HDM v3 Spoilboard

CNC Machines Shapeoko HDM
1

What have people been doing for spoilboards vis-a-vis the all-aluminum table?

(For background, this HDM is owed by a high school robotics club).

Our current setup is basically a sheet of 3/4" MDF held down by nylon m6 screws into T-nuts in the slots in the table. (Nylon so there’s no harm if they’re hit by a cutter). Then everything gets double-sided tape to the MDF. That’s been fine so far when 95% of uses have been cutting parts out of polycarbonate and aluminum sheet. But, now we’re looking at doing more traditional things like coasters and simple trays to teach students how to use the CNC. I’d still like to have the protection of a spoilboard, but would like to be able to use the tslots.

Initial thought was just to cut the MDF into strips and tape it down, but I’m skeptical of using a single piece of tape (even 2" tape) to hold something that’s going to experience lateral forces from a cutter.

2

I would probably just remove the spoilboard & use the aluminum table with T-slots.
Make fixtures for coasters. Set depth of cut to 0.002"-0.003" above the table to avoid cutting into it on profiles. You can use multiple layers of the 2-way tape to lift the stock off the table more.
Or cut out a bunch of blanks with the spoilboard on, then remove it to clamp a fixture.

Another option is to screw directly into the sacrificial spoilboard. Or install threaded inserts.

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