Holes for guide pins on the spoil board

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wannabecnc
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Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:27 am
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Holes for guide pins on the spoil board

Post by wannabecnc »

Hey Guys,

How are we all?
Can anyone tell me how to set up a file to drill/cut several holes in my spoil board so that I can use guide pins for material placement accurately every time?
Thank you

Kind regards,

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Adrian
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Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Holes for guide pins on the spoil board

Post by Adrian »

What part are you having trouble with? Creating a file to drill the holes in the first place or making sure that subsequent jobs use the same holes?

Neither really needs a gadget.

To cut the holes use the Move and alignment tools with the circle vectors entering exact positions from a known point on your spoil board, making sure that the material is the same size as the spoil board. Toolpath with a drill toolpath or a inner profile spiral cut depending on what tooling you have and whether you can slow your spindle/router down enough to drill.

Place all those circle vectors on to a layer and lock that layer so the vectors can't be accidentally moved. Save the file as a template. Now whenever you start a new job that you want to use the guides for start with the template. You can then change the material size to whatever you're cutting and the holes will be on the correct portion provided you've kept the same relevant XY position as the template.

JRonld
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:37 pm
Model of CNC Machine: Next Wave HD510

Re: Holes for guide pins on the spoil board

Post by JRonld »

wannabecnc :
I recently ran across a tip that I think is right on point for your question
The tip called for cutting a series of 1/4" holes Horizontally and/or Vertically in the spoilboard then using 1/4" bits in the holes for alignment. I taped off the row of alignment holes and spray painted the rows black for easy identification on my messy spoil board; so basically my spoilboard has a 1/2" wide black square painted on it.
You can make as many rows as you want and position them where you want them.

I drilled 4 rows of 1/4" holes (1/2" deep) around my spoilboard; 1 row close to the bottom, 1 row near the top and 1 on each side. I usually only use 3 or 4 1/4" bits in one of the rows for my alignment; (my CNC bed is roughly 24" x 24" so I drilled 5 holes in each row with the CNC. Using the CNC gives you accurate Horizontal and Vertical rows.

Good Luck!

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