CNC Shark Forum

I use 3/4" MDF for my spoil board. It is easy to surface when needed. On those occasions that I tighten a hold down screw too tight and it pulls the MDF up, I willuse a 1" chisel to flatten the MDF where it is pulled up. This lengthens the time between surfacing operations.
Barry Anderson

Here's what I've been using for the last few years. If I do a cut out, I use a 1/4" thick MDF on top of it. I love it for durability, repeatability and ease of set up. I have flattened it once since the first time. Obviously I use clamps exclusively and never use screws into it.

http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... uper+scarf

I may be a little more on the extreme side with my spoil board but I use two pieces of 3/4" MDF glued together and then I mount it to my base. The reason for using two pieces is that it allows me to use countersunk bolts to mount the spoil board to the T slot base and it also allows me to use threaded inserts for mounting material to the spoil board. I feel MDF is better than plywood because it won't Splinter when you hit it with a bit or try to resurface it. I find MDF to stay flatter overtime then plywood. Also since I cut a lot of aluminum on my machine, using MDF helps to suck up the cutting oil as well. I just recently redid my board and my last spoiled board lasted close to a year before it had to be changed. I probably use my machine 16 to 20 hours a week and require a resurfacing almost every week. So with that thickness of spoil board it allowed me to get a lot out of it before it had to be replaced.

There are several references to putting some T-track slots into an MDF Spoilboard. These will fit all sorts of clamps, but will the clamps tend to pull up on the MDF making the clamps less secure and the top less flat?

Thanks
Dave