[Old Ray]

I am carving nothing super fancy but Scripture from the bible now. I tried the super glue and tape ,,,was driving me nutts. I designed a simple clamping system for just a few bucks that works everytime, simple and easy. I took a piece of wood about 3 inches wide 14 inches long and centered it, screwed it down to the spoil board in the front, marked dead center on it. Then I took two pieces of .75 angle iron , steel, with a 2 inch piece of wood in the back that actually contacts what I might be cutting to keep from denting the wood, with threaded rods of both ends and wing nuts to tighten it down. I take what I am cutting and put a tiny mark at dead center, line it up, and with a couple turns of the wing nuts it is super tight not going ant where. Where I carving several pieces the same size ,I am a template the exact size of the piece being carved, with dead center tiny hole if there happened to be any small variations in size before I zero all my axis. Raise Z axis back up slide the sweepy dust boot on and do it again. This is as low as you get it and no crashes into clamps ever.
To any one that is letting your machine collect dust, other than particles of wood, used daily, don't give up, figure your issues out, and carve something!

You all have a Great week
God Bless,
Ray

 

[difalkner]

Glad you're up and running, Ray. Got any photos of your hold-down system?

 

[jw2170]

Thaks Ray, we like to see how the members solved their problems. It may help another member..

 

[MEBCWD]

I'm sure it would help others if you could post a couple of pictures of the setup.

 

[Old Ray]

ok trying to send you all some photos my laptop does not like jpg files so here we go easier than I thought ,, I use quite a bit of the same size so this works out great ,,
I stain my wood, let it dry over night, I mark that center tick mark on both sides, and line it up on the spoil board at the center line and clamp it up with a few turns on the wing nuts. If I think I might have moved the router any at all, I take the template the same size as the wood I am carving exactly with the hole made with an 6 penny finish nail dead center, re align X and Y over the hole, bring it down in Z close, remove the template, set Z axis with paper. Zero everything! Raise bit back up to re attached the sweepy dust boot,, which works great as well. Set my program up , double check , I don't get a lot of sleep, insert ear plugs turn on the router and shop vac , hit play , then we are making noise and saw dust ! After the first side finishes and it goes back to ZERO in the very center ,I simply turn off the router flip the piece of wood , line it up on the center tick mark, clamp it in again with just a few turns of the wing nuts , turn the router back on, set another program to carve , hit play and it is cooking again!

Hope this helps someone, I tried all the really cool looking clamping stuff and it drove me nuts. But I am old and even more hard headed than old, going back to the way I worked on metal equipment, keep it simple , keep it easy to use, and very repetitive , this works great. I screwed up plenty of wood before I got here. And it is carving right now!
At first I gave a lot of stuff away,, it was not to what I knew I could do,, my wife reminded me a lot I would never get this thing paid for,, it is already paid for anyway. Just a few days ago I carved some scripture, same set up you see here for a friend, they were really good, He told me the day I gave them to him his mother in law was dying, they were very close. He told me today those scriptures would be sitting around her casket Friday at here funeral service. Need I say anything else!

Never give up on this stuff!
God Bless you all ,
Ray

 

[MEBCWD]

Neat idea but, just to be on the safe side you might want to put a couple of screws in the rear clamp board after you tighten the clamp. If you are using a spiral up-cut bit it could try to raise the rear of the board off the bed and mess up the project and possibly break the bit.

 

[Old Ray]

Neat idea but, just to be on the safe side you might want to put a couple of screws in the rear clamp board after you tighten the clamp. If you are using a spiral up-cut bit it could try to raise the rear of the board off the bed and mess up the project and possibly break the bit.

The back piece of the angle iron is squeezing a 2inch piece of mdf against the actually work piece. There are two nuts locking the back side, no give at all, and with only few turns of the wings nuts to tighten, the work piece will not move at all, very secure. In fact, I recently purchased enough wood to cut up 60 pieces of wood to carve.

You all have a great day
God Bless,
Ray