Material hold

[gabi68]

Hi again,

I want to know from you guy's what is the method which you can hold the material on the work table. I want to know some methods without vaccum (is very expensive for me at this time).

THX

[project5k]

well, can you tell us a little about your machine and what kind of material you are trying to hold down? there are lots of options, but if we know a little more about what your trying to do, it will help us make more appropriate suggestions...

[gabi68]

HI,

I want to hold on the work area MDF, plastic sheet, plywood, foam. My machine has this specs: x=3000 mm, y=2500 mm, z=250mm, porter cable 3.5HP. So, please tell me how I can hold this materials on the table.

THX

Originally Posted by project5k well, can you tell us a little about your machine and what kind of material you are trying to hold down? there are lots of options, but if we know a little more about what your trying to do, it will help us make more appropriate suggestions...

[project5k]

ok.. well you could screw the materials down.. you could use some little step blocks..

will you allways use the same size materials, or will you be using different sizes?

[gabi68]

The size's are different. I work with different sizes of MDF or OSB panels, The tickness is also different. So any idea...

Tnx a lot for your concern. You are very nice person. Thx again

[JWC]

One method I've use on plastics is to use a thick(.500" or larger) acrylic sheet double-backed taped to the milling table as a base plate. I would then double back tape the sheet of work plastic to that and mill out the required parts. Clean it up with alcohol and tape the next sheet down.

[Rodm1954]

I use a few different ways depending on what I am going. First I always use a cover sheet on the table of my machine so I don't mark my table top when cutting thorugh jobs. The cover sheet is usually 12mm MDF and is held to the table at each end with four sliding clamps.

I have found the easiest and most secure way of holding jobs down is to use countersunk screws and screw the job down to the cover sheet in at least two places that are not in the cutting path.

Other methods are double sided tape and various assortment of clamping arrangements where I use timber battens and clamps. The battens are the lenght of the table and only get clamped on each end. The clamping is usually not a very neat arrangement but it is quick and it works.

I am still looking for the ideal clamping system.

[Madclicker]

This morning I ran a couple dozen or so pieces of MDF and took a pic of how I hold them down. Just down and dirty and not pretty at all, but I just can't bring myself to devote the time to build vacuum fixtures so I can use my nice pump.

Anyway I use a spoil board held down to the table with knobs and bolts connected to the t-track in my tabletop (everyone has t-tracks, right?). For this op I used scraps that are rabbeted and screwed into the spoil board to "clip" the piece down. On these pieces I would just screw them to the spoil board, but I couldn't find the right size screws and didn't want to mess up my pretty table top.