BT 32 Table Material

[Designer]

The machine comes with an MDF table top. I added a .75 thick spoiler board on top of it. Between the 2 I loose about 2 inches of Z. I am thinking about replacing the original table with .75 inch thick piece of good quality plywood and then adding a .50 thick spoiler board. Is this reasonable or is there a better option for the table?

[barrowj]

Just replace the spoil board with 1/2" mdf, that's what I use.

Joe

[tlempicke]

You do not want plywood for a spoil board! When you try to re-surface it the plys tear out and make a mess.
Be careful about the weight of what you are adding. MDF is really pretty heavy and when you add up the weight of the table and two 3/4 inh pieces of MDF you have quite a load.

[scottp55]

Philip,
I sat in on TJ's Buddy tutorial;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nr89_jZacs&feature=youtu.be&list=PLf632tVju0dEObXUdOZcxuihqSIyJSlHJ
I'm pretty sure he said the MDF spoilboard was Extira(wish mine was) and the guys at Shopbot were adding an additional cutting area sized spoilboard(around minute 7). I did similar on my Desktop and just machined mine down to .3" thickness so my BB wedges and fences worked.
Perhaps simply gluing 1/4" MDF on top of your Extira might save you some Z?
Then you can simply glue another layer on whenever you get down to a couple hundredth's. I only skim .01-.02" at a time usually and still have plenty left from my first glued on layer.
Just a thought.
scott
Oh, by gluing you just waterproofed the bottom of the MDF, good idea to seal the sides and top after surfacing/dimensioning edges with thinned sanding sealer(I use thinned Laq--penetrates a little deeper) and re waterproof top every couple surfacings so you don't introduce warping.

[Brady Watson]

...Between the 2 I loose about 2 inches of Z.

Simply replacing the material wouldn't be complicated enough for me. I would opt to raise the table sides (gantry) with a piece of 1530 8020 extrusion on top of the existing extrusion and get full Z travel. Then slap on whatever material I wanted because I gained Z. Doing so might even give me extra room for an indexer some day...Should I ever want to do this.

-B

There isn't a tutorial for this, but I have posted here before how to do it. 8020 has everything you need including splice plates. It's no more than $150 for everything including hardware. You have to pull 3" more of wires out of the control box to lift it. It ain't rocket science.

[Ajcoholic]

Simply replacing the material wouldn't be complicated enough for me. I would opt to raise the table sides (gantry) with a piece of 1530 8020 extrusion on top of the existing extrusion and get full Z travel. Then slap on whatever material I wanted because I gained Z. Doing so might even give me extra room for an indexer some day...Should I ever want to do this.

-B

There isn't a tutorial for this, but I have posted here before how to do it. 8020 has everything you need including splice plates. It's no more than $150 for everything including hardware. You have to pull 3" more of wires out of the control box to lift it. It ain't rocket science.

I have a 1" thick aluminum deck on my power stick ( mounted permanently) from Hubbard

On top of that I have a plenum of 3/4 starboard and another 3/4 mdf spoil board.

Raising the gantry as Brady suggested ( I went with 3") is awesome. More than enough clearance now for even machining 6" thick posts and deeper carvings with extended bits. And I did not see any loss in rigidity.


Raising the gantry is the second best modification I did after the aluminum deck. It's not difficult and not expensive either.

As for the buddy - I have a lot of weight on my deck always (the aluminum, starboard & mdf -plus what I'm cutting.) Never had any issues with weight and I regularly cut up to 6"/sec.

[Designer]

I really like the idea of raising the gantry. Would someone send me a picture of how they did it?
Also, I will try gluing the thinner MDF to my table. That sounds good also.

Thanks much:-)

[Ajcoholic]

I really like the idea of raising the gantry. Would someone send me a picture of how they did it?
Also, I will try gluing the thinner MDF to my table. That sounds good also.

Thanks much:-)

I did a step by step on this with photos in my thread on lifting the buddy.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?20402-Lifting-the-Buddy

[Designer]

Thanks for the picture. I'll take a look at my BT32 to see if I can do the same (I suspect I can).

[Designer]

Looks good. I looked at my machine and it appears that I could do the same. Would you be able to tell me where you purchased the extrusions (they look like those on the machine except 3 inch tall) and the plates?

[Brady Watson]

Looks good. I looked at my machine and it appears that I could do the same. Would you be able to tell me where you purchased the extrusions (they look like those on the machine except 3 inch tall) and the plates?

You'll have to do more than look at the pretty pictures. Read Andrew's thread & follow the links... Everything you need to know is in there --> http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?20402-Lifting-the-Buddy

-B

[Ajcoholic]

Yes I had used the advice from Brady's posts to tackle this.

I bought the 3" wide extrusions from a Canadian supplier (as well as the joiner plates and bolts) that was advertising on Ebay. That stuff seems to be very common, although more so in the USA. You shouldnt have issue finding the parts.

The most time consuming part was re-squaring the gantry. I made many cuts (just a large square) and checked/rechecked until it was perfectly square.

Been very happy with the machine. I havent seen any negative - but man is it great to have the extra height, especially for some of the solid wood work I do.