1. Yes, that is why they call it a sacrificial top. It is made to get whacked. Usually MDF (Meduim density fiber board...cheap stuff). I have seen people use nice metal tops out of aluminum. But I bet they get scratched and wacked just the same. You might break a few wood router bits on a metal top.
2. Vacuum tables are expensive to build, or at least can be, and a bit tricky. They might not work well with balsawood that is pretty porous (don't know really). There are two ways I've seen to hold stuff down easily.
A. Have your router, once built, to drill a bunch of holes in your sacrificial top so you can use screws/bolts or whatever to hold stuff down. A bolt tightened down with a metal-rectangle hanging off the top of it or an actual clamp of some kind.
B. I have seen people use a kind of T-Sloted wood top (Think of an upside T carved in rows in the wood). That way they used T-nuts and clamps or metal rectangles again to hold stuff down.
Just some ideas I've seen. I'm a complete newbie myself.  |