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bcondon
10-27-2008, 11:25 AM
I have a new prs alpha, 48 x 96
all nicely assembled and wired, powered up the control circuits and life looks good.

I made several suggestions to the install manuals to reduce some of the inconsistencies between manuals and some easier methods to install the top rails!

I spoke to Ryan about the table side. the area is really about 64" x 108 (roughly 5' x 9')
so I was looking to increase from the 4x8 sheet of plywood.

I am told there is 5x5 plywood panels available... I have not found them yet. I am considering two options. Any ideas where to look in the New England area?


Two ideas of building an oversize (5x9) table:

Take 4 5x5 sheets of plywood, bolt the bottom sheet down, glue and sheetrock screw the top to bottm, remove sheetrock screws and then surface plane. I would love to find 5 x 10 panels but told that they are simply not available in the US.
----- #2 method-----
My second method is to use 4x8 sheets, fill in the additional foot along the side (drill more holds in the cross brace to get a bolt along the edge of the bottom board.There would be a piece on the end also to fill in the 8' to 9' length

The second layer of plywood would cover all the first layer's seams, glued, sheetrock screwed, then screws removed and surface planes..

This would give me a 5' x 9' bed

Does anyone maximize their bed area? My son wants to build kayak parts in the machine's spare time which is the reason for this adventure. [I am nervous that he will throw me out of my shop to get to the machine... he had "that look" in his eye when he saw it going through the startup testing...

I understand that we can not get the gantry to the complete area but will provide some additional table area above the 4x8 sheet.

Many thanks in advance, for the replies...

I can get 4x10' plywood but it is expensive... I could also scarf except that I so not have a table!

Bob Condon

woodworx
10-27-2008, 11:08 PM
I did what you spoke of and filled the sides of the vac table with plywood. It's nice because the dust doesn't fall on the floor, and it is a nice place to set the wrenches and bits. The problem with doing what you want is that even though you can fit a 5X10 sheet on the table, the physical limits of your machine will not allow you to machine a 5X10 area. Your X axis will fall off the table and your Y axis will bump into the sides of the gantry. You will find this when setting up you limits for your table.