Was wondering what brand of MDF everyone is using for the spoilboard on a cnc router table. It seams like everytime I order MDF I get a different kind. Some better, some worse.
Thanks, Kevin Sparling
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
i use medex which i think is the same...i'm about to mill my table 1/8" for the first time...just to take off all those cut lines...thank god it's just a superficial layer!
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
I've not seen any manufacturers name on the sheets we buy but we get it from Home Depot. I guess its all about the same...
Posted by Rookie432 (Member # 1754) on :
Anybody using anything other than mdf. If meg out mine and it can fluctuate as much as 1/4" in every direction. Great price for spoilboard but for fine inlay work it can get irritating?
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
You're supposed to mill it everytime before you start using it and on both sides.
Posted by Kevin Sparling (Member # 3656) on :
Thanks folks, I will just have to start going and getting it myself. So I can see what they are selling me.
Kevin Sparling
Posted by TJ Duvall (Member # 3133) on :
By spoil board do you mean the table surface? If so mine is Sintra. have had it for a year and haven't had to mill it yet. I rarely cut into it.
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
A spoil board is a sacrificial sheet of material that is pourous. It goes by the name MDF (medium density fiberboard).Your vacuum system sucks air through the spoilboard and that is what holds your material in place. If you cut too deep you only cut into the spoilboard and not the tables original phenolic surface top. This way you never need to re-mill your table top.
The sheets come 4 x 8 x 3/4" and run about $20.00 You periodically need to mill the surface of the spoil board once you have a lot of cut marks in it. You only have to take 1/64" off it unless you really screwed up and cut deep into the board. It last a long time if you dont need to remill often.
Now does anyone know if it comes in 5'x10' sheets since this is the size of our router tables cuttable area?
[ March 12, 2003, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Bob Stephens ]
Posted by Tony B (Member # 935) on :
Bob, I worked as a quality control man in an MDF plant (we made agrifiber panels out of sugarcane bagasse) and I don't know if there is a plant that makes 5 x 10 but you may try searching around, you never know. I've seen magazines where some of these larger plants have 12' x 12' sheets, but they get cut into 4 x 8's. You might want to try industrial wood suppliers, we made a 49 x 97 sheet size for these type of customers, (cabinet makers,office furniture etc) so maybe there is a supplier for the size you want. You guys mentioned that the sheet is pourous, do you mean that tiny holes are drilled into the sheet? I know the stuff we made wouldn't work without doing the hole thing.
Good luck on your search.
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
Tony the material is pourous. Your vacuum pump sucks the air right through the MDF...It seems impossible but it really does pull it through.
I have never used a clamp to hold material down. Thats the job of the vacuum hold down pump. I call them invisible clamps and I lose them cause I cant find them.
Posted by John Smith (Member # 1308) on :
This is the best use for MEDEX I have seen in years !!!! Posted by Kevin Sparling (Member # 3656) on :
Bob, the ones I have now are 61" x 97" but it looks like masonite. It's a darker color than usual and doesn't mill very clean, has kind of a peach fuzz feel after its milled. It also doesn't seem to be as porous. I will have to try the medex, haven't used any in years. I'll see if my supplier has any.
Kevin Sparling
Posted by Gail & Dave Beattie (Member # 572) on :
we used to use the cover sheets that the supplier gets on top of their packs of mdf when delivered, devo's brother managed a miter10 hardware store so he gave em to us for nufin... good price hey! but even if you have to buy them thaey are usually as cheap as chips!
because we cut all sorts of things on our table from 10mm alluminium to edgelite acrylic, .4 rowmark to 45mm hardwood timber slabs, we had to mill the table top quite often devo got a huge bit made to speed up that process messy job but when your engraving .2mm into acrylic you can't take any chances that the whole thing isn't flat
we had a real old router so it was BVT (before vacuum tables)
we built a vacuum table top for the small jobs that needed it out of aluminium because that type o routing for us was little more than engraving... we never cut all the way thru
when we were cutting aluminium we put a sheet of corflute (that plastic stuff i think you call sumfin else) on top of the mdf cause we used a water soluble lubricant and the flutes in the plastic chaneled the liquid away instead of swelling the board
for rowmark (more thin plastic stuff you probably call a different name) we used double sided tape on a corflute backing sheet to stop the shapes flying off every where when they were cut out
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