I used XFasten tape for the first time last night on a couple of trays. I’ve seen plenty of videos where people use this tape as a work holding and I have never seen anyone end up with this mess…
From what I can tell, the adhesive from the tape mixed with the sawdust and then stuck to the sides as the dust extractor pulled it up and out of the tool path. I believe I can clean it up with a safety razor blade and some sanding, but what a PITA.
Is there some special tricks you have to do when using this type of tape for work holding?
Most likely your bit got into the adhesive layer and then pulled it across the wood. Try to make sure you don’t get into that when setting depths and z. It does muck up the bit.
If you see it happen you may want to pause the job and clean the bit.
Yes, I have had that happen when using an upcut bit.
As Cullen said, watch your Z setting depth to not cut into the tape, I found it easier to use razor blade knife to trim slight amount of remaining wood than scrape off all the sawdust-goo. My best option was to place tape away from cutout toolpath, I know easier said than done sometimes.
For bit cleanup, I got this spray from my wife called Goo Gone (she uses it to cleanup price stickers on thngs she buys). It cleans the stuff off the bit really well.
Good case for the painters tape and super glue. Not familiar with your brand of adhesive tape but some adhesive tape gets flatter than other areas making your project not parallel with the spoilboard. Then the tape gets on the bit. In your case the bit and the project. The painters tape does get on the bit but is easy to clean off and has never caused any cutting issues for me.
I use regular 3M 2" painters tape and TiteBond Medium Super glue.
I use the XFasten tape. For an object that big, there’s no reason to have the tape where the bit can hit it. The tape holds very well, you don’t need to cover the backside of the object with it.
The adhesive problem you ran into is exactly why I use painters tape now. Even when you hit the adhesive layer on painters tape, it does’t goop-up the cutter.
Do you set your zero from the top of material or spoil board (Bottom)?
I had this issue with my tool getting gummed up setting zero at bottom. I now set zero to top of material and if the material thickness is pretty much right on my cuts go through material and not into tape as much.
Problem helped.
I’ve been using the XFasten tape and zeroing at the bottom of the stock for some time and it works very well; I do allow 0.01" for the thickness of the tape, so I first zero, then move the bit up 0.01" and set the Z zero there. At worst, I get a little onion skin of the wood that needs to be trimmed off, but that’s much better than trying to clean off the gunk from the bit dipping into the adhesive.
I do sometimes zero at top of stock but only when I’m not cutting through the material.
IPA also works well for cleaning off the adhesive. Put the bit into a small, preferably tall, thin container and add IPA. After letting it sit a while, clean off the adhesive with a cloth.
Before I started zeroing on the bottom, I regularly got the adhesive on the sides as you shown in the picture by the OP. Yes, it can be scraped off, but the finish of the wood is poorer than if you don’t dip into the adhesive and requires a bit of sanding to get it smooth. Also, the gummed up bit doesn’t cut well after it collects the adhesive and that can lead to heating the bit, shortening its life.
Thanks everyone. I set my Z from the top, but being really new to the machine, I was following CC’s suggestion of using t+.1mm as my depth of cutout. I’ll try dialing that in better as well as better tape placement.
