Another Take on Andrews Great Table Mod

[Bob Eustace]

Thought I might share this with fellow Buddyites! Same basic idea as Andrew except have used 2 X 2 X 1/4 aluminium angle along both edges of the table and widened the table to get better support. Held on with 1/4 cupheads with car washers underneath to make alignment easier. If you used flat rollers this would never be an issue BUT you can get swarf under the rollers. Instead of castors I used ball bearing phenolic rollers (pinched from my wife's quilting machine spares). Table base is 1" moisture resistant MDF. Had to dado the tracks as I bought the wrong stuff. Didn't realise it came in 9mm and 12mm high. Used Andrew's track spacing - spot on thinking Andrew! Brackets made from 2 X 1/4 flat aluminium. You might be able to spot how close the surface was to flat when installed if you look closely at the surfacing. Used 18mm MR MDF for top surface screwed from above (no glue) and will be using Andrews method of a sacrificial spoil board (got a heap of 8X4X5mm ply for $5 a throw)

Have done 300 panels since install and really works well - thank you Andrew as I haven't got an original thought in my head! Thank you Russel for the removable slat idea. The pic of the job shows how bad things were before the mod even with a daily resurfacing. Tear your hair out territory and not a real happy customer either!!!!!!!!!

In my view the ultimate table mod for a Buddy would be to have another power stick (without stepper) along both outside edges. This would have to be perfection I reckon! Would love to hear the suggestion of others.

[Simops]

Cool bananas Bob!

[Joe Porter]

Bob, I am happy to have one of the early Buddy's with the two outer guide rails with v-rollers attached to a half inch slab of aluminum and the central rack and pinion. I think others with this arrangement are happy also. I have never understood ShopBot's decision to go the the Power Stick arrangement exclusively.
I noticed how you mounted your T track from the bottom of the spoil board. I think I will re-do mine with that method.
I always enjoy your posts and thanks for the pictures and ideas. joe

[dana_swift]

Bob- that is a really nice way of handling the edge flex. Like Joe, I have a half inch aluminum base and am glad to have it, but my powersticks require a table of some kind which are not as rigid (or heavy!).

Give yourself credit for your contributions.. original ideas are much less common that they appear. Most things are just improvements on existing things..

Or so I think.. (based on someone elses thoughts no doubt!)

D

[Ajcoholic]

Sweet!

I just re surfaced my board today (first time since the end of December of last year). With the drastic change in humidity we experience now, with the springtime melt and RH% rising like crazy... the MDF bows up a little bit even though it is held down onto the rollers. Maybe 1/32" max, but it only takes a little pass to re-level everything and it will be good for the summer and into the fall.

AJC

[Bob Eustace]

Joe - you are toooooooo kind! Could you possibly post pics of how the old rails worked as during smoko Chrissy with her quilters eye remarked that there wasn't enough room for the guide wheels each side for my extra power stick scheme!

Dana - thanks, the aluminium out here is two grand!!! We have a carbon tax in Oz and it truly is sending us broke.

Andrew - the bending truly is mysterfying as ours is cupping downwards by 1/4" in the centre. Russel and Mike goes the same way. Might have something to do with why water goes down the plughole in a different direction according to which hemisphere. I cant thank you enough for pointing me in the right direction though with the table. It has lifted the machine into another dimension as I used to have to avoid anything over two feet for fear of lousy accuracy. I'll get around to linish grinding the rollers one day as they are pretty ordinary.