Buddy Holddown and Spoil Board

[matt_zawlocki]

Greetings, new Buddy owner here…

I recently ordered and received a Buddy48 for use in the classroom. At my last school, I ran a PRSalpha96 and allowed the students to screw their work into the spoil board. With such a large surface area, I didn’t worry about the many screw holes. With the Buddy, I’m looking for other holddown ideas so I don’t have to constantly replace the spoil board.

Also, those of you with the new version of the table…It looks like the spoil board is nailed and glued to the deck. I would hate to surface the table and hit those nails. Are you adding an additional spoil board to the oak ply that you received?

Thanks for you time and ideas!

Matt

[beacon14]

Here's (http://welcometothesandbox.com/) my solution. Shopbot has even been using some of my cams to hold sample pieces down to a Buddy during the training classes they hold each month. So far I have not heard any complaints.

[zeykr]

You might also search for 'Dr Crumleys Magic Goo'.

[erik_f]

I didn't want to use screws for my BT48 so I went with Brady's set up for vacuum. I have found so far that screws are a pretty good system just for the fact it is simple. I have the aluminum table though. I don't see why it would be that much harder to do the same type of thing for vacuum with the new Powerstick based buddy. What about using carpet tape with the new wooden table to hold your spoil board down and maybe a few well placed screws to make sure it stays down.

[dana_swift]

I like Davids cams enough to get some of them to try for myself. I have a vacuum system, but vacuum doesn't work if the surface is too rough, or I have to cut through the material.

So I may have some feedback in a while-

David - Thanks for the link.

Dana

[matt_zawlocki]

Thanks for the ideas guys!
David, your cam system looks great. That is definitely something I will be looking at in the future. In the mean time, I think I’ll use carpet tape to hold down a second spoil board and “foam glue” our blanks to that.

[beacon14]

Dana, thanks for the order. Any feedback good or bad is appreciated.

[powerlsc]

New 48" Buddy owner here and have only seen the Buddy run at the Austin jamboree. Didn't know to take notice of the details of the spoilboard.

I have a 4' x 8' piece of MDF and a gallon of locktite glue waiting to go and have no idea what to do with either.

Does the MDF only cover the 2' x 4' cutting surface or hang over and if so how far. I'm assuming if it overlaps that 2' x 4' area then support pieces need to be screwed? or glued? down on other sections of the 3.5 x 4.5 table so it would be rigid.

I don't plan to use a vacumn system, just a screw down for HDU signs.

I've looked at David B.'s cam system and it looks like the simplest way to go. Would I have to use something harder than MDF to screw the cams into and if so what material? Do I replace my whole table with one layer of spoilboard?

This raised 2' x 4' panel in the middle is really throwing me off. I have searched the forum back several years to no avail. I can not find any pictures to simplify this for me and am probably over analizing the whole production.

All I want to do is get it up and running!Help!

[erik_f]

You only need your spoilboard to cover you cutting area its ok if it hangs over a little. I like mine to fit nice and even to give me a guide to go by when I set up material. I'm not sure how the new bt table is so I can't really tell you how to put you spoilboard down. On the aluninum table version that I have I counersunk bolts for one layer of mdf to the table and then screwed the spoil board to that (countersunk)

[powerlsc]

Erik,

The bottom board of the PowerStick (3.5' x 4.5') ia a 1/2" plywood. That bottom plywood is screwed down (4 in front and 4 in back) to a large aluminum 'stick'.

On top of that plywood sits another platform of plywood (2' x 4'). It is attached with 3 rows of deeply countersunk screws. They are screwed to the bottom board but I can't tell from underneath if they go all the way into the Powerstick. Top plywood platfoarm is glued to the bottom board.

I have attached three photos in case my discription is unclear. Thanks!
3638
3639
3640

[erik_f]

I would counter sink a grid of holes into your work area and then drill through the centers all the way through and then hammer some t-nuts into the bottom. This will allow you to bolt and unbolt your spoil board without having to screw into your factory provided table. I'm not sure why shopbot makes the bottom part of the table bigger than the actual work area, unless it provides a wider base for the rollers to roll over. You shouldn't have to take the wood off the powerstick in order to do what I am saying. I am sure some other people that have the newer version my have some good ideas as well. Hopefully some of them will chime in. Is what I am saying make sense?

[dana_swift]

Interesting to see what is going on with the new models. My BT-32 has the aluminum slab, but I would think the bolt grid could be replicated on the new ply-base version of the machines. The tapped holes are the reference for all of my bolt-on fixtures.

Several files exist that define the hole pattern for the original version of the BT-32 and BT-48.

I used one set of holes on the base to bolt my spoilboards down. That is good because I have already gone through my original spoilboard and am on my second one. Bolting the spoilboard to the underlying table makes sense to me, because you can always remove it for a little extra Z height. There has been a time or two where I ran without any spoilboard at all to squeeze all possible Z room out of the machine. When the operation was done I just bolted the spoilboard back where it had been before.

Keep posting pictures, it is interesting to see how the next generation of BT's handle the issues we handled in the first generation.

D

[mrps]

Matt,

I have a Standard 32. My hold down system is a vac and manual hold down. I used the ¾ in. ply from my crate for both table top and spoil board.

This is how I did my manual hold down.

1st. New table top (or you can use you spoil board if you don't want to start over). Cut holes in the table top to fit a bolt flush with the top (I use ¼ in. nuts and bolts). I think my bolts are spaced about 4.5 in apart. Your nearest hold down point will be set by the spacing of your nuts. I would use smaller spacing if I was to do it again.

2nd. New spoil board. Cut ¼ in. holes all the way through the spoil board to match up with the bolts on the table top. If you are going to glue the spoil board down you wont need to cut counter sink holes to screw down to the table top. This will let you resurface the spoil board may times. I screwed mine down in case I needed to change something (like add more nuts).

3rd. Jigs for hold down. What ever you can come up with. The one in the pic and its counter part is my most used ones. The best part of this jig is I cut off some brad nails and set them in the side of the jig to poke into the side of the part I'm holding down.

Bad pic. You can't really see the lock down nut on each bolt.

I also use the bolt holes for dowels for quickly changing parts.


3641

[superjez]

I have had my buddy for a short while and I'm still learning how to use it. I cut a new spoil board and counter sunk the screw heads and used double sided tape. I use double sided tape as a hold down too. The tape I use is very strong and I get it from an Awards/Trophy manufacturer. So far it's working very well