Designing and creating a CNC wasteboard

In this video I will run you through designing a wasteboard using MDF, and Tee Nuts using Vectric's V Carve Pro, and my Shapeoko 3 XL CNC.
14/20 T-Nuts goo.gl/bRQZfS (Affiliate)
D.H.S. 1/4"-20 Tee Nuts - 4 Prongs - Zinc Plated - 100 pcs

[@laser-man]

Jason, you have a real talent, in showing us what you have learned. I have not received my Shapeoko XXL yet. I have watched all of your video's, some more than once. Enjoyed every minute of them. Keep them coming, you are doing a great job and service for us.

[@jreid43]

Thank you for getting back to me on the waste board build. Looks like a great beginners design to get me snapped in. Jim

[@ubidefeo]

I'm looking forward to applying what I learned from your video. A mate and I put together my S3 XL yesterday in a few hours and now accessory-time has come. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼

[@Mr2oldiron]

I used your design for a 24 x 24 spoil board with t nuts on 2” centers. Works great, thank you.

[@joecooper6551]

I'm a rookie with a BobsCNC E3. Just now learning how to use it but your videos are helping me along the way. Thanks Dude.

[@kentgrabau3755]

I've been following the Bobs FB page and had thought about getting one of them. I just purchased a Shapeoko XXl, yesterday, instead. I didn't want to take the chance and time on assembling so many parts.

[@jeffbeck6501]

This video was really helpful. I saw it several times a long time ago before my machine was finished and ready for this stage. I think this the best solution for my needs. You did an awesome job on a really helpful project. Thanks.

[@tonyaranda6872]

From an old machinist: Measure the flange of the T-nut, add .010 and make that your depth of cut. You still have plenty of material left and it saves recutting the recess. Very informative vids and you make a great instructor.

[@ianjobson5522]

I am going to put my T-nuts into the machine base then put clearance holes in the spoil board, with a couple of dowels to line to it up. That way, when my spoil board gets replaced I don't have the pain of putting all those t-nuts in again. Thanks for sharing this great video.

[@spike7703]

AWESOME. your videos make my CNC learning curve so much easier.

[@RichardKuivila1947]

2 coats of Lacquer Sanding Sealer can be used to "toughen-up" MDF or particle board. It is a messy process, but with good results. Dilute 1st coat with 50% lacquer thinner. Brush on a very wet coat. Your want it to be ABSORBED by the wood fiber and consolidate the board material. Keep it wet for a little while, brushing out any runs. Wipe off excess with paper towel. Allow to dry for 24 hours or MORE, even thought it feels dry after 1 hour (it's not). Second coat use undiluted sealer, brush out all runs. Not as much absorbed this time. Allow to dry for 24 hours or MORE. Then sand with 320 grit for a SMOOOOTH surface. The material won't chip or crumble as much as untreated MDF. (Also works with solvent based varnish or poly, same thinning with appropriate solvent, but 1st coat takes even longer to totally cure).

[@robertdrisaldi2768]

Just stumbled across this video. Outstanding design. EXACTLY what I need. Thanks

[@turttledove06]

Love your videos. From computer to final product is awesome for us new guys

[@DCDLaserCNC]

Sweet spoilboard setup! Thanks for sharing!

[@TimothyArmstrongamblixVR]

Excellent video! I hardly ever leave comments but this was exactly to the T what I was looking for and the delivery is great! Can feel your passion come through. As someone new the CNC world, I'm looking to learn from the most passionate people I find out there...I look at it as half technical and half art so passion is really important. Just subbed...I see this is old so now going to see if you still make these. Thanks for the vid.

[@lamarfoster2778]

Just set my Shapeoko XXL up this weekend. Got the wrong router so Carbide is sending another to arrive on Monday. I spent this evening making my layout in Carbide Create for the waste board. Will do a test run with no router tomorrow afternoon just to see it go. I am using t-nut inserts as you did. Thanks for the great videos.

[@randogame4438]

Just subbed, but I've been watching and liking your videos for a good bit. Keep up the good work, you've been a lot of help. I'm building my Shapeoko work table right now, just have to put the corner legs in and the coasters on the bottom. It gets here tomorrow!!!

[@mikeatencio3273]

Nice work CO. Me too. Awesome way to escape the inside.

[@pgoessnitzer]

Great "start to finish" presentation!

[@lillwolff2353]

A very simple way of doing it. Draw the first horizontal line then linear array. Draw one vertical line, then lnear array.

[@TReischl1]

Used t-nuts on my first spoilboard. Now they are all nicely packed in a zip loc bag in a drawer. The issue I had with them was getting full of chips and since they are threaded the chips do not want to come out easily. I use t-track now. Heck though, it works for some folks!

[@billymorris4273]

Am a newby and this video really helps thank you for taking the time

[@RightHandShot]

I was programing my own waste board following along with your video. Great video, thanks

[@davidcosford9621]

Your videos have answered many questions I had as a beginner and I thank you for that. Now for the complaint-it would have been handy to see you do the adjustments to recut the t-nut holes rather then watching you remove and reinstall the t-nuts.

[@Webnicity]

I installed my inserts from the bottom up so they don't strip out. Works well.

[@MrSmiler863]

Thanks for this video , have been wondering what to do with my current board now i know .. my man

[@sbirdranch]

Nice job. Watching this made me go back and look at the video I did for work holding....seems I shot it and never published it. I did the same as you, only I drilled holes for the pins. They still fit snug but it was more of a press fit than a hammer.i even shared the cam....somewhere in the F360 world. Thanks for the reminder.

[@sbirdranch]

I found the fusion link.... a360.co/2prfWhn Although I can't see it on my tablet there is also a drawing for wooden knobs. One more thing....a nice feature in a spoil board is a series of .250 dia holes in li e with the x and Y axis. You can throw in a couple of dowel pins to index your stock to those axis......i have got to find that video footage.

[@st0mper121]

cool I like how you did that. Ill keep this in mind. to use surface bit to uncover the drilling

[@geospectrum]

Thanks, I’ll make one of those when I have build my Workbee which I have just stated.

[@roboflennox]

You are the man... old mate, as we say here in Oz

[@brucewilliams6292]

Great idea. Thank you for making the video.

[@jasonyannuccelli2499]

Thanks mate for that great video. It was a real help for me. Much appreciated 🙏

[@Whois2440]

I love your design. I just ordered my shapeoko XXL for christmas. Would you consider sharing your design files for your waste board? Love your video's.

[@Lutfeydotcom]

Great videos! One minor suggestion would be to edit out the repetitive parts. Show how to put in the first two T nuts and then crank up the speed so the rest take 10 seconds. Same for surfacing the waste board. I do like the camera fixed to the router.

[@jamesg.munroe7617]

I am expecting my xxl soon. I have watched lots of your vids on it and they have been very helpful. Thx for helping out. I will probably have lots of questions when I get the CNc. Do you have video of your shapeoko setup

[@lantechbd]

Gooood! Very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

[@gtheodora]

Thank you you just made my life a lot easier.

[@helman75]

Great video! I'd like to see the vectors and tool path you used to flatten the spoil board.

[@joeygonzo]

Someday you're gonna mill that dust collector spout. haha! Great video. Learned a lot .

[@stufftokeepyouentertained2168]

No. I meant T-nuts are better than inserts. I see I called them inserts during the video. My mistake

[@MegaSoyaMan]

Thanks for your help,

[@kjonhogan92]

Thank you for your videos, you've really helped me start out in the CNC world. I just purchased a Shpeoko 3 xl and i've started to put it together. My question is how do you hold the sacrificial board or wasteboard to the original MDF base without drilling or cutting into it or is this something that has to be done. if so do you put tee nuts in the base also?

[@chrisredmon1958]

I have cut the allen wrench off (cheap set with a hacksaw) and put it in my drill, makes jobs like this way easier and faster.

[@richayala2611]

Thank you!

[@NeoMorphUK]

The way you get threaded inserts to stop stripping out is fit them into the bottom of the wasteboard so that it’s like an upside down T. But I hardly use inserts now... now I use the superglue, accelerator and masking tape method. Not had a single job move on me.

[@MrKILLUMINAT1]

Great video!

[@Warpfield]

Perhaps a good hydrolic press to press in those T-nuts?

[@rogerhartje5964]

Yikes Stripes, I'm sure glad I watched this before kicking off my TNut job! I was already to cut, but decided to do a single hole test on a piece of scrap MDF, 7 single holes with single adjustments later I was finally happy with the way the TNuts both went in, didn't fall out, and cleared the back of the board. Only saying for the low cost generic 1/4 inch TNuts I found I used .8 x .15 for the back clearance and .3 for the through hole - tight but not obstinate going in and took a good whack to get out with a thousandth or two clearance beneath the back of my spoiler. Hope they hold for the life of that board....

[@gifts_in_wood2294]

Great video buddy 👍

[@ScottKershawRX]

Great video! I need to do this for my new XXL. Do you do a pocket cut for the entire surface area?

[@michaelknopf2639]

Was just about to surface my first wasteboard with the same bit and have been looking for a ballpark speed and feed rates. What did you settle on in the end? Thanks for the video too, BTW, very helpful.

[@johnjupin8784]

Thanks for the video. You didn't need to clamp anything down while drilling? The weight of the MDF was heavy enough to keep it still?

[@larrydannatt7571]

Thanks great video

[@reloadNshoot]

Newbie here but I prefer using a laser on the grid lines over a v bit groove. Much more precise and the laser line doesn’t trap dust/debris

[@jbaker4197]

Awesome video, just like all your others! I should be getting my Shapeoko 3XXL today, do you by chance have a website that you have uploaded these SVGs to? I think I'm gonna be getting VCarve desktop, I can't afford the Pro right now so hopefully it can get everything i need done. Keep up the videos!

[@flowmods4595]

Cool video!

[@dancoffey4640]

what is a good selection bof bolts to get with this set up, by the way great videos

[@TheDuroProject]

Let's try a power tool to remove those inserts...

[@marouaneladjel1907]

nice work think you so much

[@adamlaforce3681]

What was the depth of the second attempt that you changed it to you didn't tell us thanks

[@scottwilkie5669]

Great instructor, thanks. Will you share these files?

[@resorter66]

The reason they came out is because they were installed on the wrong side of the board. The inserts you had in there had a flange on the top .that is there to keep them from pulling through .that flanges works just like the flanges on the tee nuts .just pulling things tight from the top side . Jeff

[@jlstalman1980]

Does anyone know if there a drawing of the Shapoko 3XL's wasteboard mounting holes available?

[@hanssitte438]

How do you maintain, or restore, registration between the spoil board and the axes (XY) as the spoil board will flipped over after the drilling operation? If the spoil board is rotated around the X1 axis (the best of the worst cases) the X31 hole will be shifted 0.224". Rotation around any other hole will be much worse!

[@st0mper121]

getting a onefinitycnc soon. do you still prefer this setup over a T track system?

[@upalipremathilake6393]

thanks

[@OtokoTT]

Nice project, bro.. But I just wonder how to fix the MDF on you Shapeoko. Using some glue or just screw it. Because I did't see any fixture on the video... I am new in CNC wood woking..

[@patricialwhite6298]

Can you make a down draft table for the CNC to pull the dust down and out?

[@fredscott413]

thanks.

[@raybesst4648]

I turn T-Nuts umpside down and put them in the recess you can tell if they are deep enought

[@donmurray7958]

Can you tell me, when I buy the Shapeoko XXL does the router machine come with it or is it just the framing you get. I will need to buy the router machine seperate?

[@st1v017]

What size shapeoko did you make your waste board to? I have an XXL and carbide create software, but am very lost on how to design gcode. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you Jeff smith

[@jameswalker8671]

Just starting with my CNC and wonder why did you keep the circle tool paths separate? Would seem to be more efficient to move to the first hole, cut the counterbore then the thru hole and then move to the next position and repeat. Nice video, helps alot.

[@stufftokeepyouentertained2168]

James Walker that way I could make adjustments to either without re-milling the other hole. I'm not sure if you can do it any other way. If you group all the holes together I don't think you can make separate tool paths. I think.

[@HGANGHONY]

Love the tutorial, however I’m having trouble getting my larger pocket holes to center over the T-Nut holes.

[@flyinlo1474]

Anyone having this problem likely did not select the Offset option.

[@grumpywoodiam]

@@flyinlo1474 glad you posted this comment, just saved me a load of time and trouble!

[@douglaspollock102]

Use offset in Vectric. Offset is on the bottom left of the drawing tab.

[@talegunner4414]

Wow you have done a good job but attaching the camera to the Z axis is very distracting.

[@8561wilson]

Thanks for this video very nice help me I want a see other how you design tex and image

[@johnchattley9900]

Hey man. Good video. How did you mount the waste board. Totally new to the cnc game here.

[@stevehowe9677]

Good project, thanks One comment - I don't know why content creators add whimsical personal touches, I don't really care how hot it is outside, or what to watch you get a beer

[@raybesst4648]

Can you tell me why when I try and center the holes that they will not center with each other

[@scotthazelbaker7254]

I have a bobs e4 cnc, my waste board is glued down. Can I put another waste board on top or do I have to remove the original one?

[@hydroconcepts]

Thanksfor tip however I am using the same software and I get an issue with generating the second circles as the program can not place them on top of eachother as per your video .. do you know why it places them diffrently after I center them ?

[@Luda_chris]

Alright so I know this video is 3 years old but thought I'd share anyways for newcomers. At 21:45, the bit plunges into the material. With a bit that big, you don't want to do that because its bad for the machine and bit. Instead, you want to use a ramp-in cut. Basically, the machine moves in a circle as it plunges down, giving it a much more gradual and softer entry into the material.

[@malcolmgambrill2692]

Don't know why you didn't just use the inserts screwed in from underneath so they pull against the shoulder.

[@resorter66]

I just found and watched you video on your new spoil board. In the video you showed taking threaded inserts out of your other spoil board was that the top of the spoil board or the bottom just turned over. Jeff

[@stufftokeepyouentertained2168]

The old one was threaded inserts screwed in from the top. I did not like them because they tended to come out too easily. The new ones are T-Nuts that are inserted from the bottom.

[@rickyracer8717]

Just saying, I would probably have turned the existing waste board over so that the inserts were under the board, and then skimmed the waste board again, but let's face it, making a new board is a whole lot more fun, right!!? 😂 Cool video! 👍

[@xjstevie]

If nobody has already said so. Those threaded inserts should also have been I stalled from the bottom.. Screw them in, screw them out l, a little glue and screw them back in..

[@williamdickinson1479]

does your software have multiple copy feature if so draw your line and pick it and the center of the first dia bottom left and do the number of lines to be copied and the distance in the X dim do the same for Y distance I was on Autocad for many years, I do not have a machine yet will purchase one soon.

[@charlesanderson3801]

My CNC is equipped with an aluminum T-slot table with a rubberized surface overlay. I'm new to the CNC world and trying to figure out how to do my wasteboard. If I put an MDF wasteboard over that, it defeats the purpose of the T-slots unless I cut the MDF into strips so the T-slots can still be exposed below. Don't really want to attach these with screws into my aluminum table so I would probably have to use double sided tape. The other way would be to cut slots in one piece of MDF to match the spacing of the T-slots of the table but that seems like a lot of work. (I would need another wasteboard under this one) Then I guess I would need to run the resurfacing program with the big flat bit too right? Is there a generally accepted method or standard SOP for doing this? Thanks for any advice

[@btigenie]

Where have you been? We miss you!

[@MrjackieG]

I don't have any holes in mine. I just use blue painters tape, crazy glue with accelerator. Works for projects you can't clamp.

[@RickSwartwood]

Thank You for this! I just purchased a new Shapeoko CNC and wanted to make a spoil board so as to not mess my original one up. Can you post a link to the bolts you're using in your video for the Tee Nuts? Thank You.

[@stufftokeepyouentertained2168]

This isn't the exact ones I use in the video. I bought the ones in the video from Lowes, however the link is to some on Amazon that are the same thing. All you need to do is pick your length. amzn.to/2OSPnhu

[@KenE6119]

sounds like a mad woodpecker

[@b-creativeideas2793]

Thanks for the video, I do have a question for you. My cnc machine is a 4 x 8 with where I use 4 x 8 MDF boards. However when I have attempted to surface my spoil board, the machine won't go to the edges - The machine hits its limits. So I am stuck with a higher edge on the ends that don't get surfaced creating an uneven surface. I am open to some ideas on how to get to the edges so the whole spoil board is leveled and I can use full sheets of wood instead of having to cut them down to fit in the pocket that was created on the spoil board. So if you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks again

[@redgeeteeeye]

Literally dealing with this now. I dont think there is many choices asides from running a profile toolpath and cutting out your spoil board slightly smaller than your cutting area. Granted youll lose some of the workspace but it was useless anyways if its higher.

[@bitsurfer0101]

How did you realign your board so that you could make the recesses deeper? Did you use one of the holes as a reference?

[@duanekelley7681]

1) It would be nice to show where you got your Tnuts and the size 2) Show how yiou group and did the array

[@JoeCarron]

You must be somewhere in or near Texas. Shiner doesn't deliver much outside of that area. Shiner Bock is some tasty beer!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

We get it up here in MD, although I never would have tried it if a coworker wasn't from TX! :-)

[@MrjackieG]

How can you stand the noise of those air cooled routers?? My water cooled 2.2 KW only makes 65db at 20,000rpm. I bet that Dewalt is over 94db.

[@jamesworley5811]

i would like to talk to you about you waist board video . i have a cnc shapeoko xxl i have been doing everything on there as you did . i can not get it to work . i must be doing something wrong i have been following your video thank you ( note i have v carve pro )

[@soyebravat8903]

what t-nut size did you use and do u have a template or hole diameter and outer circle diameter with depth of pocket cut of your waste board? I'm new to cnc and havn't made a waste board yet. Whats the difference in advantages and disadvantages in t-slot waste boards and this one? Thanks!

[@fetymann]

I just bought 100 1/4 20 T-nuts on eBay for $9.99 USD. Use some digital calipers to measure the T-nut. Mine happened to be: 7.82mm OD wide thread barrel, T: 18.06mm wide, T: 2.1mm deep. I am cutting the shallow hole width and depth slightly larger.

[@edgargreene2406]

What size tee nuts did you use

[@Tj-oq2lw]

did you buy your bolts somewhere or did you just get them at a "box store". if online can you post a link please thank you

[@stufftokeepyouentertained2168]

Tj Camacho I just bought them at lowes.

[@Tj-oq2lw]

Thank you! Can’t wait for the next video!