I was a little nervous to use the clamps as my only hold down but they worked great! I ran a cut through at 380in/min feed rate and there was zero movement. So handy to not have to fiddle with screws or aligning tape!
The cut through was very precise too. My material measured 0.687 and I programed a 0.69 profile. It cut through perfectly and hardly left a mark on the spoilboard.
For a project of this size feel free to use the provided blue tape and CA glue. Clamps are great but in the case of the circular cutouts you could avoid the use of tabs AND still be safe with smart application of blue tape and CA glue.
It’s my preferred hold down for small projects.
Yes I try to avoid tabs as much as possible too. For the cutouts I used a compression bit with no dust collection and the chips keep the center circle in place without tabs. Having cut out a few hundred circles over the last couple years I can say it works fantastic for circles. The tape method is excellent too!
Is this clamps with the vacuum hold down system also on?
@stepho No, clamps only. The big cnc has the vacuum bed. The little cnc has t tracks.
Thanks for that detail on that. I’m glad it was so successful for you. I’m much more likely to be using the small machine, so I will be aiming to pay extra attention to folks using that one
