How to Make a Work Holding CNC Wasteboard | ToolsToday

We made a Work Holding CNC Wasteboard using Amana Tool® Industrial Router Bits on the STEPCRAFT M.1000 CNC machine, how do you think it turned out?

The customizable plans for this project are also available on our site with item no. M_1000_BOARD if you want to make this project yourself!

Cam Clamps for Work Holding Wasteboard CNC Plans, item no. CAM_CLAMP

Feed & Speed Cutting Parameters

Amana Tool® 46202-K SC Spektra™ Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/4 Dia x 3/4 CH x 1/4 SHK 2-1/2 Inch Long Down-Cut Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 100ipm
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Max Depth Per pass: 0.25"

Amana Tool 46102-K SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/4 Dia x 3/4 CH x 1/4 SHK 2-1/2 Inch Long Up-Cut Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 100ipm
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Depth per pass: 0.25"
Peck Drilling tool path for wasteboard holes: 0.25" per pass and retract above material.

Amana Tool RC-2265 CNC Spoilboard Insert Carbide 3 Wing, Surfacing, Planing, Flycutting & Slab Leveler 1-1/2 Diameter x 1/4 SHK Router Bit
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 200ipm
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Depth of cut: 0.04"

Amana Tool 49544 Carbide Tipped 4 Flute Corner Rounding/Beading 1/8 R x 7/8 D x 7/16 CH x 1/4 Inch SHK w/ Lower Ball Bearing Router Bit

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey guys, how's it going? Today, I'm going to show you how I made this super awesome Work Holding Wasteboard for the Stepcraft M1000 CNC. Basically, you have a fence that is bolted down to the actual Wasteboard with CAM clamps that push up against that fence to hold your pieces in securely. It's a super quick, easy way to clamp everything down and it holds really nicely. We do have plans available for this on our website. So, be sure to check the link down in the description. Without further ado, let me show you how I made it. Starting on a new project here to make a Work Holding Wasteboard for the Stepcraft M1000.

I got it all stuck down to my wasteboard that I was using as a sacrificial wasteboard and using the 46202-K 1/4” Spektra coated down-cut bit. We're going to go through here and cut in the pocket for all of the T-Nuts. So, we're gonna use T-Nuts to hold everything down. So, we need a pocket for the head of those. So, this went through. There's over 450 holes here in the Amana tool line with Micrograin Carbide did a really, really nice job leaving perfectly clean cuts and the bit is still incredibly looking brand new, even after 450 holes. So, this bit has a really, really long life and stay sharp for a very long time. The T-Nuts fit great. So, now we can get that switched out for the 46102-K ¼" Spektra coated upcut bit.

The upcut bit does a really nice job removing the chips or evacuating those out of the cut, where the down cut bit is designed to leave a clean top surface. And with 450 holes to do, we want to make sure that we don't have any sort of cleanup work and using these two bits in combination will definitely work great. So, we use that to go through and pocket out all of the holes for the T-Nuts and then pocket out all of the holes for where the wasteboard is actually going to bolt down to the CNC. I went ahead and used it again as the profile for the wasteboard as well, just to make sure that we had a nice clean top surface. These little frayed edges here, basically just pull off with just rubbing your finger and it comes right off.

So anyways, we got the entire profile all cut. So, this wasteboard is now cut down to size. If you love this type of content, be sure to subscribe to our channel, go ahead and hit that bell so that you'll be notified on all of the new videos when they're released. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram @toolstoday. So, we can take that and get that removed from the CNC. And once again, I'm just super impressed with these bits. The Spektra coating and the fine graded carbide here really shine through as there is nowhere visible on the bit which is definitely nice to see. So, we get it moved over to the workbench and get all of these T-Nuts all hammered in. I tried a few different methods on doing this. But I found that actually putting every single one in and then hammering that one in fully seemed to work best.

Sometimes when you try to add a bunch of them at the same time, they'll all pop out while you're adding in all of the other ones. So, I think it's super satisfying to see all of these T-Nuts go in and try to do a little gradient pattern here at the end. And it's definitely really satisfying to see all of it come together. And so, after quite a bit of work, the T-Nuts are all hammered in. So, there were some that ended up popping back up a little bit. So, I had a little jig here. It's just basically a bolt with some nuts on it, that I was able to hammer those in.

Another way to do this to make sure that everything is fully seated, is to use a bolt from the top. And basically, it'll suck it back up into the Wasteboard. Before removing the Wasteboard, I'm going to cut a little jig here that is also included in the plans out of some scrap ¼" plywood. And we're just going to use this to help align all of the nuts within the T tracks so that way it makes installing the wasteboard quite a bit easier. So, we're just using the 46202-K downcut bit to cut this entire jig. So, we'll get that pulled off of the CNC. And you can see how it fits in there basically to help us with aligning the nuts with the hole since they're really difficult to access after the fact of putting the wasteboard on there.

Before installing the new wasteboard, I set my Z zero position just below the MDF wasteboard and the aluminum T tracks, just above the aluminum T tracks. Accidentally I set it a little bit too deep. So, I did cut into those aluminum T tracks. It doesn't really matter. It's just kind of a cosmetic thing. The bit handled it just fine. So, that wasn't a big deal at all. But this will be a really nice reference for putting everything on. So, that reference point is the exact outside location of where we just cut the wasteboard. So, this will make aligning everything up really easily. So, this is the use of the jig. So, we got everything aligned to the left side. And then we can get the bolts all installed to ensure that the nuts are all in the proper location. It makes aligning these really easy.

So, I went through and did that for all of the areas that we are going to add the bolts through the top of the wasteboard to hold everything down. So, I wanted to get the first four corners in. I got everything all tightened down. And you can see how it aligns with the profile on the outside. So, this will make removing it easier if you ever need to and getting everything lined up really easy. So, again, using the ¼” down cut bit, we're going to go through and cut out a pocket for the head of the bolts that we'll use to actually attach it to the stock wasteboard. So, we're just going to go through here and do everything except those first four corners where we already have bolts holding it to the wasteboard. So, we'll get everything else installed. And here's a bit of a trick if you run into a nut that is out of place.

So, this nut got moved a little bit. So, it's over here. We can't get to it to push it back this way. So, we're going to use some compressed air from the other side and shoot that to get the nut to move. So, if you ever have that run into that issue, that's a really easy way to solve that. And the nut popped out here. So, that means that we can push this back to the location that we need. Insert our bolt and get everything tightened. So, that's a really easy way if you have an issue where a nut moves on you. Now that it's bolted down on the other locations, we can remove the bolts from the four corners and get those pockets all pocketed out as well using the same bit. Then we'll get the bolts all insert into bit [0:05:40 unclear] there and get everything all nicely tightened down.

After that is done, we will take a pen and just mark the wasteboard to make sure that we're flattening the entire thing and I'll use the RC-2265 3-wing insert carbide flattening bit to go through here and do all of the flattening. So, I started off doing this with a GoPro and quickly realized that it’s going to create too much dust. So, we got the Fein Turbo II vacuum all turned on and then dust boot installed to flatten the rest of the MDF wasteboard. I went down at 0.04" to do the initial flattening. The bolt heads are located well below the surface of the wasteboard. So, you can flatten this several times before ever having to worry about possibly remaking the wasteboard or anything like that. Get everything vacuumed off. And you can see that everything is really nice and flat and more importantly, parallel to the CNC.

So, everything should cut exactly like we intend. So, using some XFasten brand double-sided tape, I'll get the parts for the fence all installed on both sides. And we'll pick up the 46202-K down cut bit to cut in all of the bolt head pockets for the fence where it'll bolt down to the wasteboard. So, we got all of those done. And we'll switch out for the 46102-K ¼" up cut bit again to get all of the pockets drilled out for where the bolts will go through and attach it to the wasteboard. So, now that that is done, we'll get those all pulled back off. And one thing to note here, it is really important to make sure that you get all of these little dots that may be left out of the way and even out of the holes in the wasteboard if they happen to have made it down there. That way everything threads in really nicely and you don't accidentally cross thread something into the waste board. So, we'll get the wasteboard installed now that we have the through-holes and get everything nicely lined up.

So, now we can get the actual profile cut on the fence as well. And again, we'll use the ¼" down cut bit to do that. And essentially this is going to square the fence to the machine. So, every piece that you're going to want to cut on this is going to reference that square. So, it's really important to be able to have that all perfectly squared to the machine. So, we'll get everything vacuumed off and we're going to cut our clamps here. Since I've done a wasteboard like this before and absolutely love it, I'm going to use the clamps here just to demonstrate how they work. So essentially, they are cam clamps. So, while we're cutting out the clamps, you can see how well it holds everything down. So, use ¼ 20 bolts just to bolt into the wasteboard and the cam clamps press up against the fence so it's going absolutely nowhere.

So, using the same 1/4" down cut bit, we'll cut all of the clamps out. So, we're going through and making the pocket for the bolt head and the washer. And then going through and doing the profile cut using tabs to hold everything in place. Since we flatten this waste board, we don't need to cut very much into the actual spoil board at all. So, it leaves a very, very small dent so you don't really need to flatten these all that often. Once it's done, it's simple. Just turn the cam clamps and get them all out. Using the Fein Multimaster Multi Tool, we got all of the tabs cut and then I'll move over to the SawStop Router Table with the 49544 1/8" radius, 4 Flute round over bit to flush trim the tabs as well as kind of ease the edges over. Notice, I did not touch the actual clamp head and just touched where my hands will be to make it a little bit nicer to the touch. And you can see that everything is held in really nice and tight and it's super easy to adjust.

Essentially just remove the bolts, put in a new bolt where the material is going to be. Sometimes they don't line up perfectly. There's a little bit too big of a distance here. So, you may need to use just a piece of scrap spacer and get everything nicely clamped and setup is incredibly easy for production work. It's really easy to remove pieces and get everything all taken out and you have the exact same X& Y zero position with the front left corner for every project. This is easily my favorite work holding solution on the CNC. It's all side holding, you're not going to run into any clamps. So, that's definitely really nice. But be sure to check out the plans for this on our website to make one for yourself. That's going to do it for this project. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Have a great day everybody.

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