — often you can get “drops” which are too small for use by the company doing the cutting

@Bjohnes — another old steel plate story was the ship building company which insisted on having an incredibly large plotter made ---- it was so large that there were concerns about the floor of the room it was to go on, so they simply cut a piece of steel to match the dimensions of the room, cut the roof off the building, lifted it off w/ a crane, craned in the steel w/ a second, then craned in the machine, then replaced the roof — when they went to use the machine, they discovered that there were no papers compatible w/ the pens which were to be used large enough to cover the bed.

Ouch, I bet that hurt…lol

My daughter’s bedroom is on the other end of the room. She’s married and moved away so I can make all the noise I want to up there now. My wife has hinted about the milling noise but I’ve been making her things so…

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Yeah, and on top of that, they found that no one would make use of the larger than E-size drawings for want of a place to put them when they were being used, the inconvenience of moving and storing them, &c.

They didn’t quite think that one through. I still like the measure twice cut once theory.

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I think I’m going to give up on my threaded metal table. I can’t get it done for under £300 here which is just too much right now.

I’m going to make a solid one pice unit from wood. What would people recommend, ply board or MDF?

I have some epic solid oak, but it’s too nice to turn into a waste board.

MDF. It’s just the most uniform, safest thing for the machine, and strong enough at the sizes / thickness suggested.

I covered mine with T-track and PVC (but probably should’ve used MDF — would have if I had a track/table saw) as noted here: http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=8332&p=65068#p65068

If you are not set on a wooden wasteboard, I replaced mine with 3/4" black marine-grade HDPE (King Starboard brand). It was extremely easy to cut/drill, so I am not at all concerned with my end mills hitting the table if I make a mistake. I got my piece, via eBay, for $70 US.

King StarBoard® is the original marine-grade high-density polyethylene sheet and the industry standard. It is the product of a proprietary process called K-Stran™, the most advanced manufacturing process for superior flatness and consistency. King StarBoard is environmentally stabilized to withstand the harshest marine conditions. It will not warp, rot, or delaminate when exposed to humidity or water. King StarBoard is easy to fabricate with standard woodworking tools and requires little or no finishing.

Not sure of availability outside the US, but I would think it would be readily available, if by a different manufacturer.

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I did that as well for my SO3: http://www.shapeoko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6045 — if I understand it right, Starboard addresses one of my concerns w/ HDPE — it’s less slippery, which makes workholding easier — is that correct?

It definitely feels less slippery to my hands than other HDPE that I have (ex. cutting board). The surface came slightly textured and I have not had any problems clamping my pieces to the King Starboard HDPE; I use a ratcheted socket to tighten down my clamps and nothing has moved on me.

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One other option you could consider is making a t-slot table, either out of 80mmx20mm aluminum t-rail extrusion pieces placed side by side for an all aluminum table top, or t-track routed into an MDF board.

Did you have any issue with flatness? I ordered a 5/8" thick piece and it was shipped with a huge arc. like more than 3/8" high in the middle. Figured I got a bad piece or it was too thin to be dimensionaly stable.

Nope, mine was perfectly flat and only 1/2 - 0.2mm over the whole length.

Sounds like you bought rolled Ali?

I decided going with the steel bed may not be a good idea afterall. I guess I didn’t realize how heavy it would actually be. 100 plus pounds and a lot of cussing and pinched fingers getting it in place just made me decide against it. I also wanted to upgrade to the XXL bed by the end of this year and there was no sense putting the extra money in it. By some fortunate circumstances I was able to afford my upgrade this month (which I received yesterday) so it all worked out. I’m going to drill out the new bed for threaded inserts every 4 inches and start working on some of the different clamping ideas from the forum. We will see how it all works out.

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No, mine was nice and flat. Did you get actual King Starboard, or did you get generic HDPE? I found that the cutting boards weren’t dimensionally stable like the King Starboard. If you did get King Starboard, I would assume you got a bad piece.

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I got a 1" thick piece of starboard and it’s flatter than I thought it would be. Right at .030 across the table on a XL.

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@Luke: is that a360 file still good? I tried to download it but it said access denied, I don’t have permission to view it. I am a Fusion 360 user so I already have an autodesk account…

EDIT: Sorry to revive such an old thread…

Im not 100% sure but do have a backup that someone copied. I’ll check when I get home

http://a360.co/2DCBLj4

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