Leveling the playing field

[jazpeitia]

I have tried everything to level my black diamond. I tried using virtual setup with the touch pad to map my surface and took oak boards and end milled flat so it would account for gantry misalignment. Neither have worked and I still get my designs deeper on one side and sometimes non exist ant on the other. Does anybody have other suggestions please? I'm pulling my hair out. Thanks

[Dash]

Search "scarf board"...Someone on here posted a plan for one and I made one for my machine. Works great and I made mine out of left over MDF...Should solve your problems...

Enjoy the "game"... That' s why I am surfing....

Thanks,
Dash

[rsetina]

This worked for me. The cost for the t bolts were a bit much but I have a flat surface now and if I need to resurface the slats at any point I can, several times before having to replace them.

http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=10

[drueth]

Jazpeitia

This may be a bit much but it should help you get your Shark setup and running. It should give you a good idea of what can cause the problem you are seeing
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2297 . There are many other post on this site dealing with this issue. Try a search with "leveling"

Good luck and I hope you get your Shark up and running.

[davemartin88]

This worked for me. The cost for the t bolts were a bit much but I have a flat surface now and if I need to resurface the slats at any point I can, several times before having to replace them.

http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=10

New Shark owner and just looked at the post showing the oak slats and wood clamps. Looks like a great idea but just to be clear, are the oak slats held to the existing bed by nylon bolts?

Dave M.

[rungemach]

The oak slats can be held to the machine with any type of fastener. Steel, Aluminum, or plastic. The same applies to the hardware you use with your clamps. My slats and newest clamps are all oak. Strong enough to clamp, soft enough to cut through, cheap enough to replace without tears.

Personally, I chose steel to bolt my slats down, and recessed the head of the fastener and washer into the oak slats so that the top of the bolt head is still .250 below the surface of the .75 thick slats. If I an cutting through material, I will also use a .125 thick sacrificial surface under the workpiece. I initially was going to use Nylon bolts, but wanted the extra tightening strength to hold the slats very tight to make the table as stiff as possible. I figured if I made a mistake and cut over .250 into the slat and was also unlucky enough to hit one of the bolt locations, I would live with the broken router bit, replace the individual slat and re-plane the top surface as penance for my error. I made up an extra 2 slats when installing them, and haven't had to use either yet. (knock on wood)

Because you can CNC machine the recesses for the bolts and washers, you can set the depth to accommodate a standard bolt length and cut the recessed holes to closely fit the washers.

If you are going to do a slats type top, I suggest moving the aluminum extrusions around to put the narrow ones on the outside, to make all the slats the same and get a uniform pattern of clamp down strips across the table. Also suggest using clamps that hold the workpiece from the sides as well as the top. The Rockler style clamps only press down from the top and can encourage over tightening and flexing of the aluminum table.

[jazpeitia]

Okay this is what I have done so far and I am out of ideas. I ensured the gantry was 90 degrees to he table, I strengthened the table by adding cross bars for rigidity(seen this on youtube) and went ahead and milled mdf slats hoping for a perfect outcome..... Not. I'm really not understanding how this is not fixing the problem. So for everyone's visualization I have taken two pieces of wood that were flat as possible and used a 1/8 ball nose to draw a rectangle. The different pieces of wood had the same problem. As you can see on the farright lower part of the rectangle it seems my moving upward and therefore not that deep or non existant look at the pics..... I hope this will assist you in helping me....thanks

[jazpeitia]

Well, by chance I took off my boot and what do you know..... It is now cutting just fine. I did a cut with and without it and you can see the results plainly. Thanks for everyone's help. I guess I'll give the boot to the boot .

[milo30]

When you use the boot you need a gap between it and your work surface. This will not only keep the bristles from deflecting off of the surface but will allow the dust collection to duck in air resulting in cool air for the router and bit as well as resulting in better suction.

Even if it does not collect all of the chips it will help remove the more dangerous dust from the air