Benchtop Pro 2x3

[DonFrambach]

Where did you purchase the grease fittings?

I bought them through Amazon. Here's a link:
https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Grease...5519899&sr=8-3

[DonFrambach]

Time to upgrade my spoil board. Since my machine was assembled several years ago, the spoil board has simply been sheets of MDF which I flattened with the router initially and as they became worn down. Projects were usually screwed to the spoil board. Occasionally, I used the blue tape method. Sometimes both hold down methods were used simultaneously. This has worked well but it took too long to secure some of my recent projects thus inspiring this upgrade.

T-track will be used for clamping. Dog holes for alignment and light clamping. I may add screw inserts if that seems appropriate later.

Since I only have access to the top of my machine bed, this is how I put it together:

Two 3/4 pieces of baltic birch were laminated together and then bolted to each of the four machine bed supports.
Care was taken to make certain the plywood was level with the machine bed supports.


I used Armor tool t-track that is double sided so that it can be secured to a board with t-nuts. (link to Amor tool: Quick-Track Archives - Armor Tool)

I laminated a piece of 3/4 inch baltic birch to a 1/2 in piece of baltic birch and secured the track to the plywood with T-bolts.
The T-bolts did not slide well horizontally over the vertical T-tracts as supplied by Armor so I milled down the slight ridges. Hence the visible bare aluminum.


1/4" grooves were cut in the front face of the plywood to orient the t-track and relief holes were cut in the back so that the securing t-bolts and nuts did not protrude:



3/4" MDF was then cut to fit between the T-track and secured to the plywood with 1/4" hex bolts and threaded inserts placed in the plywood. The spoil board when then installed in the router with 1/4" hex bolts and threaded inserts.


Another piece of MDF was then glued on top and grooves were cut to expose the underlying T-track. I did not cut a groove to expose the middle vertical t-track but may do that in the future.



The last glued down layer of MDF hides the many hex bolts.
However, this MDF can be milled away thus exposing the hex bolts and making it possible to remove this spoil board.
The dog holes will be cut when the dogs arrive Monday. Before that, I'll confirm that my machine gantry is square.

This upgrade was inspired by Jay Bates. Here's a link to a youtube video describing his spoil board:

[DonFrambach]

Before drilling the dog holes in my new spoil board, I checked my gantry for square. I had previously squared the gantry as recommended on the AVIDCNC website.

Since I had just exposed the t-tracks in the spoil board by making vertical grooves, I as able to use those grooves as a reference for my precision square.


I could then precisely measure the y position as I moved across the bottom of the square.
Before I started, the error was .007" over about 14 inches. Although it probably wasn't necessary, I took the opportunity to adjust the error to .0022 over 14.444 inches.

[DonFrambach]

Drilled the dog holes. Really stressed about placement. Decided to place them in a simple array surrounding the T-tracks. Spaced them about 1 inch from the edge of the horizontal tracks. Wished I spaced them a little farther away. If I really don't like the placement, making a new spoil board top won't be that hard. The holes were made 1" deep except for the 15 holes that were close to the vertical and horizontal T-tracks. These dog holes were made only .875" to avoid hitting the 1/4 20 hex nuts securing the first layer of MDF to the plywood board. These deeper than needed holes will allow the spoil board to be resurfaced multiple times.


I made the holes very tight so that they will remain precise as they loosen. Right now it is a little difficult to seat and remove the dogs. The dogs that I purchased have M8x1.25 threads that fit the Festool locking knobs. These knobs make it easy to install and remove the dogs.


saved the machine coordinates of the zero point of the lower left of the spoil board so that I can use the dogs for precise placement of material on my machine bed.

[XYZGnomon]

Have you lost any rigidity by removing the aluminum extrusions? I had considered them a structural component.

I have the same machine on order, BTW. I just found this thread and it's nice to see examples of how others have used this machine. I'm also not going with the Avid spindle, mainly because I only have a domestic circuit with no hope of ever having 220. I found a very nice 2HP 1.5kw ER20 spindle on AliExpress, and I went with a KBDF-27D VFD. I plugged it in to a step-up transformer and fried the power board, and after replacing a bank of capacitors there's still a fault code. Hopefully I'll have that worked out soon, before the machine shows up!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002504467195.html
https://www.electricmotorwholesale.com/9675-KBDF-27D/

[DonFrambach]

Have you lost any rigidity by removing the aluminum extrusions? I had considered them a structural component.

I have not noted any change in rigidity though I only use the machine to take fairly light cuts in wood and plastic so that does not stress the machine very much.

You're going to enjoy using your new machine!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don