That means the left and right edges of my spoilboard are roughly 1/2” inboard of the limits of my X axis. My spoilboard actually starts right next to that t-track. I put a piece of t-track right next to that aluminum angle, and it’s just shy of 3/4” wide. It turns out that limit was roughly 1/4” away from the aluminum angle along each side of the table. I did that for several reasons, but one reason was to learn exactly where those limits were in relation to the centerline of the router bit over the table. I purposely triggered the limit switches at both ends of the X axis when I drew that line. When I made my spoilboard, I used a felt pen chucked into my router to draw a line on the table, from one side of my X axis to the other. We need to be sure that the toolpath we create will allow you to run the surfacing bit over the entire spoilboard without hitting a limit switch or crashing an axis. Chief among them is the physical size of your spoilboard, and its proximity to your limits. There are a couple of things we need to know before we get on the computer. I covered the process in my website article “Tramming the Router on my Gatton CNC,” which you can read here. If you haven’t trammed your router or spindle, I highly recommend you do so before you attempt to surface a spoilboard. If the work piece isn’t sitting flat, a v-bit will cut deeper in areas that are sitting on a high spot, and shallower in areas that are sitting in a low spot.Īssuming you have trammed your router or spindle, and have your spoilboard mounted, we can start gathering the info we need to create a toolpath we can use to surface the spoilboard. This is especially important when it comes to v-carving or engraving. We want that material to be as flat as possible to ensure smooth cuts of equal depth along every part of its surface. Material to be cut on the CNC is mounted to the spoilboard. The simple answer is that we surface the spoilboard to make sure that it’s flat and smooth. You just have to remember a couple of things. Creating the surfacing toolpath sounds intimidating, but it’s actually pretty simple. Surfacing a spoilboard is the final necessary step, after laying one down on the CNC table.