Spoiler Board?

Anything and everything CNC-Shark-related

Moderators: ddw, al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon

Post Reply
recrisp
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:13 pm
Location: Texas

Spoiler Board?

Post by recrisp »

Right now I am clueless now as to how all/most things work in CNC, I don't own one yet, hence my possibly dumb question. :)

If I were to want to cut out a circle (for instance) out of wood, how would I go about that without cutting the board that is made into the Shark/Pro/Plus?
(I have a Pro Plus on order now, and it being an aluminum base, it makes me wonder how this'll work to not cut into the base board)

Hopefully that all makes sense.

I have read a couple of times of a board called a "spoiler board" to prevent that, that makes sense, but the reason I asked is that it's not talked about much, and I haven't seen many pictures of it.
Yesterday I saw a picture of a guy's set-up and he had a sheet of Luan for this purpose.
That may be the case, and if so, what is the best wood, or way to go about doing this?

Thanks,

Randy

spinningwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:28 am

Re: Spoiler Board?

Post by spinningwood »

Randy - If I'm going to be cutting through a work piece I put a flat piece of wood under the piece I'm cutting. The only important thing is that whatever you put between the table and the workpiece is flat. I have a lot of 1/4" plywood scrap from other projects so I use that. You could also use MDF, but the glue in some types of MDF can be tough on cutting edges. Depending on what you are doing, you probably don't want something very thick, to minimize loss of "Z".

Ed

GARYR6
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:12 am

Re: Spoiler Board?

Post by GARYR6 »

Most of us use some type of spoil board (mine is MDF) and run a flat routine to hold accuracy . If I have to cut through, I use tabs and a vac hold down, some times double sided tape.
These are issues you will work through , once you get to play little.
I wood (forgive the pun) not waste any time however, I would be practicing with the trail vrs. of software available from Vectric. You will spend much more time with it than mastering the mechanics machine. The machine will become an extension of what you see in your mind and can draw with your software. It is what makes all things possible and way fun.

recrisp
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:13 pm
Location: Texas

Re: Spoiler Board?

Post by recrisp »

Thanks Ed and Gary,

MDF does make more sense now that y'all brought it up, I don't think in terms of wood, more like plastic instead. (I'm not really a woodworker... yet)
I'll figure out a way to go about it when I get to it, I'm sure.

"Z" is what I was kind'a wondering too, not that I'd be doing anything that tall, much anyway.

As for the software, I already have it, and shouldn't (hopefully) have too much trouble, I'm pretty familiar with vector, (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc) but the 3-D stuff I'm not, plus, there'll be a learning curve with the different software.
I've already played in it some, not as much as I need to, but I'll be getting into it this week-end.

Thank you guys for your answers, I appreciate the time and ideas. :)

Randy

Post Reply