Ok what went wrong with new spoilboard

[handh]

Ok maybe I have lost my mind or something like that but I needed to put a new spoilboard on today, in the past I have took the old one off and used silicone to put a new one back on. But after reading some past post I seen were some of you were just glueing a new board on top of your old one. So maybe I did something wrong or I just can't read correctly, here is what I did. I surfaced my old board down to 3/16" and then I layed a new board ontop and surfaced the back side and then I removed the new board and used yellow glue and glued the new board surfaced side down to the old board. Then i surface the other side of the new board. Then I went to put a pc of melamine to cut on the new spoilboard and I am not able to do any holding. I am pulling vaccum but nothing is coming through the board so did the glue seal it so good that it can not pull through it. So now I am in the process of taking off the new board. What went wrong are you all just glueing around the edges, I know just a little while a go I did a search on past post and one guy said that he glued it and let it set over the weekend.

[mmccue29]

Jeff,
The guys using yellow glue are not using a vacum. you should run a small bead of silcone to divide your zones. I use the vac to pull it down and the raptor nails to nail edges and in between zones.

[handh]

Michael,

I didn't catch that part I guess. I was wondering when we were doing it if the glue wouldn't block the air flow. This has me to wondering how they make mdf. Looks like the glue in it would prevent air flow. Well live and learn. Thanks Michael

[handh]

Next time I'm unsure of something it would be better to post before trying it instead of after. LOL

[myxpykalix]

One thing that might improve your suction (it did mine by 100%) Take a tube of silicone caulk and smear it on the edges of the mdf as I found you lose a lot of vacumn out the sides of the mdf.

[Brady Watson]

Jeff,
You are only supposed to put the glue sparingly around the perimeter and zone spearators ONLY! If you can't pry up your old bleeder, carefully machine down to the top of the grid, just barely flattening the tops of the grid and completely cleaning off the old bleeder. It's only necessary to replace the bleeder if you have poked thru the old one, exposing the grid and leaking vacuum as a result.

-B

[handh]

Brady,

That's what I was thinking about late last night, Just glue around the zones. How thin do you machine down to.

Jack,

I am already doing that and it does work good.

Jeff

[Brady Watson]

Jeff,
I run it 'til I see holes poking thru. I'm Scotch/Irish


-B

[jamesgilliam]

What is a new spoilboard? I am still running on the same one I put on when the bot was new, six years ago. Either you guys are too busy or I am not busy enough

[handh]

Wow, I replace mine about every 2 months, I cut about 40 sheets of melamine a week with the bot. I keep my surfaced good so that my sheet holds good. I probally surfaced 2 times a week. We make so many different cuts all over the board that the spoilboard just gets cut so much we have to surface, I don't see anyway around it. I friend of my has a larger shop close by and he said that he surfaced his spoilboard 2 times a day. So I don't feel that I am overdoing it. When it gets cuts, we lose vacumn and the small melamine parts will slip. What do you do that you have not had to change a board in 6 years, man Trupan would go out of business if every one got that kind of results, LOL.

[jamesgilliam]

Jeff, Since I don't use vacumn everything we do is held down by screws or clamps. Also we co alot of v carving so we do not cut all the way through the material. When we do have to cut all the way through I put a sheet of 1/2 insulation foam like you can get at Lowes or the orange box. That way the bit never touches the spoilboard. Mine could use a change as we have had a few "incidents", and have had a few things with v-carving that had to be cut out, but it will go a while longer still. I did scrap a bit the other day cutting the outside of a large sign I am doing. Oh well a $5.00 end mill bit the dust.

[jhicks]

The vac/spoil board definitions might come into play here so heres what we do.
1) Base board in MDF mounted on frame supports.
2) 2nd MDF board cut with plenums mounted on top of #1. Gasket inlaid in grooves 1/32" deep around each zone. This board is glued on its bottom to the base board and permanent.
3)On top of Plenum we have a 3/4" sheet of Trupan brand ultra lite. It has no screws, glue or nails. Just edge frames that are attached to its bottom along the top and bottom X axis. This board is 2" wider than the plenum below so the 1" lower fences basically just hold it from sliding in the Y axis.
This is the bleeder board that vacuum sucks through in several zones valved independently for the sizes we like.
4) On top of the bleeder board is another sheet of Trupan. This is the spoil board which gets cut into every day.
So with this set up we NEVER cut into the base, plenum, or bleeder board. ONLY the top spoil board. In this way we never replace any critical leveled or vac layers.
The spoil board has been in use since September. It admittedly was a bit high but works fine for most stock we cut up to 2". When we see too much cutting in the spoil board, we 1st turn it over, surface, and run more. Then when the 2nd side is worn, we surface both sides again, and start over.
With this technique and quite a lot of cutting over the past 6 months, we still have a 1/4" spoil board left from the original 3/4" TRUPAN and probably 1 more surfacing to go before its completely gone.
When it is, we will simply put down a new 3/4" or 1/2" sheet of trupan (no screws, glues, or nails)
on top of the bleeder board, surface and off to the races in a few minutes.
The only thing that holds the spoil board to the bleeder board is a 1" fence on the lower X axis running approximately 8 feet. The spoil board slips and slides when you want, but in the end, we simply leave it snugged up against that fence and the material to be cut on top, turn on the vac, and we're off to the races.
Simple, effective, long lasting, and easily replaced.

When we have something we decide to screw down, we place a sheet of 3/4" mdf or melimine down over a zone, the piece to be cut on top of that, screw or clamp it down and use the vac to hold the sub screw board so a screw never touches any of the table components to keep it fresh, flat, and useful.