New 24R owner here. I’m curious what people do for workholding on the vacuum table other than the vacuum. The T-slots are clearly designed for some type of clamping but there’s no real info or example setups I could find in the documentation.
In particular, what kind of setup do you use if you wanted to try machining aluminum beyond just thin sheets. I have a VMC for that but thought it would be interesting to try some scrap pieces on the 24 R just to see how it does. More spindles are always a good thing and all that.
My 24 has no t-track imbeds. its was one of the very first models’
I created a spoil boards with t-track imbeds to use as needed
I have small custom vises that bolt down to the t-track for holding different materials
I also have a stack of different size spoil boards to fixture material on using double side tape, fasteners, super glue, epoxy, toe clamps or other strategy for holding large flat material.
I can then mount material for next part on spoil boards while router is cutting a part on a different spoil board.
in short you can fixture the same way as a mill using fixture plates , clamps, vises, glue whatever!
Just needs to be low profile.
Picture below shows a small vise mounted in spoil board t-track.
I have designed and made a couple dozen of these in different sizes over the years to use on mill, router, bandsaw, you name it.
There’s lots of t slot holding. Just a piece of steel with a threaded hole and bolt it down. Just don’t cut the bolts. It makes a lot of sparks into the sawdust.
My machine is number #9 I think.
I ordered it hours after it was posted on your site.
it has no t slots in the vac table
What I did was create a couple 2x4 spoil boards that have 2 or as many as 6 t-slots to mount anything I want.
Works great, like everything in the cnc maker world you think of ways to get the job done
This clip shows a spoil board mounted per machine directions with 2 t slots 2 vises mounted in the slots and a couple acrylic fixture plates for doing acrylic parts.
I also have a apron clamping fixture shown in picture holding some plastic sheet.
This allows me to perform router functions on ends of long material also
you only get like 1.5 inches on apron setups before you hit limits
