I’m just starting out with my new 5 Pro and am wondering if I should make a new spoilboard or not. My 5 Pro is sitting in my 2 car garage. Don’t want to tap new holes in rails connecting the side rails. Is it worth the effort to level existing spoilboard, machine new spoilboard to somehow attach to existing spoilboard, level new spoilboard, attach a new 1/2" square in the sw corner, add 2" lines for X and Y axis on new spoilboard, add holes for threaded inserts installed from bottom of new spoilboard? Your thoughts?
There are lots of valid ideas on this. My personal one is that the hybrid t-slots and MDF slats are perfect. They are easier to replace than a whole board when their time is up. I often have slats staged in case I need one right away. I also really like access to the infinite adjustability of the t-tracks, and a board on top blocks that. I also add some threaded inserts to the slats that allows even more options. But a lot of people put one above the slats and I get it. More distance from hitting the aluminum extrusions makes one feel safer.
The only time I put a temporary supplementary one on top of the hybrid bed is when I’m using adhesive workholding for smaller parts. On those I usually need no gaps to maximize the surface area adhering to the parts.
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Interesting. I have been using the double sided woodworking tape rather than painters tape and CA. I leverage those slats after the cut as a place to insert a tool to pry the piece off the surface as that tape sticks so well.
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I have an SO3 and remember when Carbide3D came out with the tee tracks for the SO3. I personally do not like the tee tracks and have an MDF spoilboard with tee nuts at 2" spacing 1/4-20 bolts and cam clamps. Many people like the hybrid spoilboard but personally if I had one I would cover it up with a solid spoilboard. The tee tracks are easy to replace if you were to run over one as well as the individual slats. If you had to replace a slat you would need to level your spoilboard if the new slat were higher than the surrounding slats.
To avoid hitting a tee track and tearing up your spoilboard I use the bottom of material for almost all my projects. I replaced my spoilboard in October 22 and it is still almost pristine. I only use the top of material when not cutting through the material such as a vcarve. Before using the top of material I would cut through to the spoilboard or leave an onion skin I would need to clean up. So give the bottom of material a try if you are concerned about cutting through to your tee tracks.
The good thing is there is a variety of options available. For me the 2" spacing on my spoilboard makes using cam clamps very easy as well as the tiger claw and gator tooth clamps I use on occasion.
I have trammed my base slats, and use them as an anchor for smaller spoilboards when cutting through material. The gaps between the base slats don’t help attach materials, and could even cause splinters or tear-out due to unsupported areas. I prefer to build jigs for specific jobs and base them on a trued surface that will hopefully stay that way for a long time, and also provide access to hold-down points as needed, while I use more crude methods such as screws and CA/glue in my sacrificial jigs.
(Thanks to @gdon_2003 btw for leading me towards making the jig in the photo. Didn’t really consider using cams before one of his posts.)
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