Question
I work at a seat manufacturing company. We make lawnmower seats and bus seats. We recently purchased a Phoenix RG 612 router. We are routing seats out of 5/8 cdx ply. We want to rout as fast as possible using our vacuum table. Would you suggest using a dedicated spoilboard? Some of the plywood is bowed - would a dedicated spoilboard hold down tightly? We have a Quincy vacuum, I believe that is rated at 7.5 kw. We produce around 200 seats a week, and do other routing jobs as well. What are my best options in your opinion? Is anybody else having luck holding down bowed plywood?
Forum Responses
(CNC Forum)
From contributor A:
For CDX plywood you will need a dedicated fixture. It has voids that will leak too much to efficiently rout without it. We use MDF sealed with a good coat of polyurethane that helps it to hold up longer. I also use a 1/4" x 1/4" closed cell rubber gasket as well. I go through about 15 units of 3/4" plywood in 7 days making flanges for electric wire reels so I understand the warping you are dealing with. I am not too metric savvy but I believe that 7.5kw vacuum is only about 9hp. What size is your table? We use 20hp on a 5 x 10 ft. table and sometimes it is not enough. I am working on a setup with hoses and valves that would allow me to piggyback vacs from my other machines to one machine for hard- to-hold jobs.
