Vaccum Board Problems

[waltie]

My vaccum board made of Sinta PVC is wavey, I
need to surface it. My question is at what speed & feed do I run my 1 1/4 surfacing bit?
My max depth of cut will be about .100 in places,
can this be done in one pass?
Thanks for your help

[Brady Watson]

Walt,
Question: Is the grid screwed or glued down? If it is screwed down, I recommend unscrewing it, scuffing the back to give it tooth and gorilla gluing back down again. Place weights and clamps where it is crowned to get it to lay flat again. This should solve large bellies in the PVC & your bleeder, once machined, will be dead flat.

If you are bent on machining the PVC, keep the tool moving. Once you break thru the outer skin of the PVC, it will be 'grainy' (this is why I suggested removing & gluing 1st). Run the surfacing routine at 4 IPS or faster and around 12,500 to 14,000 RPM. Do not let the tool dwell in any one spot for too long, or the PVC will be a sticky mess.

-B

[waltie]

It is glued down, so my only option appeares to machine it.
Thanks for your help