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replacing sacrificial boards on a 408?

O

openwood

New Member
after 6 years i finnally need to replace the table boards on my sabre.I thought i read that some of you were using sintra to replace the boards.Gerber, the rip off masters want 53.00 per slat!!!!,plus the tape to mount it.just wondering what other people have used instead of the gerber products.Sintra?,and what kind of DS tape?

thanks

Brian
 
Typestries

Typestries

New Member
Please, do not do as gerber suggests and try to scrape off the old gray PVC sheet they used, or buy their overpriced PVC. You'll still have to drill and pocket cut what they send you. Plus, if you go down to the aluminum You'll never get the adhesive off. instead, surface cut what you have left, Use some MEK or PVC cement to adhere new strips of PVC ripped down from a 10' sheet. Then you can surface the table and machine your holes and pockets from there. Who cares if it's a different color? It works and it's much faster than stripping to the aluminum extrusion.
 
A

AARON_INK.

New Member
Yeah I made that mistake! I stripped the mats off which is pretty easy but then you have the double stick tape. What happens is that the mats come up then the layer of plastic stays on the table and under that you have adhesive you have to get off. very big pain! I used a couple of methods tried pull up the tape nope, tried getting a wallpaper remover tool to puncture the tape and use adhesive remover nope and then good old fashion elbow grease. I would hire some high school kids for min. wage and get them to do it. Then the rep. said I had to use gerber's special tape at 350.00 a roll. He said that it's formulated to with stand the heat that the tool creates BUNCH OF CRAP! So to some it up don't strip it down to the table as said before and buy a MultiCam. Just kidding I have a gerber too and there very precise in cutting but everything else sucks about them. Just my thoughts and experiences.
 
B

bigpix

New Member
Yes, but I still dont understand...

Sorry, call me thick, but I am still not understanding - I have a Gerber 408, we have replaced the spoilboard once with Sintra, works fine. EXCEPT when I try to rout wood products, plywood or OSB for example. They slide all over the table like it has been waxed! All other substrates stay put no problem, Gator, Sintra, Signfoam, hell we even cut coroplast (what a pain). But if I put a sheet of plywood down - instant headache.

So the question is, do you guys add the LDF board OVER the pvc/OEM spoilboard? Or do you use it instead of the pvc/OEM spoilboard. And, sorry for being so dumb, but do you also cut the pockets and drill holes, just like the OEM spoilboard? IF not, how the heck does the vacuum have enough power to draw through the LDF? It seems like it would be too dense. Anyway, if someone could really elaborate on this it would be nice!
 
SebastienL

SebastienL

New Member
I'm not sure about your Gerber router, but we have a Multicam and we only use 1" MDF as a sacrificial board. I don't see how the vaccuum can pass through PVC as this material is pretty much air tight. We put our MDF directly on the table. The vaccuum is strong enough to pass through the MDF. We only have problems when the cut parts are smaller than 12 square inches (but we have a solution for that). The benefit of using MDF is that once the surface gets damaged, you can reface it and you have a brand new surface.
Multicam also have a "special" board for that purpose but why pay ridiculous prices when you can get a 5' x 10' MDF board at the local lumber yard for a fraction of the price!!
And we don't use tape to fix it. The board is heavy enough that it doesn't move. Only after a couple of refacing do we flip the board over as it's start to curl up at the corners.

Hope this is of use to you, :toasting:
 
D

Downs

New Member
We used a 1/2" piece of Sintra. We planed it to take the slick surface off and to make sure that it was level and then we drilled all of the pockets into it. It seems to have worked really well.
 
Kottwitz-Graphics

Kottwitz-Graphics

New Member
I replaced my sacrificial material with 1/4" sintra. It was pretty cheap from Harbor, and I just ripped it down to slat size with the table saw, and used carpet double sided tape to hold it down.

I only went with 1/4" because I only have about 2" of throat area, and I didn't need to loose rout thickness with sacrifical board thickness.
 
S

Sam Sharpe

New Member
phil duncan said:
search for RTP files on your computer...if you cant find them ..send me a message..i can send
Click to expand...
Hi Phil, do you still have the 408mill.rtp file? I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find them on my computer. Would really appreciate a copy if you do have it. Thanks
 
J

Jrassel

Gotham over Helvetica
Typestries said:
Please, do not do as gerber suggests and try to scrape off the old gray PVC sheet they used, or buy their overpriced PVC. You'll still have to drill and pocket cut what they send you. Plus, if you go down to the aluminum You'll never get the adhesive off. instead, surface cut what you have left, Use some MEK or PVC cement to adhere new strips of PVC ripped down from a 10' sheet. Then you can surface the table and machine your holes and pockets from there. Who cares if it's a different color? It works and it's much faster than stripping to the aluminum extrusion.
Click to expand...
I removed adhesive off my aluminum beds all the time. Adhesive remover and a razor scraper works just fine. I change out my silicone mats twice a year for all 12 engravers
 
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