I’ve moved to Bangor ME, where our very-much-smaller makerspace is just bringing the first CNC router on line: a 2ftx3ft (600x900mm) MPCNC – similar size to the [Laguna iQ][Laguna iQ CNC - Asmbly Wiki) but significantly less rigid. What’s worse, I am one of the more experienced CNC operators
I’m writing to ask for general advice, but also a few specifics:
Do you have class manuals posted online, or that you are willing to share with me (mrflip at mrflip dot com)?
What is the work holding process for through cuts of sheet goods on the small machine? The picture shows MDF slats with short clearance from t-track, and the machine manual seems to recommend using it directly. I’d expect the track to soon earn many apprentices marks in a shared workspace (and the gaps to cause tear out and load peaks). Our machine is most rigid close to the bed
Should we recommend, or disallow, cheap bits while we are in the early days? We’re only permitting 1/8” bits (to serve as a “fuse” so that crashes or bad tool paths wreck the bit, not the machine). I know the cheap bits wear quickly, but don’t know what “quickly” means compared to the high breakage rate I expect for our skill and machine quality
Did you get the special air nailer for the composite nails, or can we get away with a normal nailer and instructions on how to clean jams? (The specialized one is way out of our price range)
Please share any other advice or cautions. Thanks!
So wonderful to hear from you @mrflip! I hope Bangor is treating you well
@jamesfreeman will have a ton of insights to share on this along with several others, but I can share some.
Absolutely! We’ll send you what we’ve got documentation wise.
One of our members made a ton of variations of hold downs for the T-track (cut out on the CNC of course ) and we’re got a few out-of-the-box low profile clamps like this style. Blue tape and CA glue with activator is also at each CNC station and a great option. The T-track will undoubtedly get damaged and the slats will need to be replaced periodically. We have some of the egregiously gouged slats on the wall by the machine
I was hoping the files for the custom clamps might be in this SHARED — Projects folder, but I don’t see it in there. Maybe someone else knows where they are and can share. You can see a glimpse of some of them on the Woodshop page on the website in the header video.
Thank you! We have very good 3D printers so bootstrapping to a set of CNC’d clamps will be straightforward if you find the drawings. I also recall fondly some wunderwaffen laser clamps that sat flat on the honeycomb – if you find stls or w/e for those (or for good dust collection cyclones) they would benefit us mightily. Operational docs (maintenance/checklists/etc) or class manuals are even more precious: even if I can’t bring them across, just knowing which ones and what level of detail to prepare is invaluable.
I need to learn more about the capability of our machine, but I’m concerned that neither cutting new slats precisely nor surfacing the spoilboard are within reach, and our poor dust collection setup makes me skeptical of CA glue/tape (especially with a well-used spoilboard). I am going to push for a 0,0 dog fence, presized blanks clamped to threaded inserts on a very coarse grid and supplemental raptor nails. Thank you for validating that we should only put down the t-tracks + slats if we’re prepared to replace them regularly.
(Yes, Bangor is treating us very well! We’re very lucky, this makerspace’s culture is lovely, laid back and gaming-focused, so everything else feels easy. I’m experiencing it as a groundhog’s day re-run of 2015 Hackerspace: no money, no rules, the essential pieces of kit (member-built), and founders that are not yet burned out. We lack a Danny, but we have a Joe, so I’m optimistic that all that lies between us and a Tormach is a good set of class manuals, someone to do marketing, and extensive cribbing from what y’all have done at ASMBLY)
I like to use my own clamped down spoilboard on top of the spoilboard. I use tape and glue to attach my workpiece. It gives you a clean surface for tape and glue, and you won’t cut into the machine spoilboard.
) and we’re got a few out-of-the-box low profile clamps like 
