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CNC Table Flattening
Timothy Watson

All,

I am working with my son-in-law on a CNC he is building mostly from 3D printed parts. We are having issues with depth of cut due to the table not being flat. He started with a nice sheet of birch plywood. Added a piece of hardboard on top for a economical sacrificial base. He has already added a shim in the middle of the sheet. It is 4' by 7' giving t a pretty good size table.


I think it was Woodsmith that had some plans to build one from wood and I assume some of you have tried various ways to build a CNC.


If you could provide suggestions on what some of you have done when leveling up a table for a shop built CNC is would be much appreciated.

Paul Jacobson
Assuming your rails are strong enough to not sag as the motor and cutter move along the length of this— 
Let the tool flatten its own base. 

Install a wide bit, sometimes called a surfacing bit or a spoil board cutting bit (your sacrificial base is called a spoil board) and set a program that sends the router over the entire base, taking a very light cut. You may need to do this additional times. 

A top of MDF will machine smoothly, but it creates a lot of fine dust. If the irregularities are severe, use 3/4” thick material as the base, and you can resurface this many times.  1/2” thick MDF will be less expensive, though.  

Here is one which uses replaceable carbide inserts for its cutting edges. There are less expensive versions made of high speed steel,  or carbide tipped, which are resharpenable. 


 This should cut away all the high spots and leave you with a flat base. 

Paul Jacobson


Sent from my iPhone

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