sacrificial bleeder board

[Kyle Stapleton]

Has anyone ever used GP UltraStock Premium MDF or UltraStock Lite MDF for there vac table?
This is all I can find in my area.

[srwtlc]

Kyle,

You could check with a cabinet shop in your area that has a CNC/vacuum and ask what they're using.

Industrial Lumber (http://www.industriallumber.net/) supposedly has Trupan, but not sure.

[Kyle Stapleton]

They do not, a place in White Bear Lake has light but not UL.

[srwtlc]

Hmmm, Metro Hardwoods, Youngblood. Is Lake Elmo Hardwoods still around? Just trying to think of who's up there.

[Kyle Stapleton]

Tried them all no luck.

[dlcw]

Has anyone ever used GP UltraStock Premium MDF or UltraStock Lite MDF for there vac table?
This is all I can find in my area.

I use a 1/8" sacrificial ultralight MDF when working with 4x8 sheets of material. the 1/8" stuff is 49"x97" so there is overlap.

I cut a material sheet on the 1/8" stuff. When it is done, I have a cart with a piece of 1/2" melamine on 4 casters that I push the sacrificial sheet and the material sheet onto. Then I load up another sacrificial sheet and material sheet and have the machine start cutting again while I'm taking parts off the portable cart.

I can process a LOT more material sheets using this method. The machine spends more time cutting instead of waiting for me to take parts off the CNC table.

I always surface both sides of the sacrificial sheets to make sure I get maximum vacuum flow.

I can normally get 8 material sheets per sacrificial sheet because I flip the sacrificial sheet over after 4 sheets.

[Jerome]

Don

I believe you are the one who suggested the 1/8 inch mdf in a previous post.

I tried it and consider it one of the best suggestions I have read on this forum. The 1/8 Inch is cheap and I make it even cheaper by by cutting mine into 24 by 48 inch pieces. That way I only replace the piece that is most used. I run mine through the wide belt sander using a light pass on each side to make the air flow easier.

If the parts I am cutting are small enough I also remove the 1/8 inch mdf with the part still on it and dump the dust in my trash bin. It saves a ton of cleanup.

Again thanks for sharing your idea.

[Kyle Stapleton]

That is a great idea.
Do you have to skin it, and will any MDF work?
Do you think this would work in a school setting?
Kids do odd things a lot of the time, so I guess what I should be asking is what are the pitfalls of using this type of bleeder board?

On another note I always wondered why you never had a "top" on your table, and now I know.

Thanks

[dlcw]

That is a great idea.
Do you have to skin it, and will any MDF work?
Do you think this would work in a school setting?
Kids do odd things a lot of the time, so I guess what I should be asking is what are the pitfalls of using this type of bleeder board?

On another note I always wondered why you never had a "top" on your table, and now I know.

Thanks
Kyle

I volunteer teach at the local high school wood shop class. Over the last three years I've helped them bring in a Shopbot CNC, build it, align it and get it operational. I've conducted several classes on the use of V-Carve (Shopbot equivalent) as well as CNC operation. One of the things I helped them put together was a hold down system for small parts (picture attached). In addition, I got them working with the 1/8" MDF to save the spoilboard on the CNC. This has made it so they don't have to surface the spoilboard but about twice a school year.

So to answer your questions - yes you should skin the MDF both sides. I use regular MDF for my sheets. And yes it works REALLY well for a school environment. If you have two sheets, one student can get a job done, push it off to a mobile cart and then next student can get to work right away. This saves a lot of time and enables more students to get some CNC time.

[Kyle Stapleton]

Sounds great, when we get our bot can I pick your brain on table layouts?

[Kyle Stapleton]

Do you have any pictures of your setup that I could look at?

[dlcw]

Sounds great, when we get our bot can I pick your brain on table layouts?

That would be fine.

[dlcw]

Do you have any pictures of your setup that I could look at?

My personal setup or the school setup?

[Kyle Stapleton]

The both would be great.

Thanks again