Surfacing table

[jim]

another newbie question.. I know I have seen iy on here some where but can't find it now that I'm ready for it. What size cutter and feed rate,spindle speed do most of you use for surfacing and for the vacuum board also
thanks

[harryball]

I use the 1.25" cutter, for the UL MDF spoilboard surface I run at 12 ips and 16k RPM and 50% overlap, seems to work OK.

I also plane cedar boards at 8 ips and 14k with 1/16" or less cuts.

Start with something safe and tune from there.

Robert

[ljdm]

Any idea what speed I can run my 2000 PR at surfacing, am using a 1.5" cutter at 16000. At 1.75ips, takes a loooooong time! Running Sb2.38

[jim]

thanks that what I needed to know
another question if you don't mind
how do i set for 50% overlap?

[beacon14]

Lou, try surfacing a piece of scrap and increase your speed incrementally until your router starts bogging down or you loose steps, then back off a little. You may be surprised at how fast you can go if you are only taking off a small amount.

Jim, the [V]alue [C]utter command has a parameter for "pocket overlap" - this sets the overlap on CC and CR commands when you use the pocketing feature.

I use a 1.5" cutter with a 1.25" stepover at 6ips taking off .02" per pass on my PRT Alpha with a PC router - it takes about 8 minutes to surface my 4x8 table. I wrote a program to surface back and forth instead of using the CR command - it's a good bit faster.

[Gary Campbell]

Jim..
With our PRSa we use a 2 1/2" Amana bit @15000 rpm 2" stepover @6ips for spoilboard. We surface hardwoods @ 15000, 1 1/4" & 4ips. All these are easily set up as we use David B's Surface Planer Routine.
Gary

[ljdm]

Dave... I'm only taking small amount surfacing new spoilboard, guess I can increase speed. Can I get your program?

[jim]

thanks for the info. Where can I find David's surface planer file?

[Gary Campbell]

Jim..Lou..
Try this thread
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/29/7427.html?1113888158#POST23422

Gary

[beacon14]

Here is a simplified and annotated version of the file I ended up with. It is intended to be used only for surfacing the spoilboard so it starts at 0,0 and has fewer inputs. It sets the move and jog speeds as well as the table size from within the file so if you use it BE SURE TO MODIFY THESE SETTINGS BY EDITING THE FILE FOR YOUR MACHINE AND TABLE SIZE before running the file.

spoilboard surfacer

3144 (2.5 k)

[knight_toolworks]

one thing I have found that can keep the dust from flying so much is to lower the rpms. around 10k will help keep the dust from blowing past the shroud.

[ljdm]

Thnaks for the surfacer file. Question still at large - what is the fastest realistic speed a PR is capable of? I'd rather not try something too fast(PRSalpha speed on PR machine) and ruin a good spoilboard...or worse. Thanks for any info

[jim]

thanks everyone for your information it was a great help

[bill.young]

There's some preliminary info on surfacing your table top in the ShopBot Maintenance section of the ShopBot wiki. You can find it by going to the "ShopBot and Accessories" section from the start page, then the "ShopBot" link, and then "ShopBot Maintenance". A search for "Surfacing" or "Surfacer" in the search box in the left sidebar will get you there too.

Here's the direct link:

http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=TableSurfacing

[jdervin]

I just re-surfaced my PRS-48 (Standard, not Alpha) using a compilation of the above information as a guideline and had no problems whatsoever. It took about 8 minutes to surface my 48"x48" table. Thought it might be useful to detail the specifics:

Bit = Onsrud 91-000 (1.25")
Feed Rate = 6"/second
Spindle RPM (HSD 4hp) = 10,020
Depth of Cut = -.01"
Bit Overlap Percentage = 20
Starting Point = 4 (lower left)
Cutting Direction = Clockwise

Note: I used the [TU] Tabletop Surfacer command to create my cutting file.