Skimming the sacrificial board on your CNC router
June 14, 2018When we deliver your machine we set up a file on your computer to skim the bed.
The reason we do this is to protect the bed underneath. This is known as a sacrificial sheet
To protect the bed we recommend putting a 12mm to 18mm MDF sheet. The cheaper MDF the better. We use the cheap MDF as the fibres are less compact and will allow more suction to come through it.
The reason you skim the bed is to take off the sheen on both sides of the MDF. You only take off between 1mm to 1.5mm. This will allow the suction to pass through the MDF. You will only need to this once every few months. When you cut material on your router you will always cut through it and into the sacrificial sheet. As you use the machine more and more cutters will go into the sheet below. As the sheet get more and more lines in it you may feel like you are losing suction at this stage skim the bed again or replace it.
