Ready for Routing Prepare your routing jig for use by install-ing a 1/4' spiral bit in your router table and setting the fence 17⁄ 8' away from the bit. (This will center the tenon slots on each side of the body.) Then pass the jig along the router table fence to cut a slot through its base and blocking. Routing a road course will require different sizes and/or strips. I mark off a 3/8' wide outer cushion. There is an extra slot being routed on the outside that will be used to mount our wall. I need at least 3/8' to give it strength at the very edges. MDF has been used in a number of recently built tracks, it produces a smoother surface and a smoother slot, it is better structurally. MDF is a little heavier, but perhaps thinner sheet can be used. The minimum thickness for the track surface is 12mm (1/2 inch), although if you are using chipboard, a greater thickness is an advantage. Align it with a try square, and clamp both ends to the workpiece. Feed the router left to right along the fence (or, to put it another way, counterclockwise). Making the Dado Cut. Begin with the router switched off. Set the router base on the work, its edge against the fence, the bit clear. Don your earmuffs and safety glasses. Plug in the router. Hanger and signs. In advertising technology for the interior, MDF also often proves to be a useful material since it can be refined and processed without much effort. In our examples, we show you the production of 3D letters or small advertising signs for the interior with the High-Z router and hangers with Arabic fonts, produced with RapotX-SL milling machines, which are now hanging in a.

Routing Slots In Mdf Shelves
Routing Slots In Mdf Doors

Introduction

This article is part of our CNC Beginners Cookbook series.

Workholding is the generic term for any device or method used to firmly hold your workpiece while machining it. While CNC Routers are technically milling machines, and they share some similarities in workholding, they’re basically a whole new ballgame.

Spoilboard

A spoilboard is a disposable work surface mounted atop the router’s permanent table. The spoilboard is typically MDF and protects the router table from damage as well as being an expendable surface that can participate in workholding.

From time to time a spoilboard will need to be surfaced. That means using a spoilboard cutter to clean up any gouges or cuts and make the board flat and parallel to X and Y axis travel.

Screw into Spoilboard

This is a very common method and involves screwing into the spoilboard to hold the work. It’s cheap and cheerful, but it does leave holes in the workpiece and can be slow. For tasks like this, grab an electric impact driver, air ratchet or similar tool to help drive the screws faster (as well as removing them faster). Another disadvantage aside from it being slow to bolt things down is that hitting one of the screws with a cutter will often break the cutter. If it’s travelling at feeds and speeds intended for wood or other soft materials, it’s going way to fast when it unexpectedly hits hard metal.

Polymer Nails into Spoilboard

This interesting idea is courtesy of James Irmiger of TechShop SOMA and Instructables. The idea is to use polymer (plastic) nails to secure the workpiece to the spoilboard:

Using Polymer Nails to secure the workpiece to the spoilboard…

According to James, the process is a little bit fussy and requires adjustment of air pressure and can be sensitive to overly hard wood. But, when once it is dialed in, it works great. Removing the workpiece just requires a little tap with a mallet to break the nails–they’re strong at resisting pullout but shear off easily. With a nail gun, this technique can be a lot faster than screwing into the spoilboard.

Double Sided Tape and Glue Fixturing

Small parts that don’t expect high cutting forces can do well with double sided tape and various kinds of glue.

One popular method is to use painter’s tape and super glue.

Here’s what you do:

Scuff the pieces and clean as best you can. For metal, I clean with acetone, isopropyl alcohol, or brake cleaner.
Apply the painter’s tape. That’s the blue stuff painter’s use to mask parts.
Apply super glue to the tape.
Lay the part down carefully onto the tape. Try to make sure any air escapes.
Clamp it briefly or put a weight on it.

Your part should now be adhered to your bed and it will be held pretty solidly.

How do you get the parts loose?

Pry up with screwdriver, putty knife, or razor blade. You can also soak it in acetone, which will dissolve the superglue. Lastly, heat will break it loose. Be very careful with heat:

Danger: Super glue, or cyanoacrylite, releases toxic cyanide gas when heated!

You may need to sand or fly cut the superglue off in the worst case, but it usually doesn’t come to that.

Clamps and T-Slots/T-Track

On CNC Routers, T-Slots are typically created using T-Track, which are metal T-Slots designed to be attached to your MDF spoilboards.

Rockler T-Track bolted down to top of MDF with Clamps…

Rockler T-Track Intersection Kit in a recessed slot with a typical bolt used with the track. Rockler has a wide variety of parts and kits for T-Tracking…

There are a wide variety of different T-Track systems and accessories for them available if you search the web. T-Tracks can be very versatile, but like bolting through to the spoilboard, you must take care the router doesn’t hit a bolt or T-Track in the middle of the job.

Tab Supports: Workholding Via CAM Software

What if your CAM software could solve some major workholding problems for you, wouldn’t that be neat?

Turns out some CAM software can help out with workholding quite a lot by automatically creating tabs. Here’s a video of MeshCAM’s facility for creating tab supports to help machine a part that has to be machined on 2 sides and is awkward to hold otherwise:

Using MeshCAM to add tab supports so you can machine a part on 2 sides…

We offer MeshCAM at CNCCookbook because it’s one of the easiest to use CAM packages there is.

Vacuum Tables

Vacuum Tables are often the best solution for the flat sheet work often being done on CNC Routers. We’ve got an entire article dedicated to CNC Router Vacuum Tables, so click through to check it out:

Routing Slots In Mdf Shelves

Like what you read on CNCCookbook?

Join 100,000+ CNC'ers! Get our latest blog posts delivered straight to your email inbox once a week for free. Plus, we’ll give you access to some great CNC reference materials including:

Our Big List of over 200 CNC Tips and Techniques
Our Free GCode Programming Basics Course
And more!

Just enter your name and email address below:

100% Privacy: We will never Spam you!

5/5(1 vote )

Routing Slots In Mdf Doors

Learn how to make a simple router jig for cutting dado slots. This simple jig makes it easy to cut accurate dadoes with a router. This jig is easy to build and simple to use.

Tool: Triton Plunge Router

Transcript:

Chris Marshall: Hi folks, I’m Chris Marshall, with Woodworker’s Journal Magazine. One of the strongest ways to install shelves in a bookcase — like this one — or a cabinet project, is to fit the shelves into dadoes in the sides. But to do that, the dadoes need to be cut perfectly straight and to exactly the right width for your shelving material. (And when I built this bookcase, I also needed the shelf dadoes to stop right here. Those can be tough to cut accurately with a table saw and dado blade.

CM: So for stopped dadoes like that, I reach for a simple-to-make slotted dadoing jig for my router. Here’s the one I used for the bookcase project. It’s got a