Poorman's Board Carrier

[bergerud]

I am working on designing a universal board carrier (another thread). I have come up with some interesting tricks which can be used in a much simpler board carrier. Get a piece of 40" X 10" X 1/2" MDF and make, what I call, the poorman's carrier. It takes the CW about 15 minutes to mark out the parts if you have a saw to cut it out and a router table to finish up the edges. (I have also included an mpc that the machine will totally cut out.)

This carrier is not universal, it only holds 3/4" thick boards. It will hold boards from 6" X 2" X 3/4" to 24" X 13" X 3/4". No extra wood has to be wasted to stay under the rollers. The machine directly measures the board and not the carrier. The thickness measuring routine also works as if the board was down on the belts.

The main carrier consists of two rails which run along the edges of the board. The board is held in place by head pressure against the sandpaper in the rails. The rail depth is only 1/2" and so a 3/4" board sits proud by 1/4". This is the trick that gets the machine to measure the actual board length. The rollers drop enough at the ends of the board to trigger the measuring process. The tops of the rails have black sections where the board sensor travels to measure the width. This is the trick which causes the machine to measure only the actual board width. The carrier also has touch spots for the bit so that the machine also measures the thickness of the board.

After the machine finishes the measuring operations, one slides two thin (a little less than 1/4" thick) strips on top of the carrier rails. These strips simply stop the rollers from dropping off of the ends of the board. This trick is what keeps the carve "under the rollers".

To make the carrier, you have to cut out the parts and glue them together. Each side is a sandwich of two parts. The touch spot which sticks out the keypad side needs to be undercut to clear the squaring plate. Router, saw, or grind enough clearance. You will need some grip tape from the hardware store. Stick it on the rails and trim off the extra. With some of the left over MDF from the cut out board, run off some thin strips. (You may need a few sets of these at varying thickness between 3/16 and 1/4 to go with boards that vary from being 3/4. It is nice if they have a friction fit.) Place some black electrical tape (or black paint or black felt pen) somewhere as I have on the rails.

To use the carrier, simply put a 3/4" board in it against the stops in the front of the rails. Squeeze the parts together and clamp in the machine so that the board sensor will be above the black areas of the rails. The machine will measure the board width and then the length. You must choose to center on board. (When you choose center on board, the machine will stop the board for the touches with the front edge just under the front roller. This is what lines up the touch spots. If you choose place on corner, you will have to jog to touch to line up the touch spots. If you do not, you will get a z stall when the bit misses the hole.) That is it, it should just carve away.

There are some details which we can discuss later. Things like thickness calibration. Limitations on jogging.

[bergerud]

I just realized that if the rails are the same width, one has more choices as to how the carrier is used. One can choose not to measure the actual board width but measure the sled width instead. In this case, it is nice to have the rails be the same width. The depth measurement would then revert back to using the machine touch points. More ways to use the sled the better.

I am sure you guys will come up with some more ways to further improve the thing. Feel free to make it longer, make the rails wider, change the thickness for different board thickness, and so on.

[PSQRD]

I'm stoked about this. There's been a few great designs to include on from one of my friends offline about it I just haven't taken the plunge or time to go buy the hardware etc but I have a bunch of mdf I got for free off craigslist some time ago already on hand. This would definitely save me from wasting wood in the interim! Thank you. I'll keep you posted on results going to try this week.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Very Nice !!!

What is the bump out with the shallow hole? A bit plate touch?

AL

[ktjwilliams]

Interesting,,, very interesting ....

[Mugsowner]

Now I will have to look harder. 5/8"mdf will be harder to find. I look to re-purpose things and the 1/2" is everywhere with all the Sauders furniture out there. I would think they used 5/8" somewhere. Gives me something to look for.

[Dale]

Bergerud I just finished making your poor man's board carrier and wanted to let you know it works great. Followed your instructions and it worked perfectly on the first try! Thanks for coming up with all of these new ideas.

[bergerud]

Thanks Kevin. You know that everything is an ongoing experiment! Here is my latest attempt. I changed to 5/8" MDF for the new measuring method. I also elongated the touch spots since I now realize that the machine may not always stop at the right place and one may need to jog to touch. I thought I would make the target a little bigger. (I have not made these yet myself.)

Edit: Actually, I am hoping someone else will take over the testing of this. I am back to thinking about the universal version. (The universal version will use the same basic procedure but will hold boards of varying thicknesses.)

[PSQRD]

I may give this a go at least with 3/4" material in mind. If I can get my machine back up and running smoothly. I'm more interested in the multi thickness concept as a whole. A lot of the work I do is on 13"/14" boards and vary thickness from the lumbar yard. My planer only handles 12". There's a few other concepts I've been meaning to try as well, I just need to make something happen.
Paul

[bergerud]

I had to cut some clearance so the tab would clear the squaring plate.