Hey all looking fir quick dependable and repeatable way to hold down material; sometimes it takes longer to figure out hold down than the actual job
Which machine? What material?
The usual options are
- clamps coupled w/ either T-track or threaded inserts (or a metal plate w/ threaded holes)
- some sort of adhesive, either double-sided tape or blue painter’s tape and cyanoacrylate glue
vacuum clamping brings up a distant third…
I used my spindle to drill (pocket) out 1/2" holes (1/4" deep) every few inches front to back and left to right so I have a grid of holes along the machines X and Y. I then cut a 1/2" dowl into 1/2" lengths. I can take 4 of those 1/2" dowls and place them in two holes on the X and two holes on the Y to form a fence on the left and along the bottom. Then I use these guys (third from left) to lock it in place.
I spent the first year of machine ownership trying different methods. MDF with inserts and various clamping options and painter’s tape with CA glue. I wanted the ease and repeatability of using a fixture tooling plate. As luck would have it, I found an American company that made a fixture tooling plate for my machine and posted it to the UK. I have not looked back since using the plate with a couple of pairs of SMW modular vices.
Any sort of workholding is completely secure, rigid and repeatable. A by-product of using the fixture tooling plate was an increase in rigidity of my S3 standard sized Shapeoko CNC machine. I have successfully cut 20mm thick aluminium to a tolerance of ±0.001" and on one occasion, using a new cutter and very carefully adjusted belts, I was able to achieve a tolerance of ±0.0004" The main advantage of using this system is that bolting and unbolting the modular vices, one knows that they are in the position of the 6mm threaded holes, which are set 20mm apart. One vice of the pair is held in place by a couple of slots and can be moved about 25mm and the othe vice of the pair is held in place by counter sunk bolts so it does not move.
Image illustrating workholding.
At this point just hardwood on the 5XL
I have a 5xl so to me that means drilling into the mdf waste board, which I don’t have a problem w/just making sure I understand
I think this may be what I’m looking for, Thanks!
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Yes, drilling into waste board. If I remember I’ll get a picture when I get home.
work holding so 5 pro.c2d (200 KB)
Did you have to buy a specific bit to pocket the holes? Also did you have to buy anything for those inserts? Like threaded studs?
No specific bit, used C3D #201. No threaded inserts, just a 1/2“ wooden dowel, can’t remember where I got it. Get a scrap piece of material and pocket a few holes ranging from 0.495" to 0.550" and see which that dowel fits best.
Edit: pictures attached
I’ve been trying using 0.265” diameter holes with 0.375” recess holes centered on the first, but not full thickness. My intention is to use the standard Tees Nutz and socket head screws, but have the socket head inset into the workpiece to avoid issues with rapids. Problem though, is my workpieces are likely going to be mostly 0.25” plywood, and the socket heads are taller than that, but it would work well for thicker material if you can stand having holes in your work piece lined up with the T tracks.
Does anyone happen to know a way to tell Carbide Create to avoid areas like this? I.e. Don’t move tool or tool radius within certain reserved areas?
I don’t think there is an option to set “no go” zones. If you set the retract height in job setup page to higher than the screw head that will help with rapids. Still have make sure your tool path is safe though.
Right, and for a large project, and with the retract height being global, that increases the machine time by 2X or so, unfortunately. I’ll see if I can find a way to suggest this for the beta or next version.
Have you considered double sided tape or the masking tape/super glue approach?
Maybe a shallow M6 pan head screw would work better than the socket head screw, something like these.
the vacuum puck method makes it less distant. Seems like the most viable option for easy setup, cleanup, etc in exchange its like 3-400$ including a pump and then power requirements.